Automating field service management for competitive advantage

Efficient field service operations are critical to organisations with mobile workforces, vehicle fleets and service assets. But the cost of providing higher levels of service can conflict with the drive for operational efficiency and reducing carbon footprint. To gain a competitive advantage and improve productivity, you need to provide mobile access to business applications and automate your field service operations.

 

Automating processes for optimum field force performance

BT Field Force Automation can transform the performance of your mobile workforce by automating field service management and providing mobile employees with direct access to enterprise applications.

Delivered by a team of dedicated practitioners experienced in transforming field service processes, BT Field Force Automation is a suite of services and solutions, including:

• Professional services
• Process improvement
• Change management
• Mobility solutions

With more effective resource and scheduling management, and advanced mobile technology, you can:

• Mobilise your business applications, enabling field employees to access information on the move.
• Forecast work demand and balance skilled resources across locations.
• Improve operational efficiency with up-to-date business intelligence.
• Calculate and plan journeys more effectively, helping you reduce your carbon footprint.

Helping Northumbrian Water plug the leaks

Northumbrian Water Limited has more than 1,100 field workers providing drinking water and sewerage services to more than four million people in England.

When Northumbrian Water needed a more efficient way of managing its scattered mobile workers, it turned to BT for help. Our Field Force Automation solution provides handheld mobile devices to field engineers, which enables them to provide job completion updates and fill in timesheets electronically – saving an average of 40 minutes every day in paperwork. The solution has also enabled more efficient work allocation and rapid schedule updates.

Northumbrian Water now has a more efficient mobile workforce and lower administrative costs. In addition, the utility can now easily comply with the European Working Time Directive.

Automate field force management to improve productivity

Inefficient systems, processes and outdated information prevent you from maximising the effectiveness and productivity of your mobile workforce. Duty of care requirements mean you must protect your lone mobile workers and raise the alarm when scheduled checks go unanswered. And with customers demanding prompt service, you need to find ways to increase field force productivity and efficiency without increasing costs.

Improving our own performance in the field

BT operates one of the largest field workforces in Europe, with more than 30,000 engineers in the UK, and has successfully implemented Field Force Automation internally. So, we are perfectly placed to help you improve the performance of your mobile workforce.

Our flexible solutions are tailored to meet your specific business requirements and supported by our:

• In-depth knowledge: owing to our position as both practitioner and supplier of Field Force Automation solutions, BT has an in-depth understanding of the difficulties facing organisations with mobile workers.

• Comprehensive implementation: including project management, detailed solution design, installation, configuration and full solution rollout.

• Professional services: offering a blend of consultancy services, including cultural change support and independent advice on market-leading technology.

Driving efficiency throughout your field service management

BT Field Force Automation helps you to:

• Improve productivity: automate resource scheduling and dispatch to optimise individual skills utilisation, cut abortive visits, reduce travel time and improve morale.

• Forecast work demand: balance resources across locations to meet demand by analysing work and resource capacity.

• Streamline procedures: eliminate process redundancies, duplications and manual errors to optimise procedures and improve data accuracy.

• Enhance management information: access up-to-date business intelligence and analyse key performance indicators.

• Increase efficiency: enable employees to access corporate data and applications remotely via mobile devices.

• Automate people management: enable remote user-input of availability and attendance to optimise rosters in line with European Working Time Directive.

• Protect your lone workers: increase lone worker security and fulfil duty of care commitments with low key checks and discreet panic button options.

• Optimise your assets: improve vehicle fleet and mobile asset routing, tracking and monitoring.

• Reduce carbon footprint: accurately plan journeys and job allocation to reduce mileage and fuel consumption.

• Improve customer service: match tasks to appropriately skilled employees, reduce repeat callouts and increase on-the-spot resolution.

Helping Northumbrian Water alter its course

Water utility Northumbrian Water wanted to improve its mobile field force productivity and customer service. It also sought reduced costs to ensure future sustainability.

Field Force Automation:

• Reduced paperwork, sending and receiving job updates via handheld devices saved each engineer around 40 minutes per day.
• Increased productivity by 10 per cent, through improved dispatch communication enabling regular schedule updates.
• Decreased driven mileage by around 20 per cent, reducing carbon footprint through precise route planning.
• Automated laborious manual tasks, including timesheet management and proof of attendance.

