“Back in 2010, we introduced a mobile solution for our technicians. That meant immediate benefits for our customers, since our service is now much faster and more precise than before. But for us as the workforce, too, the change has made our work much easier. We can work more flexibly and independently. Unnecessary trips back to the office are a thing of the past. I can quickly look at the system documentation and material requirements for the next jobs before I leave home, and know whether I need to plan a detour to the company first.
“If a technician realizes they need some help from a colleague while on the job, they can view our current personnel resource planning while still on site. That way, they can quickly see if one of their colleagues is nearby and available. And, when they take a short break on the drive back home, they can take a quick look at their list of outstanding orders to plan the next day’s work.
“For years, our technicians used a notebook and pen on site. Much needed to be done manually. Timekeeping was always a particular problem for us. There was often only time at the weekend to laboriously enter the information from lots of bits of paper into an Excel spreadsheet. And when time was unaccounted for, things got difficult. If the notes were lost, it was almost impossible to work out what the time was used for. Optimization of this tedious process was the lever that in less than no time got all our technicians enthusiastic about the mobile solutions, esweb and esmobile.
“Unaccounted time can now be checked online and completed immediately. The timesheet takes just a few clicks to generate, and the software sends it straight to the human resources department. With direct access to client data, system documentation, order lists, and personnel resource planning together with quick and easy timekeeping, our technicians could hardly wait to start using the new software. The changeover took just three days. We save time and money, and help look after the environment too, as we’re using much less paper. And our clients consider that using a smartphone and tablet is much more professional than a pen and an old-fashioned order pad.”
