Find out how the GeoTask system, using advanced algorithms, supports our telecommunications customer in Romania in scheduling and managing thousands of customer appointments and tasks related to daily network maintenance.
About the project
The company’s broadcasting services, including response time and maintenance, are under extremely strict service level agreements (SLAs).
Globema’s mobile workforce management solution, GeoTask, was selected to help the company improve productivity and reduce operational costs in customer and network operations.
Contents:
Industry: Telecommunications
Service: GeoTask
Category: Field Service & Mobile Workforce Management
Challenge
Our customer is one of the leading providers of telecommunications and technology services in the world, operating in Romania.
After several years of using their old field workforce management solution, it became clear that it was no longer able to help the company face the current challenges of the highly competitive telecommunication market.
The fast-paced environment of booking appointments required a modern application. Needed features included instantly creating a plan of available time slots for scheduling appointments and automatically matching teams with tasks based on their location, client requirements, and skills needed to perform a task.
Customer Service – booking appointments with customers
Several thousand schedulers that take care of setting up appointments for Customer Service Representatives needed an easy-to-use and efficient application. They required a unified interface to provide available appointment dates to the customers and book the appointments in appropriate time slots.
Previously the dispatchers planned the routes and appointments based only on the morning plan and phone calls from the field. This did not include any additional changes that occurred in the course of the day. This method proved to be inefficient, and the dispatchers were struggling to stay on top of all the tasks.
A modern application that would allow to plan in real-time and provide up-to-date information about the progress in the field was necessary to move forward in the business.
SLA-driven tasks that don’t require making appointments (technical operations)
Apart from scheduled appointments related to customer service, every day, the company’s technical teams must solve a number of important SLA-driven field tasks that don’t require making appointments, e.g. dealing with network failures.
The goal of assigning thousands of SLA-related tasks between scheduled customer appointments in an optimal way could be achieved only by using a modern tool supported by a highly performant optimization engine. Our client’s broadcasting services, including response time and maintenance, are under strict service level agreements (SLAs).
Solution
Globema’s mobile workforce management solution, GeoTask, was selected to help the company improve productivity and reduce operational costs in the area of customer and network operations.
Modernizing the workforce management system was carried out in two major steps, each of them bringing important benefits to the business.
A pilot solution established new foundations for dispatchers and schedulers working in the office. It had its successful national rollout in 2014. Integrating with the existing mobile application and the CRM software assured a fast flow of work orders from the CRM system to the teams and back.
Several years later, the company took the second and major step. It upgraded its back-office application and started using GeoTask, Globema’s native mobile application.
Now our client’s staff members have access to a tailored web application with a modern interface for dispatchers and schedulers and an intuitive mobile application, which utilizes the latest technology and can be installed on almost any smartphone or tablet.
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Process
Globema customized and deployed the solution. The process included:
- Integrating with CRM and provisioning database
- Creating an Appointment Booking module based on business rules
- Performing an advanced integration with a map server used for estimating travel times and displaying routes
- Ensuring GDPR compliance of enhanced functionalities
- Creating a customized calendar for team shifts
- Creating reports based on data sent from company systems integrated with GeoTask
- Generating a complex matrix for field activities based on input parameters from CRM
- Delivering a tailored mobile application: lightweight, easy to use, and supported by most of the common mobile devices.
Results
Currently, the company uses GeoTask to manage several hundred field teams. Since the full-scale launch of GeoTask, the company has reduced the number of errors occurring during service provision by 30%. The number of calls from field technicians to dispatchers dropped by 19% and the number of dispatchers needed to carry out the tasks dropped by 45%.
30
reduction of the number of errors occurring during service provision
19
less calls from field technicians to dispatchers
45
less dispatchers need to carry out tasks
The company has achieved a 45% increase in the dispatchers’ work efficiency, so some of them could be assigned to other tasks.
GeoTask helps the company by:
Automating the process of scheduling and dispatching tasks that don’t require booking appointments
Providing fast and easy booking of all the appointments with the clients
Providing up-to-date information on each task and status reporting via mobile devices
Optimizing travel thanks to an optimization engine and vehicle tracking
Sending accurate data from the field for fast equipment provisioning
Streamlining the field technicians’ work by minimizing the need to contact dispatchers and therefore significantly reducing the number of calls from technicians to their dispatchers
Improving the rate of equipment provisioning
Before the GeoTask implementation
- Manual task scheduling and dispatching
- Time-consuming data collection via PCs and phone calls from fieldworkers
- Manual selection of technicians
After the GeoTask implementation
- Automated task scheduling and dispatching
- Data collected via online devices in real time
- Automated technician selection based on skills, equipment, location, and availability
Further steps
The implementation of GeoTask is only one step in the further optimization and tuning of the field service management processes. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are monitored on a constant basis and the solution gets adjusted to face arising business challenges.
GeoTask is now a part of the core solutions in the Customer’s environment and is organically growing along with the business and company. New functionalities are constantly added, improving the achieved benefits. New integrations with other core systems are being planned in order to take full advantage of the real-time planning capabilities of GeoTask and to provide rock-solid support in enhancing their current and future functionalities.
Field activity will be further enhanced with a semi-automated data collecting process to help the technicians decrease the time spent on collateral activities. It will also positively influence the accuracy of implemented data. Furthermore, systems supporting report creation will be added.
The company decided to expand GeoTask to other systems and business processes involving field teams. This decision was influenced by the success of the GeoTask implementation, related benefits, as well as the positive response of the end users to the FSMS and mobile application.
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