VENTYX WHITE PAPER
LINKING FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION TO
GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT:
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURES
Part I: The Past and Present of Utility Field Force Automation with GIS
Geospatial Information Management (GIS) is a long-accepted technology that has
proven its value repeatedly to thousands of utilities worldwide. Likewise, Field Force
Automation (FFA) has enjoyed similar success and utilization over many years. The
former originates essentially in an office environment, with paper maps then produced
and used by mobile crews and technicians. The latter occurs primarily in the field, used
also by mobile crews and technicians, but also by dispatchers and managers. Over the
last five years in particular, these two technologies have been converging in ways that
are powerfully useful in contributing to both improved workforce productivity and more
effective asset management. To better appreciate this convergence and its likely
direction and development over the next five years, it would be helpful to first review how
FFA has developed to where it is today.
Utilities conduct business with a unique set of operating characteristics that have
evolved over decades, beginning with paper-based operations and evolving into
complex IT-driven business processes. Aiding in this transformation is the arrival of
improved workforce management (or, FFA) technologies and systems that have helped
utilities more efficiently keep the lights on, the water running, and the gas flowing.
FFA represents the evolution of work and workforce management in a utility environment,
and the associated technologies and strategies for managing the three main divisions of
work (i.e., customer and meter services, inspection and maintenance and construction).
As a result, current business trends and economic and environmental drivers are
pushing utilities to more creatively manage all phases of work from an enterprise
perspective in order to achieve the company’s ultimate objectives.
Let us begin by defining the key divisions of work supported by FFA to date, and their
related requirements. While this certainly oversimplifies the demands, dynamics and
LINKING FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION TO GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURES
complexity of each division, there are three overarching divisions of work that any utility
must manage:
1.
Customer and Meter Services (Outage) – This division of work includes
everyday field work typically completed within a shorter duration (hours, days); it
is often considered “unplanned” and “undesigned” work that the utility must
manage. Examples include:
• Responses to customer inquiries, such as a new service hookup, gas or
water leak, etc.
• Responses to outage conditions, such as a downed power line or broken main
2.
Inspection and Maintenance – This division of work includes fieldwork around
managing and maintaining assets, such as:
• Regular maintenance inspection of distribution assets/equipment
• Dispatching work crews to repair or replace key distribution assets
3.
Construction – This division of field work includes complex work that must be
planned, designed, scheduled and executed over longer periods of time (i.e.,
days, weeks, months). Long-cycle work is often resource-intensive, involving
multiple stakeholders and the management of compatible units. Examples
include:
• Construction of new infrastructure, including mains, points, and spans
• Replacement of aging infrastructure and corresponding assets
FFA from its origin has focused on work type #1 above, Customer and Meter Services,
including Outages. As such and given the available technologies of the day, there was
limited if any GIS support available for this type of work.
The challenges facing utilities today can, in part, be addressed by holistically managing
the three divisions of work described above. While aging workforce and aging
infrastructure issues are accepted as major challenges by utility management, the
utilization of FFA technology to help efficiently address these business process changes
can be a distinct advantage.
When addressing the dual threat of aging assets and infrastructure in the field, utilities
must leverage integrated asset and workforce management technologies to capture and
transmit data across the enterprise. The advantage of all field users living in a single
system stretches across the three divisions of work. For example, when a field technician
repairs a downed power line, he or she enters data via a mobile device, which is shared
with customer service, dispatch, scheduling and other departments. When it comes time
to inspect and/or maintain that same power line, the field crew can access the prior
repair information on-site. In turn, this data can be leveraged when planning and
preparing for larger-scope work (long cycle). It is easy to see how access to this
information, especially in geo-spatial form, can ultimately be a cost-saving tool when it
comes to deploying both human capital and physical resources.
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©2010, VENTYX 2
LINKING FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION TO GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURES
A recent analysis of the workforce management industry indicated that, given various
market drivers in play, mobilizing the asset-oriented/long-cycle work remains an
untapped opportunity for utilities. Most utilities do not have a viable option across shortand long-cycle work, and often manage mobility with multiple FFA systems versus an
enterprise application. Also, an aging workforce continues to create challenges that
highlight the importance of enterprise-wide technologies to support business process
execution. In addition, aging infrastructure issues are driving companies to focus
resources on asset-intensive work execution. These combined forces set the stage for
companies to transition their focus toward improving field productivity through FFA.
A clear strategy for achieving both business effectiveness and peak operational
performance is the deployment of an enterprise-wide FFA system. Most solutions in
existence today provide ample functionality to manage singular parts of the three
divisions of work; however, the majority of technologies handle only specific pieces,
such as customer/meter service and inspection and maintenance, or are unable to
handle construction work in conjunction with inspection and maintenance. Companies
need a FFA solution that can support utilities in managing all three divisions of work, but
this solution to be truly effective must be geo-spatially enabled across the board.
Significant functionality is required to handle all three key divisions. Many utilities have
carved off only part of the FFA solution. For instance, some utilities only use mobile
devices for deployment of customer work, or they schedule and dispatch inspection and
maintenance work. With an enterprise FFA solution with full GIS capability, a utility can
operate a whole enterprise application, where mobility, scheduling, dispatch and data
transparency are carried throughout every layer of work.
A key opportunity for organizations will be the enterprise FFA functionality that can link
the customer, meter, outage, inspection and maintenance, and construction work with
GIS support in the field to decrease overall IT spend and increase companywide
productivity.
Utilities are continually looking to improve service, react effectively to emergencies and
identify opportunities in the field to improve service and operations. By definition, work
consists of the day-to-day operations that define a utility. In the future, the work schedule
will be intrinsic to the holistic operational plan. Responses to customer service inquiries,
such as a new service hookup, or a gas or water leak, can be combined and balanced
with inspection and maintenance work.
For example, responses to customer care can be combined with managing other
important assets in the field that are in close proximity to the customer care request. A
mobile system with GIS can provide visibility into the work and work type, along with the
crew and contractor information. This increased visibility will result in better customer
service, workforce efficiency and, ultimately, cost savings.
1-800-868-0497 | www.ventyx.com
©2010, VENTYX 3
LINKING FIELD FORCE AUTOMATION TO GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURES
As much of the utility infrastructure is aging in parallel with a maturing and retiring
workforce, utilities are entering a proactive phase of managing both assets and people
with improved technology. For years, most work has been managed by silos of IT
systems supporting only short-cycle (customer and meter services) work. With modern
FFA systems, utilities can now more directly accommodate, plan for and have visibility
into the status of inspection and maintenance duties.
The next chapter in work will be the successful management of construction in
addition to improving customer, inspection and maintenance work. Installing the
next mile, managing new neighborhood designs and implementation and
maintaining this infrastructure will require enhanced FFA capabilities with even
stronger GIS components. FFA combined with full-featured GIS capabilities is
going to be a major field force transformative process that utilities and
communications companies will face in the 21st century.
It meets the challenges of increased customer service with lower costs that is
and will be a hallmark of field operations, and at the same time provides
significant configurable flexibility at the point of service provision in the field.
Through a combination of software solution implementation and professional
services on the organizational and procedural aspects of field operations, this
FFA/GIS solution can produce measurable and repeatable benefits to virtually
all utility companies who deploy large and active field service organizations.
Steven A. Radice,
VP – Utility Industry Solutions,
Ventyx
1-800-868-0497 | www.ventyx.com
©2010, VENTYX 4