Halfway through September 2003, the second major hurricane of the year, Hurricane Isabel, swept across the U.S. Central East Coast's Outer Banks. This Category 3 hurricane moved through six states with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. Isabel bypassed the service territory of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, but moved west-northwest hitting millions of neighboring utilities’ electric customers living in North Carolina and Virginia. SCE&G has reciprocal agreements with neighboring utilities and was called to cross state lines to help with the restoration effort.
Action had to be taken quickly to help the customers in those states, and SCANA Services Manager of Customer Service Field Technology, Don Faircloth, was faced with a dilemma: provide a team, leaving in a matter of hours bound for disaster zone, with a communication tool that could keep workers connected across state borders, despite the damaged phone infrastructure. So he called on SCANA Services CADS Project Coordinator Bill Lamprey.
“We had an old laptop on which we installed Padcom’s® TotalRoam®. We set it up for Sprint (CDMA 1xRTT network) because it seemed to do best state-to-state and sent it out with the restoration team,” said Lamprey. “Our intent was to allow the crew to send and receive e-mails and access the company Intranet in the field. After they came back, we found out they were using the wireless connection for activities well beyond what we were expecting.”
Once in the disaster areas, the SCE&G restoration team found that this wireless link was often their sole form of communication back to headquarters. In addition to using the connection for regular communications, they used it to make material requests, to send pictures that documented the destruction and reconstruction efforts in the disaster areas, and to fill-out and file time sheets and document materials used.
This real-time documentation of the restoration was particularly valuable for SCE&G. Rather than waiting weeks to receive a report on the outside expenses of the reconstruction, the company was provided with an ongoing account of the damage and costs of restoration. These costs were then passed to the appropriate utilities promptly and efficiently.
“Communication is critical when you send crews away from home and our wireless solution kept them connected everywhere they went,” said Lamprey. “I could look at my computer and see that they were online from early morning to late at night. When they got back and returned the laptop the first thing they said was next time we want more of these.”
Mobile Data for Day-to-Day Operations
SCE&G’s Hurricane Isabel restoration effort is an example of an effective use of mobile data in aiding emergency activities. Although the solution proved effective under emergency circumstances, it is SCE&G’s investment in integrating wireless data into day-to-day operations that made the solution possible.
SCE&G has a fleet of over 325 field service technicians who are responsible for servicing customers and maintaining the electricity and natural gas lines in South Carolina. In order to help the technicians do their job effectively, they need access to up-to-date, accurate customer order and technical information in the field where service orders and maintenance operations are conducted.
The challenges in developing a wireless network to meet SCE&G's needs lie in the extensive area of operations. SCE&G serves customers in a statewide area. Because of the geographic diversity of the service territory, the company was unable to find a single communication platform that met the needs of technicians everywhere they did business. As a result, field technicians in different geographic locations were forced to utilize whatever communication was available in their area or, in many instances, to do without mobile data. These limited communication options hampered SCE&G's ability to roll out company-wide mobile data information.
To overcome these issues, SCE&G looked for a solution that would allow them to leverage the capabilities of many wireless networks. After evaluation of five different vendors, the company opted to implement a wireless network switching software, TotalRoam Mobile Connectivity Suite™, enabling the company to combine multiple communications platforms into a single mobile virtual network.
As part of the same initiative, SCE&G implemented XcelleNet’s Afaria™ software. The software works with the networking solution to provide field technicians with access to key information and applications throughout daily operations. The application also simplifies maintenance of the company’s applications with automatic software upgrade downloads, upgrades to over 2800 single line and switching maps, and remote repair of software problems.
Serving the Customer and the Bottom Line
SCE&G’s mobile data solution impacts nearly every aspect of day-to-day activities by field technicians with enhanced speed, time savings, and greater accuracy. The benefits of the mobile data solution can be summarized in terms of its impact on field force productivity and improved customer service.
