The digital revolution is coming to the power and utility industry. IoT, digital customer journeys, renewables, smart grids, and more demand new online capabilities and are triggering new business models. Utilities must be prepared to reinvent themselves by:
Providing transparency for customers and end-to-end digital journeys. Outstanding customer experiences will help grow customer lifetime value. Tailor field experiences to the customer need and preferences by making relevant information on customer persona, available service offerings, and on-going campaigns accessible across the customer journey. Enable customers to receive comprehensive job information, self-schedule, and communicate with the service provider.
Improving work and resource scheduling. Inadequate planning and scheduling lead to unnecessary downtime and scheduling gaps. Instead of increasing field workforce size, it is important to map the workforce appropriately to the right type of work. Mapping the right skills to the right job will increase productivity, consistency, and control over work. Scheduling the right resources will increase utilization and reduce downtime.
Improving service responsiveness. Baby boomers are retiring and skilled craft workers are in short supply. In addition, seasons or weather can cause an increase in demand, further challenging workforces. Using contractors in addition to employed field workers allows utilities to fill gaps and scale quickly to meet demand. Deploying a blended workforce enables P&U organizations to become genuinely agile and ready for an uncertain future.
Reducing risk while improving job status and visibility. A majority of field workers/technicians are always on the move and highly distributed because assets are geographically dispersed and labor-intensive to track and maintain. Leveraging a mobile app with built-in tracking and built-in task management to keep track of their location, tasks, and progress reduces risk and increases visibility. Mobile apps also eliminate dependence on paper-based approaches and manual routing of information to reduce unnecessary errors, inefficiency, and costs.
