Iberdrola USA,For

Real-Time Workforce Scheduling Is

Just a Click Away

Iberdrola USA, Inc.’s two New York subsid-

iaries, Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E)

and New York State Electric and Gas

(NYSEG), schedule work orders differently

due to the geographic makeup of their respec-

tive coverage areas. RG&E serves an urban

area, providing electricity to roughly 360,000

residents and natural gas to about 300,000 resi-

dents and businesses in nine counties that make

up greater Rochester. The utility has divided

the urban service area into four divisions and

assigns field personnel to a particular job within

a single division. A technician’s daily to-do list,

for example, might include a dozen or so meter

repairs all within a single division.

Conversely, the more rural NYSEG cover-

age area, which is separated into 13 divisions,

consists of roughly 871,000 customers receiving

electricity and another 250,000 receiving natu-

ral gas. In contrast to RG&E, this area is served

by technicians who might be responsible for a

variety of jobs during a single day, from meter

maintenance to installations, reconnects, and

disconnects.

Seven years ago, Iberdrola USA configured

its legacy SAP Mobile Asset Management for

by Ken Murphy, Senior Writer

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This article appeared in the JAN FEB MAR 2014 issue of insiderPROFILES (insiderPROFILESonline.com) and appears here with permission from WIS PUBLISHING.

Utilities solution to schedule work orders based on the NYSEG

model first. The RG&E model, then, required customization to

change the NYSEG assigned scenarios to zone-based schedul-

ing. Even with customization, manual workarounds became

standard practice as technicians would arrive at the corporate

office and essentially override the schedule generated for them

on the SAP system. Drawing on experience and perhaps some

roadmaps of the urban areas, technicians would often re-route

themselves to make better use of their time. A manual sched-

ule created at 7am, however, wasn’t optimal considering un-

planned changes or reroutes due to emergency calls or outages

could occur throughout the day. Also, from a customer stand-

point, this method didn’t allow workers to pinpoint service

windows with much accuracy.

Another workforce scheduling challenge this strategy pre-

sented was that, unlike RG&E, NYSEG’s operations group

did not have automated real-time dispatch capabilities for its

trouble and outage work orders. For NYSEG, the SAP system

touched only customer service work, such as repairs, so trouble

and outage work orders were either written down or called in

from the field. In addition, Iberdrola USA wanted to increase

the data speeds it was experiencing with the integration of the

SAP system with the SAP Utilities Customer Care and Service

solution. The business wanted to minimize the time that driv-

ers in the field would have to wait for information on their

next jobs. With more than 300 trucks using that SAP technol-

ogy in the field at a given time, even minor delays could add up

quickly to create many idling trucks and wasted man-hours.

“We didn’t want our technicians to be waiting to receive

data, which had started to become an issue for us throughout

our divisions,” says Diane Chester, Lead Business Analyst at

Iberdrola USA. “We knew the time was right to go out and find

a new mobile solution.”

Ending Inefficient DowntimeWith the two main objectives of standardizing its work manage-

ment between RG&E and NYSEG, and automating schedul-

ing for NYSEG trouble and outage operations, Iberdrola USA

decided to implement the SAP Workforce Scheduling and

Optimization application by ClickSoftware. The project team fo-

cused on integrating the application’s modules — for scheduling,

field service, and real-time mobile services — with SAP Utilities

Customer Care and Service, all of which would help drive greater

efficiency than what the legacy system provided.

The functionality for scheduling was at the heart of the work-

force management optimization solution automating resource

allocation and route optimization, and providing real-time dis-

patching. Utilizing this feature, Iberdrola USA could then do

away with manual overrides for RG&E scheduling, as well as

automate trouble and outage scheduling for NYSEG for the

first time. The field service functionality allows the business to

analyze and leverage the scheduling data to customize future

performance based on past results, such as making a schedul-

ing modification if a certain job is always taking longer than

the time allotted. The mobile functionality gives field person-

nel the ability to receive and review scheduling and customer

information on intuitive interfaces on their laptops or tablets.

A Team Comes TogetherWhen Iberdrola USA initially put together its project team, it

faced a similar challenge to the one its drivers faced dealing with

manual scheduling for a large geographic expanse: The team

members were quite spread out — the Iberdrola USA locations in

Maine with separate offices in New York for NYSEG and RG&E,

colleagues in Spain, the consulting engineers in Germany and

India, and a mobility vendor in Massachusetts.

“At first, I was concerned with the logistical issues of deploy-

ing a global team,” says Ann LePore, IT Applications Manager

at Iberdrola USA. “But this challenge turned into an advantage

because everyone had the right attitude and a willingness to

learn and to listen to one another, especially at the begin-

ning when we didn’t know each other. It really was amazing

watching the team come together.”