SCE&G uses computer aided dispatch (CAD) to handle customer service orders. These are distributed as work orders to field technicians in the appropriate geographic location. Since the work orders are distributed wirelessly, the technician does not have to drive into the office at the beginning of the day to receive a paper order. Technicians can leave from their homes and go directly to their first order.
Service order revisions are also wirelessly transferred to technicians, eliminating errors and reducing voice traffic over the radio system. These order updates are transferred in near real-time, so technicians are saved needless trips to customer sites in cases of cancelled or changed customer orders.
The most obvious benefit of CAD and mobile data is the number of productive work hours gained; technicians spend more time in the field and less time manually receiving orders and dropping off paperwork.
Another productivity benefit is a reduction in human error. Orders are validated in the field, greatly reducing the back office workload. All orders are typed into the CAD system, eliminating the possibility that a technician will go to the wrong address or be forced to rework and order because of illegible handwriting or transposed digits. Having orders typed directly into the CAD also saves time for home office staff.
Human error is reduced, and turnaround time shortened, by allowing technicians to enter orders directly into the system while in the field. For example, if a technician is sent to a customer site to investigate a potentially faulty meter and determines that the meter needs to be replaced, a meter change order can be issued and the order completed without returning to the office. As a result, the order does not linger in the system, technicians’ time is used effectively, and customers are served quickly. That means increased productivity and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.
SCE&G’s CAD and wireless data allows the supervisor to monitor the activities of workers in the field. Through CAD, the company tracks a time stamp of all the work that technicians do on their routes. When technicians go “en route”, arrive on site, and complete orders, they key the information into their vehicle laptop and feed real-time information back into the customer system. This provides near real-time updating of the CIS system and improves customer service. This timestamping increases accuracy in tracking order completion and also addresses regulatory requirements on natural gas service technicians.
In addition to CAD, wireless data provides electric service field technicians with ready access to technical information. Job-critical single line drawings and switching diagrams that used to be available only in hard copy are now readily accessible from the technicians’ laptop. Technicians can also access current maps of the areas in which they operate, down to a district office, local office, crew quarter, and even individual substations. The maps let them easily identify customer lines and make the needed repair or maintenance. SCE&G’s mobile data solution replaces the many books of technical maps that field personnel formerly needed to carry in order to identify poles and lines.
SCE&G also utilizes mobile data and CAD for revenue protection. When the company dispatches agents to investigate a potential energy theft, they are able to access their orders and remit investigation reports with the same speed and efficiency available to technicians.
On the Horizon
SCE&G licensed their software for use throughout the company. The mobile data solution has been so effective in terms of CAD that other company divisions are currently considering how they might deploy mobile data to their own operations. Other areas of SCE&G considering incorporation of the mobile data solution include:
Field technicians throughout the various SCANA subsidiaries have been very satisfied with the enduser experience of working with the mobile data solution. In addition to time-savings described earlier in this article, workers find ruggedized tablets with the mobile data software easier to initiate and use. Remote users had to go to the service trucks, initiate the VPN tunnel, and enter secure IDs to begin a user sessions over analog cellular. Now all technicians need only boot their computer and login, taking less time and providing a greater area of data coverage.
“We have found the mobile data platform with CAD to be a very useful tool for all aspects of daily operations,” explained Lamprey. “Having it has been a learning experience; we are discovering new ways it can help our business every day. You never know when the next storm will strike. But when you’ve made the investments ahead of time to ensure mobile data availability – whenever and wherever you operate – you can rest assured that your field force will be equipped to handle anything that comes its way.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Ferguson is Director of Marketing & Media Relations at Padcom, Inc. and is responsible for forging business relationships and maintaining the company’s media and advertising presence. He has been with Padcom for two years and has a M.A. from Lehigh University. He can be reached at mferguson@padcomUSA.com.
Action had to be taken quickly to help the customers in those states, and SCANA Services Manager of Customer Service Field Technology, Don Faircloth, was faced with a dilemma: provide a team, leaving in a matter of hours bound for disaster zone, with a communication tool that could keep workers connected across state borders, despite the damaged phone infrastructure. So he called on SCANA Services CADS Project Coordinator Bill Lamprey.
