ClickSoftware for Electric Utilities
The Electric utilities industry is facing a number of significant challenges today:
- Environmental concerns are at the forefront, with an increasing number of countries making a commitment to reduce carbon emissions.
- Customers are demanding low prices, supply security, zero interrupts and higher network capacity, while at the same time looking for ways to "shave the peaks" through smart electricity consumption and demand management.
- An aging workforce, with 50 percent of the United States' electric utilities employees alone scheduled to retire during the next decade.
- Increasing demand for network reliability and 100 percent uptime — despite an aging infrastructure worldwide and increasing power loads.
From a workforce perspective, few industries are this complex. Everyday tasks range from simple meter reading to long-term infrastructure work, unexpected emergencies are inevitable, and customers range from homeowners to municipalities with contracted minimum service guarantees. When it comes to crew management, a single absence can create havoc for dispatchers, who must locate additional, appropriate resources if deadlines are to be met.
As a result, a number of critical factors in field workforce management must be considered on a daily basis - ensuring that enough workers, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time, and that crews are properly equipped and staffed to meet assigned workloads. Failure to do so can have a significant impact on costs, revenues, service levels and regulatory compliance.
For example, without enough field resources to accomplish specific tasks, utilities have to do whatever it takes to increase worker capacity - through subcontractors, overtime, or a combination of both. And if jobs aren't intelligently scheduled on a daily, weekly, and long-term basis, engineer efficiency drops, and costs rise.
What's needed is a mobile workforce optimization solution that:
- Takes into account the special requirements and demands of electric utilities - whether it's constructing a line in the network, replacing a meter or maintaining a piece of equipment in a generating plant.
- Allows for more efficient use of crews and contractors.
- Creates a single, centralized schedule that provides for variances across electric utilities.
- Provides excellent performance in emergency situations, with dynamic schedule adjustments based on priority shifts.
That solution is now available.
ClickSoftware for Water Utilities
Whether field service technicians are doing meter reading, meter operations, network and infrastructure work, waste water treatment, etc., efficient scheduling of workers to tasks can have an important bottom line impact. Unfortunately, many of the technology solutions available to help service organizations optimize scheduling efficiency carry with them significant risk associated with the implementation lifecycle.
Not anymore.