Mobile Workforce Management

San Bernard Electric Cooperative,inc.

SBEC Fact List

• 117 Employees

• 4 offices

• 3682 miles of line

• 87 miles transmission

• 120 miles underground

• 26,597 connected meters

• 7.22 avg meters/mile

• 66 vehicles in fleet

• Territory includes portions of 7 counties in SE Texas.

“There’s a fine line between the cutting edge and the bleeding edge of technology.”

Doug Lambert – SBEC IT Manager

What Is Mobile Workforce Management?

• Mobile workforce management is work management that includes the integrated processes and procedures that help your organization schedule work more efficiently, meet consumers' needs, utilize assets and evaluate performance.

(NISC) National Information Solutions Cooperative

Evolution / History• 1999 - GPS inventory of all facilities (including pole

numbering) to create accurate digital maps

• 2002 - OMS implemented

• 2003 - Laptops in trucks (~35)

• 2004 - Automatic vehicle location (AVL)

• 2006 - Milsoft Unplugged viewer in trucks

• 2007 - NISC’s iVUE implemented

• 2009 - Mobile Workforce Mgmt implementation

Objectives / Goals

• Paperless Environment

• Streamline of Process

• Costs Savings

• Improve Customer Service

Paperless Environment

• On average, 800 new construction and system improvement jobs per year that require up to seven copies per job. 5,600 sheets of paper.

• The average number of sheets for new construction and system improvement jobs is 3

• 800 x 3 = (2,400) x 7 = 16,800 sheets of paper

• Approximately 12,000 service orders generated per year– 59,000 service orders from 2004 – 2009

Paperless Environment

2007

Tree – 443Security Light – 1399Retirement – 239Reconnect – 1216New Connect – 625Meter Change – 1102Account Transfer – 2261Disconnect – 1395General – 3242 Total 2007 – 11,922

2008

Tree – 456Security Light – 1389Retirement – 449Reconnect – 1269New Connect – 664Meter Change – 1143Account Transfer – 2127Disconnect – 1428General – 2985 Total 2008 – 11,910

Closed And Scanned Service Orders

Paperless Environment

• $6,000 budgeted yearly for printer paper

• $8,300 yearly on Toner Cartridges for all computer related printing

• $1,200 average cost for a network printer (20)

• Average printer life span (5 years)

• Add 25% more life to printers

Paperless Environment• Currently we pay $1,200 a month for a lease

plan and maintenance for (4) copiers

• Downsize copiers

• Buy them outright for a one time average cost of $2,500 each

• Reduce average monthly maintenance cost to $50.00 a month per copier

Streamline of Process

• Legislation adding more duties to existing employees (Red Flag Rule, NERC Compliance etc.)

• Replace retirees with technology (reduce paper shuffling)

• Automation of Workflow Duties

Streamline of Process

• Presently Materials Manager looks at all staking sheet and manually enters all construction units into system

• Through Work Force Management electronic staking sheets will automatically push materials list into iVUE

• Saving approximately 5 hours of labor per week for this position

• 52 weeks x 5 hours = 260 hours saved

Streamline of Process

• By Streamlining the process,The position of Materials Specialist 1, Line Extension Coordinator and an Apprentice Staking Tech would be replaced through technology as well as absorbing job duties between other employees.

Streamline of Process

• Yearly Salary with benefits for Materials Specialist 1- $46,600.00

• Yearly Salary with benefits for Line Extension Coordinator - $69,000.00

• Yearly Salary with benefits for an Apprentice Staking Tech - $41,500.00

• Combined Yearly Salaries of - $157,000.00

Pricing / Cost Savings Analysis

iVUE E&O Product Suite Cost Summary

Description Price Maint.

iVUE GIS $15,350 $ 850

iVUE Mobile Workforce $18,370 $ 966

iVUE Staking/Field Edit $14,010 $ 400

E & O Product Suite Total $ 47,730 $ 2,216

***Price includes all training with the exception of travel expenses

Pricing / Cost Savings Analysis

• Office supply savings $20,000 per year (copiers, paper, network printers)

• Salary savings $157,000.00 a year (eliminating three positions)

• Total expenses $177,000.00 a year or 14,750.00 per month

Pricing / Cost Savings Comparison

• The monthly expense will be $2,216 per month versus $14,750 under the current process (This includes salaries as well as office supplies)

• This results in approximately $12,000 per month in savings which will recoup the initial cost of $47,000 in four months

Improve Customer Service

• Better Analysis

• Performance

• Real-time Costs

• Decrease Outage Time

© 2009 MIP Project

Implementation / Game Plan • 2 year process

– 1st six months will focus on service orders and business process

– 2nd six months will focus on mobile dispatch

– 3rd six months will focus on moving from batch process to real-time

– 4th six months will focus on materials management and staking sheets

Implementation

• Choosing the vendor– NISC

– Milsoft Utility Solutions

• Platform Interoperability– MultiSpeak Compliancy

© 2009 MIP Project

• Truck Communications– 802.11 Wireless Network near Offices

– 900 mhz Radio System

Implementation Advantages

– Why NISC?

• Natural progression because we were already using NISC as our CIS and GIS vendor

• To avoid any 3rd party vendors

• Pricing

© 2009 MIP Project

– Why Milsoft?

• 20 year working relationship

• Proven reliable (stand behind their work)

• Coop minded

Implementation

• Define the business processes (How does the work flow?)

• Interdepartmental participation (effectively dealing with change-management)

• Build the business processes into I-VUE

© 2009 MIP Project

Work Flow

© 2009 MIP Project

Advantages

• Streamline / Automation of workflow duties

• 25% Savings on Office Supplies

• Routing Capabilities

• Fuel Savings

• Increased Life Cycle of fleet

• Better Analysis

• Real time costs

Disadvantages

• Contractors still need paper copies of system Improvements as well as service orders

• Resistance to Change (“buy in” by all participating departments)– Takes Engineering Department twice as long to

do electronic staking sheets compared to drawing them by hand (only drawing job once)

– Service Orders are used as tangible receipts in the field for disconnects/collections

– Initial setup requires a lot of customization of the ‘software’ to meet the needs of SBEC business processes

Mobile Workforce Management

Proceed with caution, patience and optimism

Questions ?

Mobile Workforce Management

Thank You!