EVOLUTION OF WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 EVOLUTION OF WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT One Workforce One Company - One Solution: Why an Enterprise approach to field work is beneficial to electric, gas, and water utilities One Workforce One Company - One Solution series. Utilities conduct business with a unique set of operating characteristics that have evolved over decades, beginning with paper-based operations and evolving into complex IT-driven business processes. Aiding in this transformation is the arrival of improved workforce management technologies and systems that have helped utilities more efficiently keep the lights on, the water running, and the gas flowing. This paper illustrates the evolution of work (and workforce) management in a utility environment, and the associated technologies and strategies for managing the four main divisions of work (i.e., customer and meter services, inspection and maintenance and construction). As a result, the reader can see how current business trends and economic and environmental drivers are pushing utilities to more creatively manage all phases of work from an enterprise perspective in order to achieve the ultimate objective of managing One Workforce One Company - One Solution. Let us begin our discussion by defining the four key divisions of work and their related requirements. Divisions of Work While this certainly oversimplifies the demands, dynamics and complexity of each division, there are four overarching divisions of work that any utility must manage: 1. Customer and Meter Services This division of work includes everyday work typically completed within a shorter duration (hours); it is often considered unplanned and undesigned work that the utility must manage. Examples include customer service inquiries, new service turn-on, meter re-reads, etc. 2. Outage This division of work includes responses to outage conditions, such as a downed power line or broken main. 3. Inspection and Maintenance This division of work includes fieldwork around managing and maintaining assets, such as: Regular maintenance inspection of distribution assets/equipment Dispatching work crews to repair or replace key distribution assets 4. Construction This division of work includes complex work that must be planned, designed, scheduled and executed over longer periods of time (i.e., days, weeks, months). Long-cycle work is often resource-intensive, involving multiple stakeholders and the management of compatible units. Examples include: Construction of new infrastructure, including mains, points, and spans

2 Replacement of aging infrastructure and corresponding assets The challenges facing utilities today can, in part, be addressed by holistically managing the four divisions of work described above. While aging workforce and aging infrastructure issues are accepted as major challenges by utility management, the utilization of enterprise workforce management technology to help efficiently address these business process changes can be a distinct advantage. In the January 2008 issue of Electric Energy T&D Magazine, industry veteran Steven Radice, authored, The Dual Threat: Aging Infrastructure and Aging Workforce Call for Integrated Asset and Workforce Management, where he discusses the opportunity for utilities to better manage the divisions of work on an enterprise level. He explains that when addressing the dual threat of aging assets and infrastructure, utilities must leverage integrated asset and workforce management technologies to capture and transmit data across the enterprise. The advantage of all field users living in a single system stretches across the four divisions of work. For example, when a field technician repairs a downed power line, he or she enters data via a mobile device, which is shared with customer service, dispatch, scheduling and other departments. When it comes time to inspect and/or maintain that same power line, the field crew can access the prior repair information on-site. In turn, this data can be leveraged when planning and preparing for larger-scope work (long cycle). It is easy to see how access to this information can ultimately be a cost-saving tool when it comes to deploying both human capital and physical resources. Key Marketplace Observations: One Workforce 1 Accenture noted in a recent analysis of the workforce management industry that, given various market drivers in play, mobilizing the asset-oriented/long-cycle work remains an untapped opportunity for utilities. Most utilities do not have a viable option across both short- and long-cycle work, and often manage such work with multiple systems versus an enterprise application. An aging workforce continues to create challenges that highlight the importance of enterprisewide technologies to support business process execution. In addition, aging infrastructure issues are driving companies to focus resources on asset-intensive work execution. These combined forces set the stage for companies to transition their focus toward improving field productivity through enterprise workforce management. Next Chapter: The One Solution Landscape Ventyx believes that one clear strategy to achieving both business effectiveness and peak operational performance is the deployment of an enterprisewide workforce management system. Most solutions in existence today provide ample functionality to manage singular parts of the four divisions of work; however, the majority of technologies handle only specific pieces, such as customer/meter service and outage, or are unable to handle construction work in conjunction with inspection and maintenance. There is no 1 Accenture presentation given to Ventyx on workforce trends 2008

3 solution provider that can support utilities in managing all four divisions of work except Ventyx. With the release of Service Suite 8.1, Ventyx offers significant functionality to handle all four key divisions. As indicated in the graphic below, many utilities have carved off only part of the enterprise workforce management solution. For instance, some utilities only use mobile devices for deployment of customer work, or they schedule and dispatch inspection and maintenance work. With Ventyx solutions, a utility can select a singular cube, or the whole enterprise application, where mobile, scheduling and dispatch are carried throughout every layer of work. A key opportunity for organizations will be the enterprise functionality that can link the customer/meter, outage, inspection and maintenance and construction work to decrease overall IT spend and increase companywide productivity. Workforce Management Stack Enterprise Workforce Management Solution

4 The Future of Customer/Meter Services and Outage Utilities are continually looking to improve service, react effectively to emergencies and identify opportunities in the field to improve service and operations. By definition, work consists of the day-to-day operations that define a utility. In the future, the work schedule will be intrinsic to the holistic operational plan. Responses to customer service inquiries, such as a new service hookup, or a gas or water leak, can be combined and balanced with inspection and maintenance work. For example, responses to customer care can be combined with managing other important assets in the field that are in close proximity to the customer care request. A mobile system can provide visibility into the work and work type, along with the crew and contractor information. This increased visibility will result in better customer service, workforce efficiency and, ultimately, cost savings. The Future of Inspection & Maintenance As much of the utility infrastructure is aging in parallel with a maturing and retiring workforce, utilities are entering a proactive phase of managing both assets and people with improved technology. For years, most work has been managed by siloed IT systems supporting only short-cycle (customer and meter services) work. With modern enterprise workforce management systems, utilities can now more directly accommodate, plan for and have visibility into the status of inspection and maintenance tasks. The Future of Construction The next chapter in EWFM will be the successful management of construction in addition to improving customer, inspection and maintenance work. Installing the next mile, managing new neighborhood designs and implementation and maintaining this infrastructure will require enterprise workforce management capabilities. Summary: One Workforce One Company - One Solution The One Workforce One Company One Solution concept is going to be a major field force transformative process that utilities and communications companies will face in the 21 st century. It meets the challenges of increased customer service with lower costs that is and will be a hallmark of field operations, and at the same time provides significant configurable flexibility at the point of service provision in the field. Through a combination of software solution implementation and professional services on the organizational and procedural aspects of field operations, the One Solution can produce measurable and repeatable benefits to virtually all utility, telecommunication and broadband cable companies who deploy large and active field service organizations.

5 Performance Proven Case Study: Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water originally deployed Ventyx Service Suite to improve customer service and operational performance. Centralizing their IT infrastructure has had tremendous positive impact on their overall business, as recognized by various awards: "Utility of the Year" in 2004, 2005, and 2006 by Utility Week, which is unprecedented and never been done before. Sponsored by Utility Week. UK Institute of Customer Service, National Customer Service" award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service "UK Utility Industry Award for Customer Service" in For the second year running, Office of Water Services (Ofwat) has judged Yorkshire Water to be the most efficient water company in the UK in all areas of its responsibility. Because of this success, and Service Suite s ability to handle more complex work in a proactive manner, Yorkshire has began a second phase of operational performance improvement, referred to as intelligent Asset Performance Management. Duncan Bennett, IT Manager, states, This phase will continue to improve operational efficiencies, streamline involvement of our partners [contractors], and help Yorkshire more effectively manage our capital investment projects, such as new meter installation.