Utilities
Problems
- The general public demand minimum price increases and improved service, putting a squeeze on overall costs. At the same time, shareholders demand high performance and profitable operations
- Price control, service delivery and profitability all require essential work to be done in the most efficient way, maximizing staff utilization and meeting required timescales
- The complexity of managing a geographically spread workforce is constantly increasing, with additional legislation (Working Time Directives, NRSWA, Duty of Care) and flexible working practices (Multi-Skilling, Home Working, Outsourcing)
- Many current IT systems and processes are inadequate to allow the business to Plan, Schedule and Track the workforce in an efficient way
- The widespread availability of mobile computing offers significant opportunities to improve business processes, but requires a major uplift in functionality for supporting systems, especially in their ability to react in real-time
Solutions
WorkPlace Systems workforce management solutions feature:
- Automatic scheduling of work to Field Staff, minimizing travel times whilst recognizing skills and other operational constraints
- Real-time Appointment booking through simple web-based screens capable of being deployed within internal or external call centers
- Issuing of Jobs to Field Staff using paper-based job cards, wireless mobile computing or telephony
- Graphical schedule update to record the progress of jobs in real-time and to allow the scheduler to react to changes as they occur during the day
- Tracking of the hours worked and the work performed by the Field Staff, allowing the business to monitor the operation and to understand how effectively the labor costs are spent
Benefits
- Improved throughput of at least 5%
- Increased staff utilization of between 5% and 15% achieved through reduced travel time and improved allocation of jobs
- Reduction in absenteeism, overtime and lateness of between 1% and 3% through accurate tracking of working hours
- Reduction in administration of up to 75%, freeing up an important resource to do more of what they are better at doing
- Improvement in customer service levels
- Improved visibility of field force operations
Client Quotes
"The key business driver for our decision to computerize based on WorkPlace System's technology was engineering productivity. In maintaining a large and highly skilled workforce such as ours, even the smallest increase in productivity results in a dramatic reduction of overtime costs. These costs are measured in units that represent 15 minutes. The system which reduces costs by just two units per engineer per week makes a $5 million difference to our annual labor bill. The customer benefits from both a more efficient service and our corresponding ability to maintain lower prices."
Client References
E.ON Energy Services | Nortel | South West Water | Severn Trent Water | Veolia | Viridian Power