Workforce mobility is becoming increasingly important for organisations – not just in terms of enhancing employee flexibility but also for improving efficiency and cost control.

Advances in wireless technology mean that staff can now access corporate data and applications from their home, while travelling or visiting customers. For companies with large field-based workforces, this presents them with a massive opportunity to optimise their business processes and customer services.

ntl was quick to recognise the potential of wireless technology, and has rolled out a pioneering workforce management solution that enables it to seamlessly and continuously communicate with its engineers in the field.

Thanks to the solution, which was rolled out with the help of Computacenter, ntl has not only improved the efficiency of its engineers by a significant percentage, but also reduced overheads and improved customer services.

As the UK’s largest cable company, ntl delivers a range of services to its three million plus customers. These services include telephone, digital television and Internet access for home users, plus data and voice products for business customers. ntl has also built-up its broadband business to such an extent that it is now the largest provider in the UK, with more than a million broadband Internet customers.

The company’s services are delivered and supported by its 13,000-plus employees, who are based across the UK. Although most of ntl’s staff rarely have any face-to-face contact with customers, its engineering field force is one critical exception. As Phil Pavitt, CIO of ntl, explains: “Our engineers are the customer face of ntl, and it is very important that we get this relationship and interface right. If a customer has a bad experience with an engineer, then it impacts their perception of the company as a whole.”

ntl recognised that its existing job allocation processes for its 2,000-plus engineers were not only putting the customer experience at risk but were also inefficient and costly. As Phil explains: “We had both automated and manual processes in place, where engineers would either receive jobs via their home PCs or phone up to be given their first calls for the day. These processes were not always successful, especially when we needed to slot in an urgent job, for example for a business customer with a five-hour fix agreement. Overheads were also expensive – both for us and our customers in terms of their frustration if there was a missed appointment or an engineer failed to turn up on time.”

IT working in harmony

To help address these problems and improve its customers’ experience, ntl decided to embark on a pioneering IT project that would radically change the way its engineers worked. This, however, was not the only driver behind the implementation of the new workforce management solution - ntl was also embarking on a complete overhaul of its customer-facing systems. “As a result of numerous acquisitions over the years, we have inherited a range of different systems for customer activities, such as billing, credit control, and installations,” comments Phil. “Under the ‘Harmony’ umbrella, we are integrating and consolidating all our customer-focused backend systems into a single platform, which will help us achieve our objective of making the company more customer-centric.”

Designing and implementing the new workforce management solution was a massive undertaking - some of which ntl opted to share with one of its existing IT partners, Computacenter. “We needed a partner that could help deploy and manage the infrastructure required to underpin the application, and also advise on the wireless components of the project,” comments Phil. Computacenter started by holding a series of workshops to scope out an infrastructure that would meet ntl’s business and technology objectives. The joint project team eventually settled on a clustered Sun server architecture with a NAS-based storage solution, which is hosted by Computacenter as part of its managed availability service. The infrastructure is monitored 24x7 at Computacenter’s dedicated Service Operations Centre to guarantee 99.95% availability of the application to ntl’s engineers.

The engineers access the application via ruggedised Fujitsu laptops, which are configured and equipped with wireless connectivity by Computacenter. As Greg Coleman, Senior Project Manager at Computacenter, explains: “The laptops leave us ready for the engineers to start work immediately. Each laptop is imaged with a standard build plus the workforce management application, and is fitted with an Orange GPRS data card, which allows the engineers’ to always be online and available regardless of their location.” Thanks to this wireless connectivity, ntl’s engineers are not only able to receive real-time updates from the call centre and other areas of the business, but can also initiate billing from their laptops and file their notes after each appointment.

High risk – high reward

This was the first wireless initiative that ntl had embarked on for field workers, and its success was imperative. “If the project was unsuccessful it would have been a major failure for the business as a whole, and would have set back our customer-centric strategy,” adds Phil. As a result, ntl and Computacenter carried out extensive testing to ensure that the new application, which was developed by Vidus (formerly APSolve), was fully compatible with the back-end infrastructure and laptops. “This was a very avant garde and high-risk project,” comments Phil. “We had to make sure the application and wireless connectivity worked regardless of whether an engineer was in a basement flat or a very rural location.” In addition to testing the availability of the application, ntl also needed to be sure of its scalability. In the first quarter of 2004, ntl handled 60,000 installations alone plus a further 20,000 fixes.

Despite the high risks and technical challenges of the project, the solution has been a great success and has provided ntl with a range of business and value benefits, as Phil confirms: “There are less wasted visits, and we have been able to increase the daily number of visits made by engineers to such an extent that we can now complete more calls with the same resources.” There have also been knock-on benefits for customers – and the engineers themselves. “We can now give customers greater choice when booking appointments, and are able to match engineers’ skill sets according to the nature of each call and help them develop their expertise.” The project has also helped ntl to reduce its costs: “Our overheads and management costs are much more in line with what we wanted,” adds Phil.

Foundations for the future

Thanks to these successes, Phil has hopes for the future of the solution, which was first rolled out in October 2003 and is now being used by more than 500 engineers. “Following the success within the residential business division, we would like to extend the solution to our broadcast and business engineering forces. There is also potential to expand the functionality to enable engineers to showcase new products, and even activate services in real-time rather than customers having to wait.” He adds: “The solution could also be tailored for our sales team to enable them to place orders online and book installation dates while visiting customers. The possibilities are immense, and we are very much at the base camp rather than the mountain summit.”

Computacenter is also part of this future vision, as Phil explains: “We are impressed with the culture and ‘can-do’ attitude of Computacenter, which like ntl, is a very customer-focused company. We see the relationship continuing to grow, and were pleased with Computacenter’s work on this project. It helped to manage a number of third parties, and took a lot of worry off our hands.” He adds: “This project really stretched the knowledge of both Computacenter and ntl, but it has enabled us to take a massive leap in the way we manage our engineering field force, which will benefit the business as a whole for years to come.”

 

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