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Abstract


Wireless Workforce Management Effectively Manages The Mobile Workforce
Track: Electric and Gas
Author(s): Scott Munro

Utilities are confronted on a daily basis with the difficult task of optimally assigning work requests to their mobile workforces, dispatching
the work to the field, managing the progress of the workforce against the workload, and responding to changing conditions. Wireless Workforce Management (WFM) meets the needs of utility field operations by delivering an integrated, operations-centric view of the mobile workforce and its workload. WFM delivers the benefits of enterprise applications to the field.

Key WFM capabilities include:

- Work order entry and management
- Resource management (technicians, crews, vehicles, and equipment)
- Technician shifts and rosters
- Automated assignment and optimization
- Wireless dispatch of work orders to field technicians on WAP devices,
Windows CE, and Windows notebooks
- Real-time status monitoring of work status
- Field data capture and validation of work results
- Delivery of work results to enterprise applications

WFM increases business effectiveness by promoting operational efficiency in individual operating areas while taking advantage of opportunities to manage work across departmental boundaries. The result is optimal assignment of work to workforce, wireless field access to enterprise data, wireless feedback on work progress, automated processes enforcing best practices, and
an enterprise view of overall work status.

This session will explain how WFM impacts organizational performance. It will describe the business value and capabilities of WFM and its impact on field productivity and customer service in terms of key business performance measures such as jobs completed, distance driven, percentage of appointment commitments met, ratio of dispatchers to technicians, overtime hours, and
number of service centers.

Scott Munro
MDSI
10271 Shellbridge Way
Richmond, BC V6X 2W8
Canada

Phone: (604) 207-6311
E-mail: smunro@mdsi.bc.ca