Case Study
How BRUNATA-METRONA is Accelerating the Energy Transition with Route Planning from Solvares Field Service
BRUNATA-METRONA is one of the market leaders in Germany for measurement and energy services and a driver of the energy transition. Customers in the housing and real estate industries benefit from sustainable energy and building concepts, thereby increasing the attractiveness and sustainability of their properties. To cope with the large volume of orders in the installation business, BRUNATA-METRONA Hürth has introduced Route Planning from Solvares Field Service. This has enabled a 25% increase in order processing.
Enormous order volume and increasing time pressure
The group with 1,800 employees consists of three independent companies: BRUNATA-METRONA Hamburg, BRUNATA-METRONA Munich and BRUNATA-METRONA Hürth. The services range from energy cost billing to smoke detector service, energy performance certificates and electromobility, to drinking water analysis and services relating to digital measuring systems (smart metering).
The company from Hürth near Cologne handles around 100,000 installation orders per year with its 670 employees, from the installation of heat cost allocators to the replacement of smoke detectors. A Herculean task in which not only the mass of orders poses a major challenge, but also the increasing time pressure. The legal regulations on the energy transition mainly affect the heating sector. There is a lot to do here in the coming years, from replacing old equipment to advising homeowners, tenants and landlords.
It was clear to the service branches that this could no longer be achieved with the previous method of scheduling and Route Planning. What had been missing up to now was a uniform system. Instead, each service branch had its own approach, and the technicians were sometimes heavily involved in planning their own routes. The “planning tools” used: head knowledge, Google Maps and Microsoft Outlook. “We knew that we had to become more efficient. We also wanted to become more transparent and able to provide information to our customers,” says Stefan Eichenauer, Head of Service Branches. Consequently, the search for a professional and efficient solution began in 2020.
Package of Route Planning solution and field service app
The approach was “classic”, with specifications and a shortlist of three software providers. BRUNATA-METRONA ultimately chose Solvares Field Service and its VISITOUR scheduling and Route Planning solution, supplemented by the MOBILE field service app to connect the technicians. Not only did the overall package convince, but also the references. This is because the Solvares Field Service solutions are already in use at the sister company in Hamburg.
The experience of the Hamburg colleagues was naturally an advantage – both in selecting the right provider and in implementing the project. However, this does not mean that the solution was adopted one-to-one. “We exchanged ideas with our colleagues from Hamburg,” says Stefan Bessell, Referent Service Branches and responsible project manager, “but today we realize that we use it quite differently”.
The flexibility of the Solvares Field Service tools allowed
to take over some things and, on the other hand, to address the special features of the business at BRUNATA-METRONA Hürth.
Step-by-step rollout in the branches
The collaboration with Solvares Field Service started in May 2021. It was decided to roll out the system gradually, which is a good idea for an organization of this size, such as BRUNATA-METRONA Hürth with 17 branches. The pilot project took place in one of the large branches. In March 2022, the time had come and VISITOUR went live, and in the months that followed, the rollouts continued at the other locations. At the same time, the MOBILE app was introduced for the technicians, more precisely on their tablets, which they always have with them on their assignments.
Positive effects in many different areas
What has the changeover from the non-uniform, manually influenced planning to a specialized system for scheduling and Route Planning brought?
The way of planning has changed, “from ‘on foot’ to fully automatic”, as Stefan Bessell describes it. The back office now takes over the entire Scheduling, and the technicians can concentrate on their actual work on site. This alone makes them more productive. In addition, there are the effects of optimal Route Planning through the algorithm of Solvares Field Service: “Our technicians complete more orders in the same time, simply because of the intelligent chaining of orders,” says Stefan Eichenauer.
25% more orders and enormous time savings
Overall, the employees now complete around 25% more orders per day without the need for overtime. “We route our technicians from their place of residence to the first appointment and then from the last appointment back home,” explains Bessell. “They are home on time because the planning is precisely designed to comply with working hours.” This punctuality and the improved daily schedule lead to less stress and therefore to positive feedback from the technicians on the new system.
There was also an enormous time saving for the back office, which plans the appointments and routes: “Of course, I still have to intervene in VISITOUR if a customer cancels,” describes Bessell. “But I had to do that before too. If we look at the time required for Scheduling, it has decreased overall from 100% to 5%.”
BRUNATA-METRONA must always register its orders with customers in advance. This process for finding appointments has also improved. As part of the project, the registration process was also standardized. Instead of first coordinating an appointment with the customer, then carrying out the planning and then posting it in the hallway 14 days in advance, as was previously the case, the service now first carries out the planning in VISITOUR.
He then reports the appointments either by SMS or registration letter via e-mail. If a customer is unable to attend an appointment, they will contact us and VISITOUR will be used to quickly and easily reschedule.
He then reports the appointments either by SMS or registration letter via e-mail. If a customer is unable to attend an appointment, they will contact us and VISITOUR will be used to quickly and easily reschedule.
Increased ability to provide information to customers
“We can now work this way because Solvares Field Service gives us a transparency over the planned appointments that we simply didn’t have in this way before,” says Stefan Eichenauer. Today, the back office sees exactly when and where which appointment is due and is able to provide information to customers at any time, eliminating the need for queries with the technicians. The coordination between technician and back office has also improved significantly as a result of the system.
BRUNATA-METRONA and Solvares Field Service have jointly led the project to success. The Route Planning software and the field service app were successfully implemented, the processes standardized and optimized, and the employees trained and supported. After only a short time, the improved key figures from the processed order volume to the time savings in Scheduling show how great the potential of a professional solution for scheduling and Route Planning is. So it is not surprising that BRUNATA-METRONA Hürth also wants to tap into this potential in its other business areas. Eichenauer’s and Bessell’s next goal is to also plan and control the meter reading service with Solvares Field Service.
What You Can Take away from this for your Service
- Centralizing planning creates clarity and relieves technicians.
- A specialized Route Planning solution also scales with six-figure order volumes.
- Combination of Scheduling + mobile app brings efficiency gains in the back office and field service.
- The integration capability of the software is just as important as the functionalities.
- With real-time optimization, reserves are created for future business areas – such as the expansion to other services.
Industry
Products in Use
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Results
- 95% time savings in planning
- 25% more orders completed
- Consistent, transparent processes
- Reduced workload for technicians
- Optimised punctuality and ability to provide information
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