Authority Brands operates a family of industry-leading, franchised home service brands offering swimming pool maintenance, plumbing, cleaning services, heating and cooling servicing, and much more.
In 2019, the company acquired Clockwork Incorporated — another organization that owned and operated a diverse portfolio of home service brands. One of the brands that Authority Brands purchased as part of this deal was Successware®, a field service management software company that offers home service companies a back-office solution and mobile application that seamlessly connect.
Authority Brands quickly saw the potential with Successware and its technology. They decided to engage Thoughtworks to assess and advise on how to maximize the apps digital capabilities and how to transform it to deliver maximum value to the business.
Finding a diamond in the rough
Following a thorough assessment of Successware, its offerings, its digital infrastructure, and the competitive landscape, a major opportunity was identified in the app that could create significant long-term value for Authority Brands and its franchisees.
By replacing the previous third-party mobile application used to help service operators work in the field, with a mobile application created and managed by Successware, the company benefited from increased control over its mobile tooling, allowing them to be more responsive to user needs and deliver the features that they need to be successful in their day-to-day tasks.
The Thoughtworks team quickly began building this new mobile application by leveraging their proven expertise in architecting and designing such solutions. Thoughtworks thoroughly understood Successware’s business requirements and launched Successware Mobile™, an easy to use, intuitive, modern mobile application with a rich set of features including sales presentation tools, remote timecard management, a mobile pricebook and paperless invoicing.
The mobile application was an instant hit with Successware customers and Authority Brand’s home service operators, empowering them to not only address their client’s issues, but also drive revenue for their businesses. This has proven to be a scalable solution for Successware customers.
Enabling long-term service provider success
Authority Brands was delighted with its new mobile application. However, the company’s technical stakeholders knew that to continue delivering maximum value for the company and its service providers, it needed to be expertly maintained and iteratively improved.
To ensure the long-term reliability, stability and success of the app, Authority Brands engaged Thoughtworks’ DAMO™ Managed Services team (Digital Applications Management and Operations). A transition plan ensured a seamless handover between the team that built the app, and the team of experts that would now manage and optimize it.
The Thoughtworks DAMO™ Managed Services team followed the same engineering practices as the development team, building on their great work to evolve the product and continuously improve its performance and scalability. The team provided:
Rapid responses to tickets from the Successware Mobile team
24/7 on-call support for critical issues
Continuous issue monitoring to prevent performance impact
Email and phone-based issue tracking
Uptime and performance monitoring
Proactive alerts for potential issues
Proactive upgrades
Software patching
Day-to-day management of Successware Mobile
Creating a robust model for app governance and communication
One of the keys to the success of the engagement was the new governance model defined by the Thoughtworks team.
The model’s structure ensures every relevant stakeholder at Authority Brands is continuously aware of the status of Successware Mobile, and able to rapidly resolve any issues they have with it — without having to dedicate any of their valuable time to managing it.
This helped nurture an open and collaborative relationship between Authority Brands and Thoughtworks, empowering both parties to continuously improve the app and ensure it meets all of the company’s strategic business needs.
Empowering Authority Brands to focus on transformation and growth
Thanks to continuous proactive work and collaboration between the Thoughtworks and Authority Brands teams, the Successware Mobile application continues to be exceptionally well-received by its users. Thousands of professionals trust it to manage some of their most critical daily tasks and workflows.
As well as providing a powerful customer experience, technical teams get their issues resolved quickly and easily, and Authority Brands has ensured the long-term value of its Successware Mobile application without having to commit crucial internal resources to application management.
The Thoughtworks team also continuously reviews its own practices and operations to ensure that our service level is right for Authority Brands and Successware Mobile.
This has given the company’s technical and senior stakeholders the time and resources they need to focus on highly strategic projects, like the company’s major platform transformation initiative. When Authority Brands was ready to go live with that new platform, it engaged our DAMO™ Managed Services team once again to provide 24/7 support throughout the process and ensure a smooth and seamless launch.
Successware Mobile has transformed how thousands of our service providers operate in the field. And thanks to Thoughtworks’ continued management and optimization support, it’s growing stronger every day.
To learn more about Thoughtworks’ Digital Application Management and Operations services, and how we could help you get more from your apps while maximizing their availability and performance, visit our hub or talk to us today.
