Ravi Acharya
Associate Director of Marketing for B2B Products
TeleNav (Sunnyvale, Calif. USA)

Any organization with a mobile workforce understands the challenges that come with having an employee base that is out of sight working at remote locations. Management has little enforcement over behavior and no costeffective way to ensure employees are working according to company guidelines. Many utility companies have no idea whether their technicians are acting responsibly or not while in the field.

Many processes are paper-based, often requiring technicians to track their hours and mileage by hand and spend time printing out job details that may get lost while at the job site. This results in widespread inefficiency and productivity losses.

Such inefficiency affects businesses on many levels. Most technicians want to do the jobs they were hired to do, but when they are mired in paperwork, morale drops and customers are negatively impacted. When customers are without power, when they themselves must fill out forms or when inefficiency drives costs up, customer service lags. Ultimately, inefficiency has a direct impact on the bottom line of utility organizations and the level of service they provide.

Mobile Resource Management Solution
While these challenges may seem insurmountable, an integrated mobile resource management product addresses them in an easy to implement, affordable way. MRM provides the flexibility and features that enable utility companies to improve every component of the way their mobile workforce operates in the field. From their mobile phones, technicians can clock in and out, get turn-by-turn directions to the job site, receive automated job details and provide job status updates. Supervisors can use GPS data to manage and dispatch technicians, reduce fuel waste, monitor vehicle and equipment usage, ensure timecard accuracy and improve customer communication.

With MRM, management and dispatchers no longer need to call technicians for their location. They can locate technicians and equipment in real time via GPS. Technicians don’t have to waste valuable time making trips to and from the office to turn in time sheets or job reports. They can track their time, mileage and job status updates through their cell phones. MRM also enables the automatic update of a utility organization’s back office inventory management system by providing an easy way for field technicians to report parts and equipment being used on each job in real-time.

MRM helps technicians spend less time on paperwork and other tedious tasks and more time doing what they do best. Management benefits from a mobile workforce that is more productive, saves costs and provides a higher level of customer service.

“Anything we can do to get an advantage over our competition and provide quality customer service is a good thing,” said Glenn Grossman, Service Manager of West Side Electric. “With MRM we got everything we needed and then some.”

GPS Tracking Improves Accountability, Productivity
The ability to monitor technicians with GPS data is critical to the effectiveness of mobile resource management. Knowing exactly where technicians and assets are can drive significant productivity increases. Without MRM, managers and dispatchers must call technicians on their wireless phones to determine where they are at any given moment. This interrupts technicians and can significantly reduce their productivity. Managers aware of this loss in productivity may be reluctant to contact technicians, leaving them in the dark about their whereabouts.

Mobile resource management resolves both of these issues. As noted by the Aberdeen Group in its December 2007 study, mobile resource management improves workforce utilization by 26.1 percent.¹ By tracking their technicians on a Web-based map, managers are fully aware of the exact, real-time location of every technician in their fleet. Managers can ensure field technicians are where they say they are and doing exactly as they should, without interrupting their work. This improves both accountability and productivity for all parties.

Affordability Improves MRM Accessibility and ROI Potential
Adding to their appeal, mobile resource management solutions are available at a fraction of the cost of hard-mounted devices that provide the same functionality. This makes them a viable option for utility companies looking to improve operations on a tight budget.

In a 2008 white paper on MRM, Frost & Sullivan stated, “In previous years, proprietary MRM systems required customized design, dedicated servers and software packages, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to deploy. The ability to now monitor and track from any Internet-capable PC and the explosion of low-cost GPS-enabled mobile devices has injected affordability and flexibility into today’s MRM purchase decision.”²

Not only is MRM affordable, but it also allows companies to save money in many areas of the business, providing great ROI potential. Accurate timecards and overtime alerts reduce payroll expenses. Navigation and GPS-guided dispatching reduce mileage, vehicle wear and tear and fuel expenses. Improved customer service allows companies to improve revenue opportunities.

These factors amount to substantial savings. The Aberdeen Group conducted a survey of companies using MRM products and found that firms reported reduced overtime costs that equated to savings of an average of $496,493. The study also identifies savings due to tighter inventory control. The survey found that a 26 percent reduction in parts inventory loss alone equates to an average savings of $1.02 million.³

With a relatively small investment in a mobile resource management solution, utility provider West Side Electric was able to save approximately $13,000 per year through reduced time and mileage alone, demonstrating MRM’s strong ROI potential.

“MRM’s ROI story is straightforward and impressive,” said Frost & Sullivan, “with customers reporting significant reductions in operating costs, increased employee productivity, and improved customer relationships.”⁴

Fuel Conservation
As further proof of its ROI potential, MRM enables utility companies to cut excess mileage and fuel costs. Fuel will always be a significant expense for utility companies, making it a key target for cost savings. The Aberdeen Group has found that MRM offers the following benefits:

• 13.2 percent reduction in fuel costs
• 19.2 percent decrease in miles traveled
• 27.4 percent improvement in fleet utilization ⁵

MRM provides these savings by allowing utility companies to efficiently dispatch technicians, eliminate extra trips to the office and monitor idle times. Plus, technicians reduce excess mileage with voice-guided, turn-by-turn GPS navigation.

Using Wireless to Improve Business Intelligence
With such evidence of its ROI potential, mobile resource management is just as compelling as a business intelligence tool. With MRM, technicians are able to refer to a wealth of information that enables them to perform the job quickly and properly. Up-to-date customer information can be transmitted to the worker’s device, which results in a prepared technician and an increase in first-call resolution rates.

With easy-to-use wireless forms, technicians can send data to the back office by simply selecting from drop-down menus, checking boxes or entering free-form text. Other data collection methods can include barcode scanning, electronic signature capture and image capture.

