Northumbrian Water has over 1,100 field operatives and runs a fleet of around 1,000 vehicles. They needed a better way to allocate work whilst keeping costs low.
A phased rollout of Field Force Automation, to improve the flow of information to and from the mobile workforce and improve customer service.
During the pilot, productivity increased by 10%, driven mileage was reduced by 20%, and each engineer saved roughly 40 minutes per day.
Northumbrian Water serves a population of 2.6 million people in northeast England and 1.7 million in the southeast (where it trades as Essex & Suffolk Water). In aiming to deliver value to all stakeholders by being a leading performer in its industry, the company has invested heavily to build a sustainable future for regional water and sewerage services, whilst maintaining low costs to its customers. It has over 1,100 field operatives and a fleet of around 1,000 vehicles.
Efficient work allocation and scheduling is a key driver towards lower utility costs. Field Force Automation can improve information flows to and from their mobile workforces, substantially improving customer service and productivity. Brian Olley, Work Management Programme Manager at Northumbrian Water, comments: “Our industry is heavily regulated and year-on-year efficiency improvement targets are demanded of water companies. Whilst Northumbrian Water was continuing to deliver better returns, our rate of progress was beginning to fall behind some of our competitors. A step change was required, and Field Force Automation was the key.”
Northumbrian Water has had a long association with BT. One of the pioneers of Field Force Automation, BT has been using such solutions since 1994 and is now on its third iteration of support systems. The learning from its own journey has been considerable, and it is ideally placed to pass this on to its customers. BT was invited to share its experience with Northumbrian Water and captured the senior team’s imagination. Field Force Automation became a flagship transformation project for the company.
Northumbrian Water issued a request for information (RFI), receiving responses from ten potential Field Force Automation solution vendors. BT was selected from a shortlist of three companies as Northumbrian Water’s implementation partner, because it tabled a compelling proposition – a blend of technology and consultancy – that would cost-effectively leapfrog the company to the forefront of industry best practice. Brian Olley says: “Field Force Automation is fundamentally about people, with the technology just an enabler of process change. BT understood our business and cultural issues as it is very similar to Northumbrian Water in having a loyal, long-serving and highly mobile workforce.”
The solution
The first stage was to be a six-month pilot. This would provide the evidence to compile a business case and investment proposal for full-scale deployment. The pilot involved around 80 vehicles and 100 people including some of its most experienced field engineers and union representatives.
To initiate the trial and ensure accurate messages, BT helped plan and participated in a series of roadshows to communicate the objectives to staff. After that, vehicles were fitted with GPS tracking devices and engineers were provided with handheld mobile devices to receive and send information about jobs.
To smooth the transition, the BT implementation team designed the information screens on the mobile devices to look as much like the previous paper forms as possible. Input was simplified, with around 70 per cent of the data input achieved using options from drop-down menus, rather than manual keying.
To support the rollout, BT delivered end-user training for all people in the pilot and provided a helpdesk to support individual users for the Field Force Automation technology and the business applications, together with a repair and replacement service for mobile devices.
The result
About
- Company
The provider of mains water and sewerage services for Northumbria, Essex and Sussex.
- Industry
Water services
- Location
Northumbria