Laptops link water-supply engineers to Metrowater call centre

By ADAM GIFFORD

The company that maintains Auckland City's water supply network is spending $1 million on a system which links its field staff with back office and call centre staff through radio-connected laptops.

"We are happy to spend that because we can see the value in the longer term for our relationship with Metrowater," said Abigroup utilities delivery general manager Mark Stansfield.

Abigroup, a worldwide construction and maintenance company, has a $21 million maintenance contract with Metrowater.

It intends to roll out the Mobile Field Computing application to its utility outsourcing contracts across the Tasman, and it is also making it a feature of other bids it is pursuing in New Zealand.

Stansfield said the application is a web-enabled thin client system written in Visual Basic on an SQL Server database, with interfaces into Abigroup's financial, asset management and job dispatch systems. It also interfaces with Metrowater's call centre and billing systems.

Abigroup business development manager Terry Coe said that with the Mobile Field Computing system, Metrowater call centre staff will be able to see at a glance what is happening on jobs and report back to customers when jobs will be finished.

A global positioning card in the laptop means the call centre can see where the vans are at all times, and the laptops use trunk radio connections to keep in touch with the base. "As the work is done, our people are entering in the computer what needs to be done, what parts were used, health and safety data, job costing, risk management," Coe said.

"Other systems can only report on status change: I've arrived at the job, I've completed the job."

Metrowater chief executive Geoff Mabbett said Metrowater contributed about $100,000, covering the costs of putting laptops in the 25 field service vans.

He said the Auckland City Council-owned company was looking for improved customer service and productivity.

"With this solution and others we are pursuing, we are removing paper-based systems. These are high-value people, so if we can get rid of low-value tasks like filling in and transcribing paper forms, it frees up the engineers to concentrate on problems solving and working out how to improve the system," Mabbett said.

"It also gives us a lot more information in electronic form which we can use to troubleshoot. An example is sewer overflows. We can use incident and GPS data to pinpoint problem areas and do proactive rather than reactive maintenance."

Mabbett said improved systems meant Metrowater was able to hold its charges.

"There has been zero increase in prices over the past three years, plus we have been able to bring in the 10 per cent discount for prompt payment. Any increase this year should be under [the inflation rate]."

The company that maintains Auckland City's water supply network is spending $1 million on a system which links its field staff with back office and call centre staff through radio-connected laptops.

"We are happy to spend that because we can see the value in the longer term for our relationship with Metrowater," said Abigroup utilities delivery general manager Mark Stansfield.

Abigroup, a worldwide construction and maintenance company, has a $21 million maintenance contract with Metrowater.

It intends to roll out the Mobile Field Computing application to its utility outsourcing contracts across the Tasman, and it is also making it a feature of other bids it is pursuing in New Zealand.

Stansfield said the application is a web-enabled thin client system written in Visual Basic on an SQL Server database, with interfaces into Abigroup's financial, asset management and job dispatch systems. It also interfaces with Metrowater's call centre and billing systems.

Abigroup business development manager Terry Coe said that with the Mobile Field Computing system, Metrowater call centre staff will be able to see at a glance what is happening on jobs and report back to customers when jobs will be finished.

A global positioning card in the laptop means the call centre can see where the vans are at all times, and the laptops use trunk radio connections to keep in touch with the base. "As the work is done, our people are entering in the computer what needs to be done, what parts were used, health and safety data, job costing, risk management," Coe said.

"Other systems can only report on status change: I've arrived at the job, I've completed the job."

Metrowater chief executive Geoff Mabbett said Metrowater contributed about $100,000, covering the costs of putting laptops in the 25 field service vans.

He said the Auckland City Council-owned company was looking for improved customer service and productivity.

"With this solution and others we are pursuing, we are removing paper-based systems. These are high-value people, so if we can get rid of low-value tasks like filling in and transcribing paper forms, it frees up the engineers to concentrate on problems solving and working out how to improve the system," Mabbett said.

"It also gives us a lot more information in electronic form which we can use to troubleshoot. An example is sewer overflows. We can use incident and GPS data to pinpoint problem areas and do proactive rather than reactive maintenance."

Mabbett said improved systems meant Metrowater was able to hold its charges.

"There has been zero increase in prices over the past three years, plus we have been able to bring in the 10 per cent discount for prompt payment. Any increase this year should be under [the inflation rate]."