“We had an old laptop on which we installed Padcom’s® TotalRoam®. We set it up for Sprint (CDMA 1xRTT network) because it seemed to do best state-to-state and sent it out with the restoration team,” said Lamprey. “Our intent was to allow the crew to send and receive e-mails and access the company Intranet in the field. After they came back, we found out they were using the wireless connection for activities well beyond what we were expecting.”
Once in the disaster areas, the SCE&G restoration team found that this wireless link was often their sole form of communication back to headquarters. In addition to using the connection for regular communications, they used it to make material requests, to send pictures that documented the destruction and reconstruction efforts in the disaster areas, and to fill-out and file time sheets and document materials used.
This real-time documentation of the restoration was particularly valuable for SCE&G. Rather than waiting weeks to receive a report on the outside expenses of the reconstruction, the company was provided with an ongoing account of the damage and costs of restoration. These costs were then passed to the appropriate utilities promptly and efficiently.
“Communication is critical when you send crews away from home and our wireless solution kept them connected everywhere they went,” said Lamprey. “I could look at my computer and see that they were online from early morning to late at night. When they got back and returned the laptop the first thing they said was next time we want more of these.”
Mobile Data for Day-to-Day Operations
SCE&G’s Hurricane Isabel restoration effort is an example of an effective use of mobile data in aiding emergency activities. Although the solution proved effective under emergency circumstances, it is SCE&G’s investment in integrating wireless data into day-to-day operations that made the solution possible.
SCE&G has a fleet of over 325 field service technicians who are responsible for servicing customers and maintaining the electricity and natural gas lines in South Carolina. In order to help the technicians do their job effectively, they need access to up-to-date, accurate customer order and technical information in the field where service orders and maintenance operations are conducted.
The challenges in developing a wireless network to meet SCE&G's needs lie in the extensive area of operations. SCE&G serves customers in a statewide area. Because of the geographic diversity of the service territory, the company was unable to find a single communication platform that met the needs of technicians everywhere they did business. As a result, field technicians in different geographic locations were forced to utilize whatever communication was available in their area or, in many instances, to do without mobile data. These limited communication options hampered SCE&G's ability to roll out company-wide mobile data information.
To overcome these issues, SCE&G looked for a solution that would allow them to leverage the capabilities of many wireless networks. After evaluation of five different vendors, the company opted to implement a wireless network switching software, TotalRoam Mobile Connectivity Suite™, enabling the company to combine multiple communications platforms into a single mobile virtual network.
As part of the same initiative, SCE&G implemented XcelleNet’s Afaria™ software. The software works with the networking solution to provide field technicians with access to key information and applications throughout daily operations. The application also simplifies maintenance of the company’s applications with automatic software upgrade downloads, upgrades to over 2800 single line and switching maps, and remote repair of software problems.
Serving the Customer and the Bottom Line
SCE&G’s mobile data solution impacts nearly every aspect of day-to-day activities by field technicians with enhanced speed, time savings, and greater accuracy. The benefits of the mobile data solution can be summarized in terms of its impact on field force productivity and improved customer service.
SCE&G uses computer aided dispatch (CAD) to handle customer service orders. These are distributed as work orders to field technicians in the appropriate geographic location. Since the work orders are distributed wirelessly, the technician does not have to drive into the office at the beginning of the day to receive a paper order. Technicians can leave from their homes and go directly to their first order.
Service order revisions are also wirelessly transferred to technicians, eliminating errors and reducing voice traffic over the radio system. These order updates are transferred in near real-time, so technicians are saved needless trips to customer sites in cases of cancelled or changed customer orders.
The most obvious benefit of CAD and mobile data is the number of productive work hours gained; technicians spend more time in the field and less time manually receiving orders and dropping off paperwork.