Achieve cost and efficiency savings

With Field Force Automation you can:

Increase workforce productivity
Provide mobile access to business applications, reduce downtime and automatically update work schedules. BT’s internal Field Force Automation solution improved productivity by more than 36 per cent.

Minimise travel expenditure
Plan your journeys precisely and optimise job allocation to reduce unproductive visits and mileage. BT reduced fuel consumption by more than15 per cent.

Reduce administrative costs
Cut field paperwork and automate scheduling and human resource management. BT standardised processes and rationalised job allocation centres from 100 to just three.

Reduce waste and inefficiencies
Minimise the cost of missed appointments, repeat callouts and overtime. BT lowered repeat callouts to below seven per cent.

Make your field coordination processes more effective

Managing the technological requirements for coordinating a large mobile workforce drains resources and places increasing pressure on skilled staff. It can also involve the management and maintenance of a large fleet of mobile devices from multiple suppliers. This can restrict you to fault fixing and helpdesk functions, rather than finding better ways for your field service operations to perform.

Blending technology and expertise into complete solutions

BT has extensive experience in field service automation, having deployed solutions to our 30,000-strong field service organisation. So, we understand the technological difficulties facing organisations with mobile employees.

Our managed solutions comprises a blend of consultancy, technology and support services, including:

• In-depth analysis of business processes, workflows and solution design.
• Configuration and installation of software on mobile devices.
• Full provision and in-life technical support for all hardware, software and mobile communication elements.
• Comprehensive 24-hour customer helpdesk.
• Complete warranty management and service level agreements.
• Next-day replacement of damaged or stolen devices.
• Total vendor neutrality and broad device and software portfolio, meaning we can deploy the most suitable solution for your needs.

Delivering a flexible solution for complete field force management

Compatible with your existing systems and accessible over any mobile network, your managed Field Force Automation solution could include:

Professional services

• Business needs analysis
• Business case development
• Business process consultancy
• Change management
• Solution design
• Systems integration
• Legal and trade union negotiation support
• Training and accreditation
• Project Management and Implementation services

Managed devices

From leading companies, including Motorola/Symbol, Intermec and Panasonic:

• PDAs and smart phones
• Rugged and non-rugged handheld computers and laptops
• Help desk, service and support

Enterprise applications

• Forecasting and planning
• Work scheduling and dispatch automation
• People management
• Stock management and ordering
• Business intelligence and management reporting

Application mobilisation platform

• BT Mobile on Demand: a managed web-based system that automates and mobilises your enterprise business processes and applications.

Lone Worker dutu of care solutions

• Meet duty of care obligations
• Discreet alarm devices
• Location tracking
• 24/7 monitoring options

Tracking and telemetry

• Vehicle, people and asset location and tracking
• GPS navigation and route optimisation
• Vehicle telemetry

Mobile data capture solutions

• Proof of delivery
• Job completion
• Barcode and RFID readers
• Signature capture

Keeping the Automobile Association’s motor running

The UK’s largest motoring organisation, the Automobile Association (AA), has 15 million members and supports almost 3,000 highly trained patrols. Following the sale of the company by owner Centrica to a private equity consortium, its systems had to be separated within a year. Failure to do so in the timeframe was not an option for the company.

Within three weeks, BT:

• Took over management of the GPRS mobile communications architecture.
• Assumed ownership of the AA’s 4,000 laptops and management of all third-party hardware and software suppliers.
• Provided hardware and software support, including next-day replacement.
• Created an asset register for all field-based equipment.
• Managed and distributed training modules and technical information.
• Established helpdesks that included remote equipment diagnostics.

Increase efficiency by streamlining and automating processes

BT Field Force Automation can help you:

• Mobilise your processes and applications with a robust and flexible application platform that supports a range of mobile devices.
• Remove redundant processes and duplications to improve the performance of your infrastructure and reduce downtime.
• Integrating legacy systems and reduce your exposure to device refresh issues with BT’s managed solutions.
• Identify and resolve problems quickly with proactive maintenance and 24-hour technical support.
• Eliminate the problems associated with distributing software and device upgrades through automation.
• Avoid dealing with numerous helpdesks to solve faults by consolidating your suppliers under a single service level agreement.