As utilities continue to evolve, so does its workforce. Achieving success in this landscape hinges on strategic agility and ability to execute along with realizing tangible results that accept, adopt, drive, and sustain the change. As IoT gains rapid momentum and moves from hyperbole to reality, connecting field assets to improve business performance is a core requirement. IoT can facilitate preventive maintenance, anticipating failure in new ways, assisting in fixing assets before the equipment fails. “The IoT capabilities will disrupt utilities and enable them to compete based upon asset monitoring and a proactive “up-time” rather than reactive service level agreement (SLA) business model,” says Marne Martin, CEO, ServicePower. Therefore, utilities must maintain and repair legacy network infrastructure and pave the way for newer technologies, all this while operating in an environment where margins are shrinking. Collaborating across all aspects of the utilities service value chain through one underlying and connected platform, ServicePower’s connected mobile workforce management solutions maximize productivity, efficiency, and reduce the time required to complete a job.

As each field resource has unique skills, regulatory credentials and equipment, the idea of intelligent scheduling simplifies job assignment and increases the chances of customer satisfaction. ServicePower’s mobile workforce management software including ServiceScheduling uses patented artificial intelligence to select the appropriate field resource for the job. It uses a proprietary travel matrix, which includes pre-calculated, in memory data to reoptimize the schedule if required. “Our algorithms are excellent, versatile, and work across a broad variety of verticals,” says Marne. “We’ve also patented a new algorithm, Quantum Annealing, which provides even greater levels of schedule efficiency and productivity.” Smart Scheduling Broker enables utilities to intelligently dispatch either employees being optimized in ServiceScheduling or contractors being managed and dispatched in ServiceOperations, depending on market conditions, while preserving a consistent customer experience. ServiceMobility allows dispatchers to monitor schedules of field based resources, including details, navigation, parts and tasks required to be completed, while collecting real time status updates and GPS location data.