The utilities sector faces many unique challenges; for example, those in energy and electricity face changing environmental factors, extreme weather and increased dangers. Field based staff are dealing with challenges head on, whilst working with an ageing infrastructure and growing demand for their services in a competitive landscape. For this industry, being mobile is essential, each day they can travel long distances and cover a range of skilled tasks. Providing them with a clear and efficient way of working has never been more important. Alongside daily challenges, the industry in general has been called to maintain and continually develop a sustainable future, whilst saving money for consumers and the organisation. It has resulted in increased pressure on the workforce and a need for innovation.
Investing in Field Workforce Management Solutions
By investing in mobile technology that transforms how field staff work, they can have the right tools to do their job, no matter where they are. For many, visits to the office to return or complete paper work, update schedules or type up notes are time consuming factors that detract from essential work. By using field service management technology the need for staff to return to the office can be eliminated, instead they are able to remain in the field and access all the job information on their mobile devices, take notes, capture images and signatures, as well as view their full working day. Staff are enabled to do more effective work, whilst saving fuel costs and increasing productivity.
Utilities and Compliance
Another major area of concern is compliance and ensuring that all mobile staff are completing appropriate forms each time can be a headache for management. In an industry that relies on a high standard of health and safety providing a solution that reduces the opportunity for human error is essential. Our field workforce management solution provides the utilities industry with intuitive compliance and regulatory forms designed with key features like auto fill and prompting to ensure that valuable information is inputted by the user. Jobs will remain open until all appropriate forms are completed – giving management peace of mind and enabling them to concentrate on other areas of the organisation.
Many utilities field workers find themselves in remote locations, causing signal issues and loss of data. With our solutions, no signal is no problem, information is stored securely and uploaded to the back-office system as soon as signal is back in range – ensuring that work remains uninterrupted and thorough.
Management of Field Service Staff
But it’s not just field workers that face the strain of juggling many factors, but utilities planners are also faced with their own challenges of having to maintain a whole fleet of staff, assigned to various areas and skills. Monitoring where staff are is essential in ensuring the responsiveness and priority of jobs being completed. This is where our dynamic scheduling solution comes into play, it provides planners with a solution that enables them to monitor where field staff are at various points of the day. With our AI powered engine, Mendel, he monitors, adapts and effectively schedules field staff, providing planners with updated information and field staff automatically receive updated and accurate job schedules.
With the ever-increasing challenges that those within the utilities sector are facing, and with a growing population generating demand, it is becoming even more essential to encourage recruitment and retention within the industry. These highly skilled jobs can be enhanced with technology and as innovation sweeps through our homes with smart meters and the development of IoT, it is now a requirement. By enabling staff with the right tools job satisfaction increases and a better work life balance is supported.
Through the use of field workforce management, the bright future of utilities can be maintained and improved. By innovating alongside environmental and energy changes field staff will be empowered to do more of the work that matters.