At a GlanceGoal: Iberdrola USA wanted to standardize customer service work order management between two New York subsidiaries, and automate trouble and outage scheduling for one of these subsidiaries

Strategy: Implemented the SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization application by ClickSoftware

Outcome: Achieved real-time scheduling and route optimization, automated trouble and outage work orders, created standard scheduling processes, and improved mobile communication resulting in less downtime and overall greater efficiency

“At first, I was concerned with the logistical issues of deploying a global team, but this challenge turned into an advantage because

everyone had the right attitude and a willingness to learn and to

listen to one another.” — Ann LePore, IT Applications Manager,

Iberdrola USA

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Another logistical challenge for Iberdrola USA was that, in par-

allel with the project, the company opted to either equip or retro-

fit its fleet of 661 vehicles with improved cellular communications,

requiring antennas, docking stations, modems, and other equip-

ment to ensure uninterrupted communication. This work was

performed from September 2012 through March 2013 and was

complicated in part by an above-average snowfall that winter. “It

was a tremendously difficult effort for a company that works 24/7

to get 661 trucks where they were supposed to be,” says LePore.

“Like the team structure, it was just trying to get everyone and

everything in the right place at the right time.”

Having a strong team in place helped Iberdrola wade through

several technical challenges, like integrating SAP Workforce

Scheduling and Optimization with the SAP Utilities Customer

Care and Service solution so that it would recognize how work

schedule rules differed between zone-based RG&E and NYSEG,

for example. In addition, Iberdrola USA wasn’t simply automating

what had been manual processes; by implementing the solution,

RG&E and NYSEG added new functionality that required manipu-

lating data in new ways. This functionality included capabilities

for real-time schedule optimization, accommodating unexpected

events, and updating a schedule accordingly while still optimizing

service windows.

This meant extensive testing for the project team, and an 11th-

hour change from a planned six-week rollout to all coverage areas

to a far more phased rollout. Iberdrola USA went live with its first

coverage area in January 2013 and finished in October 2013.

“We had a lot of challenges with the automated scheduling

results,” LePore says. “We knew it was normal to tune the system

after implementing the automated scheduling, but even though

we had done an immense amount of testing, it was difficult to

simulate the data constellation we would have in production. We

needed some time to resolve that.”

Iberdrola USA attributed much of the success of the project

to its implementation partner, ENERGY4U GmbH — an Atos

company. “They didn’t just dictate how things were going to get

done; they questioned us on certain things,” Chester says. “We’ve

been on projects where the consultants took over and we were

left with blank looks, but this project was very different. They

worked closely with us to make sure we were thinking things

through, and that team effort was very helpful.”

Users Go with the FlowAnother reason the project team opted for a more deliberate roll-

out was to ensure the approximately 800 technicians and field per-

sonnel using SAP Workforce Scheduling and Optimization were

thoroughly trained. For the roughly half of technicians who had

been using the previous SAP system, change management wasn’t

an issue, in part because the team aimed to keep a number of

interfaces the same.

“Users are still working on the same laptop or tablet, so it

was just the software being different,” Chester says. “Where we

saw more of a challenge was with NYSEG operations where we

brought on brand new users for gas and electric in all 13 divisions.

It was a culture thing. Nobody likes change, so it has been an

adjustment to use it.”

According to Stephanie Crisman, Business Analyst at Iberdrola

USA, one user completely new to an automated process actually

handed her back a laptop and said he wasn’t going to use it. “He’s

now one of our best users,” she says. “So they quickly see how

efficient the new solution is; it’s just getting them to log in and

use it every day. And the more they use it, the more they like it.”

Even the users of the former SAP system who didn’t have to

re-learn new interfaces were still presented with a better user

experience. “The difference is that while they still have every-

thing they were used to seeing, it’s easier to access. They can see

everything all at once, whereas in the old application, there was

a set order of having to go through the screens for the required

information,” says Crisman. “The feedback has been very positive

from the field; they have a singular snapshot of everything they

need in one place.”

Iberdrola USA, Inc.Headquarters: New Gloucester, MaineIndustry: UtilityEmployees: 5,000Company details:• Iberdrola USA’s parent company, Iberdrola, S.A., is based in

Bilbao, Spain.• Iberdrola USA provides renewable and thermal electricity genera-

tion, electricity transmission and distribution, natural gas storage and distribution, and renewable energy operations and energy services through its subsidiaries in 24 states stretching from New England to the West Coast.

• Iberdrola USA’s subsidiaries in the northeast, Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E), New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG), and Central Maine Power (CMP), each received the Edison Electric Institute 2012 Emergency Recovery Award and Emergency Assistance Award for their restoration and support efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The three utilities mobilized 6,000 workers to handle nearly 500,000 electric service interruptions.

• RG&E ranked fifth among 82 investor-owned US utilities in the E Source 2013 Utility Brand Strength Rankings conducted by energy analyst E Source in partnership with the Nielsen Company. The survey measured factors such as price-to-value ratio, communi-cation effectiveness, program offerings, customer service, reliabil-ity, and environmental friendliness.

SAP solutions:• SAP ERP 6.0• SAP Utilities Customer Care and Service solution• SAP Workforce and Scheduling Optimization by ClickSoftware

Company Snapshot

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