| | August 20209the customer to schedule the service, a dispatch system to route the order to the field technician and a mobile solution for the field technician to record the time and capture information in the field.The mobile solution will need information about the customer and meter location from the CRM and/or CIS, location information from GIS, meter information from the meter management system, new meter information from the inventory management system, and work instructions from the service management solution.The technician may need navigation capabilities to route them to the customer location, a barcode reader to identify the specific materials used on the job, and GPS to verify the install location of the new meter. Additionally, if the customer's gas had to be shutoff, then they will have additional procedures and forms to complete when performing the inspection, relight and service restoration.That's about a dozen systems involved in a single service call.The optimal solution is generally not an extension of any one system or technology, but a separate solution that talks with all of the systems. The data and capabilities must be presented to the field service technician in an efficient, integrated, and usable fashion. The mobile solution should be intuitive and process-centric. The focus of the mobile solution should be what needs to be done, where, when, for whom and what data needs to be captured when performing the service. It needs to be able to run online and offline transparently.Once the field work is complete, the data collected in the mobile system needs to be integrated to the appropriate backend systems. The CIS will need the read from the old meter, newmeter information and set read from the new meter. GIS and/or the service management system will want install location information. The service management system will want the order completion information. The data and activity may be used to populate a timesheet system.Current trends impacting mobile solutions for utilities are data privacy and cyber security. Utilities must continually ask themselves what data is required to perform this specific function in the field. Be it facility information subject to NERC CIP (North American Electric Reliability Corporation critical infrastructure protection) or customer information. Utilities have more reasons than ever to be concerned about cyber security. More potential entry points in the field mean more potential cyber risks. A sound mobile strategy for the field technician should limit field applications through a convergence of the systems and technology into a limited number of mobile applications.The fact that these requirements, needing data from multiple systems, stored in multiple databases, has been a major factor in preventing the one killer app--similar to the dozens on any smart phone--from being developed. Thus, for the foreseeable future the best mobile solution will need to allow the seamless transition from one data source to another in a way that insulates the user from the data complexity which lies underneath. Undoubtedly, aligning the technologies and business processes to provide a seamless user experience for field technicians can be a challenge. An app is not likely the answer. A comprehensive configurable mobile platform should be selected to address today's needs and future proof against tomorrow's.
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