After the software and hardware components were in place, the next step was to commit resources to training. A series of half-day week-long sessions were held with six to eight field personnel at a time. The capabilities of the notebooks and software were highlighted in this training. To support ongoing learning and use of the new solution, two people involved in implementing the project were made available to answer questions.

The most significant barrier to overcome was lack of exposure to computers, or comfort, from some of the field personnel. The choice to go with a touchscreen-enabled notebook was a good one, because some technicians had never used a computer before and weren't comfortable typing. Writing directly onto the digital work order addressed these issues.

Ultimately, time proved to be the best solution in addressing the learning curve. Within a year, each field technician vowed never to return to the previous way of operating. In one notable situation, when a back-office (computer) server went down for four days, keeping work orders from being distributed, the company reverted to the previous paper-based system. The staff was not happy, and the field technicians weren't either.

Being connected also has saved thousands of dollars due to metering fraud. Sometimes a technician will come across a site where a meter has been tampered with or power is being diverted. This activity isn't just detrimental to Austin's rate payers, it can be extremely dangerous. In these instances, under the original system, the field representative would either file a report on paper and turn it in at the end of the day or call emergency cases into dispatch. This resulted in delays that have largely disappeared with the mobile solution.

Thanks to the real-time access to data and communications made possible with the new solution, an investigator is often on-site within an hour. In one instance where a tampered meter was discovered, the investigator showed up before the field technician left. As an added bonus, the increased productivity and fast fulfillment times have resulted in dramatic increases in the amount of money this team is producing.

As a result of the software/hardware combination and the retooling of Austin Energy's business processes, work order fulfillment has increased on a daily basis for each representative. Time formerly spent sorting papers and doing other routine office work is now devoted to serving customers in the field. This has allowed a higher number of work orders to be fulfilled by a smaller staff, with less overtime and a quicker turnaround. The former seven-day turnaround time required to completely fulfill a work order has been reduced to less than 24 hours. Austin Energy is completing and closing 98% of work orders on a same-day basis.

A truly welcome development is that Austin Energy's total costs have remained flat. Despite a customer base that is constantly growing, and despite having gone from 25 field technicians to 23, the increased efficiencies have allowed operational costs to stay the same.

Ultimately, however, the field personnel benefit most. Thanks to the improved routing, wireless fulfillment of work orders, access to site histories and overall efficiency, the workday usually ends at the normal time. Overtime has been drastically reduced, and the workload is spread more evenly among all employees.

The possibilities for increased productivity and reduced costs made possible by wireless technology, and the reliability and flexibility of durable notebooks, translates into a return on investment that will constantly be improving.

And, the use of these technologies is constantly evolving. During mandatory monthly safety meetings at Austin Energy, time is now being devoted to discussing the solution and applications for new functionality.

Austin Energy is constantly looking for ways to be ready for the future. One possibility is that, when the back-office server goes down, it will be possible to mirror all the work orders of the day onto a Toughbook and distribute them from anywhere. The laptops become mini-backup systems, essentially disaster-proofing the entire process.

Mark Coffey is a business systems analyst with more than 10 years of experience in data integrity and quality control. He is an employee of Austin Energy's Customer Care unit. Mark.Coffey@austinenergy.com