The enterprise-wide adoption of new working practices and information technology in the utilities and telecommunications industries are issues that now top a utility's agenda as it looks to maximizing returns on assets where it counts most ... in the field.

Historically, investments in tools to enhance field worker productivity have taken second place to network assets and key central systems for improving information on customers. The costs of appropriate field hardware, together with the technical challenges of providing both the operational job-related information and the map data that's so often needed, have also meant that field systems rarely made it to the top of the investment list.

But that's changed. Deregulation forces the utilities to become competitive, customer-centric, and to come to grips with a new business model of declining revenues 'per customer unit' from the supply of gas, water and electricity. It also forces utilities to look at how best to take the cost out of their operations whilst maintaining safety standards, and to maintain current levels of profits needed to pay for the massive investments required ahead to develop their networks and cope with the guestimated increases in demand for services by 2020.

There are two constants in any utility's business model. One hundred percent of its assets delivering service to industry and the consumer are in the field. And sixty to seventy percent of its extended workforce will be called upon at some time to repair, maintain, upgrade and inspect those assets.

And there's the problem. Be it surveyors, field inspectors, work gangs, maintenance, or emergency repair teams, the information used by the vast majority to get the job done is probably old data and certainly ill-suited to productive and efficient field working, particularly in arduous conditions.

A typical utility will make countless changes and updates to its network every day and that data is depicted on maps - hundreds of them - and stored on paper - reams of it. There are just too many maps and just too much paper being used in the field for efficient management of field tasks, or to bring about a heterogeneous, distributed corporate network with all working off the same scoresheet.

New systems reduce payback times dramatically

But the field paper-working-culture is beginning to change. Some utilities have already provided field workers with field access to job or geographic information systems (GIS) - the key to their vast networks and service reliability - and are beginning to enjoy the results in terms of productivity gains and more efficient work practices. Up to sevenfold productivity gains have even been reported compared with previous paper-based working practices with quantifiable payback periods ranging between twelve and twenty months.

The opportunities are now clear. By enabling up-to-date work management and GIS data on assets held at a utility's corporate headquarters to be provided to mobile workforces onto rugged, hand-held field computers, they'll be able to repair outages more quickly, reduce customer lost minutes, and improve scheduled maintenance productivity.

By allowing engineers to inspect and record asset data in the field, utilities can eliminate paper-based reporting, and improve overall efficiency.

By the enterprise-wide, use of appropriate technology in the field, utilities can strengthen relationships with their customers, improve customer interaction efficiency, and provide superior customer service levels at reasonable cost.

Contact Graham Brown of Tadpole-Cartesia by email at sales@tadpole.com