Scottish Water has rolled out new GSM mobile technology
to its service engineers and integrated the kit with three legacy
systems in a project which has cut costs by 40% and enabled
engineers in the field to achieve an 85% resolution rate for
customer queries.
The Oracle-based upgrade replaces legacy systems inherited by the
utility company during acquisitions, which were supported by
paper-based processes.
Scottish Water's call centre staff now have access to integrated
account details and scheduling tools that are linked by Cisco
remote-access boxes to the company's Vodafone GSM networks. This
means that operators can view the electronic diaries of field
service engineers and allocate customers two-hour time slots for
home visits.
Cheryl Black, Scottish Water's customer service director, said, "We
were trying to find a more efficient way of fielding customer
enquiries and dispatching field service engineers. Previously it
was on standalone systems and paper-based methods and there was no
sure process of getting a field worker out and getting
feedback."
The new system links the Oracle Teleservice module via the Control
Tower scheduling tool so that call centre staff can track customer
enquiries via one reference number and see field engineers' diaries
to offer a customer a timed appointment.
The company is currently piloting the service with 20 engineers
using Panasonic Tough Books and has plans to roll out the system to
250 more staff.
Going mobile
- Field service engineers use GSM-enabled Panasonic Tough
Books
- Call centre staff can view electronic diaries of workers in the
field and allocate customer appointments
- The system has cut costs by 40% and enabled engineers in the
field to resolve 85% of customer queries.