Page 147 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

126 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

` less Autonomy, hIgher perFormAnCe

Mobile workforce management systems now provide the technology
that allows organizations to direct, measure, evaluate, and physically
track what every employee is doing every minute of the day.
How do you get the maximum performance out of workers in mul-
tiple locations, handling more than 250 pieces of heavy equipment? A
few years ago Keystone Excavating, a leader in its market out of Alberta,
Canada, couldn’t even handle its paperwork, like timesheets, efficiently.
It is still a leader today, however, because they now automate. Us-
ing Ranger mobile workforce technology from Mentor Engineer-
ing, Keystone now stores all data from work assignments in a central
database; dispatchers schedule new jobs in the database; and field
workers in their vehicles log in and receive job tasks and instructions
electronically. Completed work is electronically captured, so now
billing is more accurate and faster. Workers are assigned to new job
sites through their Ranger mobile computer. Now the equipment is
tracked in real time, so the company not only knows where each piece
is but also when it was used. It can even identify vehicles that were
either speeding or idling. With this system, operators get to their
jobs 20 minutes earlier than they did before, staffing requirements for
schedulers have been reduced, and the money the company invested
in mobile workforce technology has been returned in only one year.
And that doesn’t include other savings in overtime hours. Because
subcontractors are 30 percent to 40 percent of Keystone’s business,the

company hopes these companies will also automate by adding elec-
tronic devices to their vehicles. 3
Energy companies are also finding that mobile performance man-
agement systems are improving productivity. For example, Austin
Energy gave its field workers rugged Toughbooks and adopted mo-
bility software so dispatchers could issue work orders wirelessly to
technicians; they, in turn, could fulfill these orders and send them
wirelessly back to the office. Previously, 25 employees sorted manu-
ally through piles of paperwork orders every day after field workers