Another productivity benefit is a reduction in human error. Orders are validated in the field, greatly reducing the back office workload. All orders are typed into the CAD system, eliminating the possibility that a technician will go to the wrong address or be forced to rework and order because of illegible handwriting or transposed digits. Having orders typed directly into the CAD also saves time for home office staff.
Human error is reduced, and turnaround time shortened, by allowing technicians to enter orders directly into the system while in the field. For example, if a technician is sent to a customer site to investigate a potentially faulty meter and determines that the meter needs to be replaced, a meter change order can be issued and the order completed without returning to the office. As a result, the order does not linger in the system, technicians’ time is used effectively, and customers are served quickly. That means increased productivity and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.
SCE&G’s CAD and wireless data allows the supervisor to monitor the activities of workers in the field. Through CAD, the company tracks a time stamp of all the work that technicians do on their routes. When technicians go “en route”, arrive on site, and complete orders, they key the information into their vehicle laptop and feed real-time information back into the customer system. This provides near real-time updating of the CIS system and improves customer service. This timestamping increases accuracy in tracking order completion and also addresses regulatory requirements on natural gas service technicians.
In addition to CAD, wireless data provides electric service field technicians with ready access to technical information. Job-critical single line drawings and switching diagrams that used to be available only in hard copy are now readily accessible from the technicians’ laptop. Technicians can also access current maps of the areas in which they operate, down to a district office, local office, crew quarter, and even individual substations. The maps let them easily identify customer lines and make the needed repair or maintenance. SCE&G’s mobile data solution replaces the many books of technical maps that field personnel formerly needed to carry in order to identify poles and lines.
SCE&G also utilizes mobile data and CAD for revenue protection. When the company dispatches agents to investigate a potential energy theft, they are able to access their orders and remit investigation reports with the same speed and efficiency available to technicians.
On the Horizon
SCE&G licensed their software for use throughout the company. The mobile data solution has been so effective in terms of CAD that other company divisions are currently considering how they might deploy mobile data to their own operations. Other areas of SCE&G considering incorporation of the mobile data solution include:
- Information Service Technologies (IST) is considering providing key personnel and developers with mobile connectivity so they may more effectively work offsite and continue advancing projects, even while on business trips.
- Pipeline and environmental divisions are investigating the possibilities of using the mobile data solution to aid their field workers.
- SCE&G is using the mobile data network to bring CAD to field technicians working in remote areas that previously had no access to the system due to lack of quality communications.
- SCE&G is upgrading outdated computers in their fleet and creating an intra-company, mobile data standard by putting everyone on ruggedized, pen tablet computers using the network roaming solution for CAD access.
- Wholly-owned SCANA subsidiary, Public Service Company of North Carolina, Incorporated (PSNC), is also slated to begin utilizing the CAD system. The mobile data solution will allow PSNC to utilize existing communication platforms available in NC and tie them into SCANA’s CAD and CIS system.
Field technicians throughout the various SCANA subsidiaries have been very satisfied with the enduser experience of working with the mobile data solution. In addition to time-savings described earlier in this article, workers find ruggedized tablets with the mobile data software easier to initiate and use. Remote users had to go to the service trucks, initiate the VPN tunnel, and enter secure IDs to begin a user sessions over analog cellular. Now all technicians need only boot their computer and login, taking less time and providing a greater area of data coverage.
“We have found the mobile data platform with CAD to be a very useful tool for all aspects of daily operations,” explained Lamprey. “Having it has been a learning experience; we are discovering new ways it can help our business every day. You never know when the next storm will strike. But when you’ve made the investments ahead of time to ensure mobile data availability – whenever and wherever you operate – you can rest assured that your field force will be equipped to handle anything that comes its way.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Ferguson is Director of Marketing & Media Relations at Padcom, Inc. and is responsible for forging business relationships and maintaining the company’s media and advertising presence. He has been with Padcom for two years and has a M.A. from Lehigh University. He can be reached at mferguson@padcomUSA.com.
