Dispatching technicians for service calls—how hard can that be? You send the first technician to the first call, the second to the next and so forth, until everyone’s out in the field. Then you cycle through them again. No sweat.Well, try playing a round of Service Tycoon, and get a clue. Developed by ClickSoftware, this free online game will convince you that dispatching field techs in that fashion is a surefire way to alienate customers and put you over budget. At first, calls come in at a manageable pace and you can easily dispatch technicians with the appropriate qualifications. But suddenly you find yourself in fire-fighting mode: Everyone’s out on a call and four customers are clamoring for service. The technicians who could handle their problems are far away, and there’s no way you can get anyone there before customers lose patience. Your customer service score drops precipitously, costs rise, and you’re suddenly glad you’re not a dispatcher.“People don’t really relate to how difficult the problem is,” says David Schapiro, executive vice president of markets and products for ClickSoftware, which sells—no surprise—workforce and service optimization software. So Scha- piro and marketing colleague Amit Bendov hit on the idea of developing a digital game to increase awareness among companies with field service technicians. In less than two months, more than 10,000 people have played the game.Test your own dispatching skills at http://www.servicetycoon.com/. And prepare to be humbled. Related content feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe