Case Study
Cogas strengthens customer connections with dynamic field planning and works 20% more efficiently
The Company
Cogas is a regional Dutch network operator responsible for the development, construction, management, and maintenance of energy networks, playing a crucial role in connecting residential and commercial customers with their energy suppliers. This makes Cogas responsible for the safe and reliable transport of electricity and gas to over 145,000 households.
The company views its work as “of great social importance” and is committed to fulfilling its responsibilities with maximum openness and transparency. This includes ongoing projects to increase affordability and sustainability. Safety for customers and field service employees is a core value in all these improvement initiatives.
Complex scheduling task required new system
Like many utility service providers, Cogas faces a complex scheduling task. Organizing a mix of long-term and short-term assignments is particularly challenging—some spanning multiple days and requiring coordination between multiple field service personnel, others requiring immediate action.
Previously, the company used a maintenance system for scheduling. This system did not offer the necessary dynamic flexibility to handle different job types, especially not for disruption and emergency assignments.
To solve these challenges, Cogas sought an intelligent scheduling solution for 60 field service employees that optimizes efficiency, improves response times, and supports automatic job assignment in real time.
The project: enabling intraday responses and cyclical jobs
The processes at Cogas around maintenance and management, projects and services are similar to those of many organizations in the utility industry: they are based on a combination of cyclical tasks.
Scheduling assignments over multiple days and with multiple employees was already a daily challenge in itself. When emergency assignments are added (with response times sometimes within one hour), the complexity of efficient field service management increases further.
Cogas sought a tool for field planning including an integrated field service app that increases productivity and efficiency while balancing job types and assignment durations. The required outcomes included shortened response and resolution times for various SLA tasks.
Previously much manual effort
In the previous workflow, manual steps were necessary to ensure that a short-notice incoming job was actually taken on by the right person and started within the agreed time. Additionally, it was crucial that the head office and internal service staff have shared access to a real-time overview of field service activities.
It was also important for field service employees to experience new transparency, including all the information they need to perform their work, to report accurate time data, and to have the ability to create a follow-up job on-site without requiring a planner’s intervention:
Decision for Field Scheduling Software from Solvares Field Service
Accordingly, the search for a professional, scalable solution began in early 2016. Requirements and specifications were presented to a shortlist of field planning vendors.
The project team, consisting of employees from various levels at Cogas, was unanimous in the decision for Solvares Field Service and the scheduling and route optimization solution VISITOUR, complemented by the field service app MOBILE FLOW for a live connection between field service and the head office:
“VISITOUR and MOBILE FLOW fulfilled all the functions we wanted—as standard,” says Ivo Schreven, Team Leader Maintenance & Gas Management at Cogas.
Not only did the overall package convince, but also case studies and reference conversations.
“This was particularly evident in the correct response to the tender, the immediately usable standard functions of the software, and the quick feedback from consultants on open questions,” van Brouwershaven continues.
“Furthermore, it was clearly recognizable how strongly the software supports all processes as standard and how simple the user interface is. During our reference visits, we were impressed by the experiences with the software.”
The algorithm ensures maximum performance
At the core of the solution is the configurable POWEROPT algorithm, which makes it easy to find the right balance in the “field service dilemma” of employee satisfaction, customer experience, and lean processes.
The POWEROPT algorithm was specifically developed for organizations that face dynamic challenges in day-to-day operations. The domino effect ensures that productivity potential and resource capacity are fully and continuously utilized—by optimally exploiting team capacity within defined constraints.
Continuous optimization of assignments
The integration of the POWEROPT algorithm between the asset management system, field planning with VISITOUR and MOBILE FLOW creates consistency and perfect coordination possibilities: feedback on remaining work hours from the field enables continuous optimization of pending assignments.
The cascade effect of the application immediately redistributes available capacity among scheduled employees, so that ad-hoc jobs, SLAs, and general maintenance jobs can be completed on the same day.
Deep Dive: The Field Service App MOBILE FLOW
MOBILE FLOW is a versatile field service app that increases on-site efficiency and customer satisfaction. As a digital companion, it replaces paper processes, facilitates seamless communication between field service and back office, and enables fast, efficient job processing.
A key feature of MOBILE FLOW is the integration with VISITOUR, which enables dynamic field planning and route optimization in real time. This ensures that field service teams always have up-to-date information and can respond flexibly to changes and short-term requirements, increasing service productivity.
The app supports various mobile devices and operating systems, creating flexibility in hardware investments. It also offers offline functionality, so that Cogas field service can access information and make updates even in areas with limited internet connectivity.
By digitalizing service processes and workflows, MOBILE FLOW improves communication between scheduling, control center, field service teams, and customers. This leads to higher efficiency, higher first-time fix rates, and better punctuality through predictive analytics.
Cost savings and higher customer satisfaction
Cogas started with the integrated app based on a template specifically developed for utility companies. The app was then configured to support Cogas’s specific field service workflows—with integrated real-time data access and efficient communication functions.
This led to cost savings and higher customer satisfaction. Another advantage: field service employees need to start their laptops less frequently to update the asset maintenance system. This now happens directly on their tablets in MOBILE FLOW.
The field service app also offers numerous functions for optimizing field service, including GPS tracking, digital forms, electronic signatures, and photo documentation, thus improving overall service quality.
Assessment after ten years in operation
After nearly ten years of using VISITOUR and MOBILE FLOW, Tim Grimberg, Senior Process Specialist and Functional Administrator at Cogas, describes the organizational changes that real-time optimization with Solvares Field Service has contributed to:
“VISITOUR performs well. It is very stable, and the support is very good. Faster arrival on-site is a major advantage, especially as new SLAs have been defined and mapped in the system, for example ‘new media connections,’ which must be completed within four days.” And further:
“For this purpose, our job types and skills were restructured. We also changed our options for job completion, so that each job type now reflects a limited number of completion types, for improved reporting. This transparency in turn reduces the risk of penalty payments.”
What You Can Take away from this for your Service
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Results
- 20% efficiency increase with stable scheduling processes and precise travel times
- Intelligent job assignment: the right qualified specialist for the appropriate assignment
- Maintenance inspections for gas and electricity are now well organized and follow a six-month cycle
- Real-time control of responses to improve SLA compliance
- Faster response times have increased customer satisfaction and improved safety
- Optimized management of job types for efficient administration of completed jobs
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