Northfork Electric Cooperative (NFEC) in Oklahoma has chosen to use Powel-MiniMax’s StakeOut software to automate its field design and work order process.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the extent of the benefits that a small utility like us could gain from using StakeOut,” said Richard Bowdre, director of operations at NFEC. “We’ve found that StakeOut will pay for itself in two years with just two people staking.”
NFEC is a small cooperative in western Oklahoma, serving about 2700 members. Given the size of the utility, Bowdre said that one of the main challenges facing NFEC was handling redundant process steps using just a few employees. Bowdre explained that field designers would often create a layout, only to have customers prefer a different arrangement. To create a new layout and estimate, designers had to redraw the map, return to the office to make a new estimate, and then go back to the customer for approval. Bowdre commented that the Cooperative looked to automation as a way to increase the efficiency of its small workforce.
NFEC plans on integrating StakeOut with its existing Daffron, Milsoft, and ESRI systems.
“One of the best aspects about StakeOut is the time savings it brings,” said Bowdre. “Field designers no longer have to run back and forth to the office whenever they need to create a new estimate. With StakeOut, they can provide on-site estimates, providing our customers with more options – more efficiently.” StakeOut automates the entire work order process from job initiation to close-out. It synchronizes field-to-office data, which reduces paper work and redundant data entry.