Without mobile resource management, technicians are left with paper, pen and a clipboard to capture information about the job. This detracts technicians from their work and can cause an administrative nightmare.

When MRM is integrated with back-office software – such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), inventory, payroll and customer relationship management (CRM) systems – the data must only be entered once. This eliminates data entry payroll expenses and reduces costly data entry errors.

More important, however, is the business intelligence that the company can glean from this information. By gathering data into reports, mobile resource management allows managers to review technicians’ work history. This helps with payroll inaccuracies, employee or customer disputes and job status notifications. Reports range from simple time stamping and event recording to more complex reports customized by business segment. Managers can run reports at will or have them scheduled to be delivered via email at pre-determined times.

In addition to reports, automatic alerts provide further data for managers who need to keep close tabs on their technicians. Alerts notify management when technicians are speeding, whether they entered or exited a pre-defined area, whether they forgot to clock in or out, and if the application is turned off during business hours.

Wireless Timecards Reduce Payroll Expenses
While reports and alerts notify management of technicians’ activities, mobile resource management also enables utility companies to get a better handle on their payroll expenses. Typically, technicians record their time on paper timesheets, which need to be mailed, faxed or handed in. The data must then be manually entered into the payroll system. Plus, there is simply no accountability to verify technicians are working the exact hours they say they are working.

Wireless time tracking allows technicians to remotely clock in and out of their shifts. It allows management to track the time required for specific tasks as well as gather accurate timesheet reports. Each time stamp is associated with the technician’s GPS location, so management can ensure that the technician was clocking out from the job site, for example, and not from home.

Wireless timecards also improve attendance and reduce payroll costs. Detailed wireless timecards include labor codes, overtime and double time, and seamlessly integrate with payroll systems. And possibly most important is the fact that instant transmission of timecard data can cut the billing cycle from weeks to days, significantly improving the company’s cash flow.

Scheduling, Dispatching and Work Order Management
While payroll highly benefits from mobile resource management, dispatching is equally improved. MRM can significantly increase dispatch efficiency and ensure technicians are routed in a way that reduces excess mileage. Without MRM, dispatch is processed manually and dispatchers must call technicians when a customer calls with an urgent need.

With MRM, dispatchers communicate with technicians through their handheld devices and assign new jobs based on their locations.

Dispatchers transmit real-time job details including the job type, job priority, customer history and more. If a technician is running late or a high-priority call comes in from a customer, dispatchers can look to the Web-based map to determine which technician is closest to the job and send the job details to that technician. Technicians can reply to the job request indicating they received it, and when the job is finished, they can select the job status from a simple drop-down menu.

Enhancing Customer Service with MRM
In addition to reducing costs and improving efficiency for dispatchers, mobile resource management allows utility companies to greatly improve customer service. One of the most important elements of providing great customer service is being able to service utility customers efficiently and attend to their needs without delay.

Without MRM, customers may need to call to check on the whereabouts of a technician, experience long wait times, fill out tedious paper forms and even lose wages if they are forced to take time off work to wait for a technician.

With efficient dispatching and wireless forms, technicians are more productive. As a result, they can complete more jobs in the day and provide faster customer service. As noted by the Aberdeen Group, MRM results in a 23.8 percent improvement in response times.⁶ Plus, with exact GPS locations of their technicians, utility companies can provide customers with accurate arrival times, reduce wait times and even resolve billing disputes.

GPS Tracking and Speed Alerts for Safety
While the cost and efficiency benefits of MRM are important, ensuring the safety of technicians offers no comparison. Driving at high speeds has a direct correlation with vehicle wear, fuel waste and accident risk. According to the 2010 U.S. Federal Fuel Economy Guide, every 5mph a driver drives over 60mph reduces fuel economy by 7-8 percent.⁷ Speeding alerts help companies enforce safe driving practices and reduce fuel and insurance expenses.

GPS tracking contributes to safety advantages because managers can monitor the driving behavior of field technicians. In the case of extreme weather conditions or if a technician hasn’t been heard from in a few hours, managers can refer to their GPS locations to verify their safety and even help route them away from unsafe weather conditions.

Without these measures, technicians are left to their own devices to ensure their own safety, and managers must conduct their business without the true peace of mind that MRM can provide.

Conclusion
The use of MRM in the utilities industry streamlines operations and provides a substantial and quantifiable return on investment. With an affordable price, strong ROI, reduced operating expenses, improved customer service and safety enhancements, MRM can help utility organizations gain a competitive edge.

While no one will argue that the old wireless technologies of the past weren’t beneficial in their day, technology that traditionally was nice to have has now become a critical element in a utility organization’s ability to maintain steady profits. As Frost & Sullivan forecasts, 2013 will see more than 11 million MRM users in the U.S. alone⁸. Early adopters recognize the need to evolve operations and bring the way we communicate, and more importantly, the way we exchange information, into the next wireless age.

About the Author

Ravi Acharya is associate director of marketing for TeleNav’s businessto- business products. Ravi oversees product marketing for TeleNav’s Mobile Resource Management (MRM) solutions developed for the enterprise. Prior to TeleNav, Ravi served as a senior product marketing manager for AT&T Mobility. Ravi holds an MBA, Technology and Management from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the Pune Institute of Computer Technology. He can be reached at ravia@telenav.com.

1 The Impact of Location on Field Service, Aberdeen Group, December 2007
2 Maximizing ROI with MRM; Selecting the Right Mobile Resource Management
Solution, Frost & Sullivan, July 2008.
3 Ibid, Aberdeen Group.
4 Ibid, Frost & Sullivan.
5 Ibid, Aberdeen Group.
6 Ibid, Aberdeen Group.
7 US Dept. of Energy Fuel Economy Guide, October 2009.
8 Ibid, Frost & Sullivan.