Vodafone Wireless Office.
Energex plans, designs, builds, maintains, and provides 24/7 fault response services for some of the country's largest electricity and gas networks. It's responsible for energy supplies to 1.1 million New Zealanders and has 10 offices and 350 staff across the North Island.
Download this case study
To transform a disjointed telecommunications infrastructure into one where information could flow easily among office staff and field staff, and between the company and its many customers.
A move to a Vodafone Wireless Office employing a variety of Vodafone products and solutions. This created a fundamental shift within Energex, in which communications became tightly integrated and information was able to flow freely to wherever it was needed - regardless of whether the person involved was at their desk or out in the field maintaining the
equipment that supplies energy to over one million consumers.
Vodafone Wireless Office.
Energex plans, designs, builds, maintains, and provides 24/7 fault response services for some of the country's largest electricity and gas networks. It's responsible for energy supplies to 1.1 million New Zealanders and has 10 offices and 350 staff across the North Island.
Download a PDF of this case study
Energex is in the business of building and maintaining electricity infrastructure for network companies, and distributing natural gas and LPG nationwide. In effect, it answers to 1.1 million consumers throughout New Zealand, either directly or through electricity network customers. And to its 60 field engineers who spend most of their day out of the office, sometimes on urgent maintenance and fault repairs.
For Energex the two key elements that drive customer satisfaction and productivity are:
Before Energex moved to Vodafone's Wireless Office solution callers sometimes had to leave messages and wait for replies. And for staff that were out of the office or away from their desks, this meant at times dealing with a backlog of frustrated callers when they returned. This compromised productivity, response times and even safety.
But getting answers to customers and staff was an ongoing problem. There were five main reasons:
Vodafone Account Manager, Mark Aitken, worked with Energex to enable the company's 350 staff to respond to customers and each other quickly. A priority was ensuring customers made contact with Energex on their first attempt.
The second challenge was to reduce Energex's total telecommunications spend by at least 6%. The third was to identify productivity improvements, such as eliminating downtime from field workers returning to the office to read and answer emails.
Profiling Workers
Vodafone first developed a mobility solution that reflected the multiple working styles of Energex staff - particularly variations in how often different staff are out of the office, and how far away they go. These variations call for different sets of information, devices, levels of access to networks and support. Vodafone profiled four types of workers:
Based on these profiles Vodafone and Energex determined an integrated mobile solution that not only met the company's overall needs and the day to day needs of each staff member, but also allowed greater productivity through increased contact with customers.
Total Cost of Ownership Analysis
The second step was to conduct a Total Cost of Ownership analysis to assess the costs and benefits of Wireless Office for Energex. This enabled Energex to quantify the likely returns from improved productivity and responsiveness, and the costs it could eliminate by removing redundant infrastructure.
Implementation
Energex moved to Vodafone's Wireless Office solution in 2005. “It has empowered all parties,” says David Williams. “It's uncoupled staff from their desks, allowing them to get out into the business while creating immediate contact with customers and each other because all incoming calls are sent directly to staff mobiles. Staff productivity has skyrocketed as people can continue with their jobs anywhere at any time and still take incoming calls directly.”
For a customer-driven company the size and scale of Energex, Wireless Office provides a distinct competitive advantage. “Our customers love us and the improvement in our internal and external communications is so hard to quantify that it's without measure,” says David.
Handheld devices or smartphones eliminate the need for a separate mobile, PDA and laptop - because they pack everything into a small lightweight body - drawing together some of the world's best technology in one clever, best-of-breed solution.
Handheld Business Devices provide Energex crew with information at their fingertips - a frequently updated schedule of jobs to be done, technical information, contacts for information and backup, and more. And it allows them to provide real-time updates of how jobs are progressing, and when they have been completed.
Benefits:
* subject to coverage
With Integrated talkZone people no longer need a landline and a mobile phone. They just have their mobile, connected as if on a mobile PBX. They can communicate with clients and colleagues any place, any time, on one device, whether they're in or out of the office. They can also be reached any time, any place - and instead of calling a location where you think they may be, you just call their mobile extension.
The increase in employee responsiveness and productivity, and the time saved on telephone tag, can be astonishing.
Free your people from their desks
PBX telephone systems tie you and your people to a single fixed location: the desk. Integrated talkZone cuts the cord, and sets you free. It's a simple mobile solution with added network-based functionality that lets people manage their telecommunications from a single mobile device.
If you have a mix of mobile and fixed workers, Integrated talkZone can integrate with your existing PBX telephone system, giving you the best of both worlds: mobile workers replace their landlines with an Integrated talkZone extension, while fixed location workers stay with traditional desk extensions.
How it works
The Integrated talkZone involves installing a dedicated Primary Rate ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) link, also known as an ITZ link (Integrated Talk Zone link) between the PBX and the Vodafone Mobile Switching Centre (MSC). This arrangement facilitates a free calling Talk Zone between all company mobiles and desk phones, allowing the following call types to be tariffed at no cost, 0c per minute in the calling group:
Integrated talkZone has enabled Energex to not only reduce phone costs, it's also improved internal communications, increased productivity and allowed greater customer responsiveness
VMC is a wireless PC card that connects to your laptop, so there's no need to connect your modem to the nearest phone line to get online. Vodafone Mobile Connect is all about lifting productivity by giving you access to the information you need, wherever and whenever you need it.
Within New Zealand, VMC, powered by 3G, can use both our new 3G broadband and our 3G and GPRS networks, and can switch between the three seamlessly.
Fast data speeds
Vodafone 3G provides businesses with fast data speeds - up to 3.2 Mbps in coverage areas. That's over 50 times faster than dial-up and about eight times faster than current 3G speeds. With faster speed, businesses can complete many tasks more quickly, such as downloading emails, browsing the internet and accessing business applications such as CRM systems, stock ordering systems, databases, shared files and folders, sales brochures and so on. With VMC and the speed of Vodafone 3G Broadband you can:
VMC is just one of many laptop connectivity options. We have a range of devices that support laptop connectivity.
Here, there and everywhere
Internationally, VMC can be used wherever Vodafone has data roaming agreements. That's currently 30 countries, including the most popular destinations like Australia, the USA, the UK, Hong Kong and Japan. This is because Vodafone uses GSM, the most popular standard for mobile services in the world.
Managing Director, Brendon Murphy, uses VMC technology frequently as he is often away from the office - and regularly overseas. It helps him keep on top of his daily tasks, manage appointments, and exchange important information with Head Office.
Mobile Mentor ™Many people simply don't have the time to get to grips with all the functionality of their mobile phone or data device, not to mention the added services that are available. Consequently, they often don't get maximum benefit from their new device.
That's where Mobile Mentor comes in. A Mobile Mentor can show you how to make the most of your mobile technology, on site, at your premises. So you don't have to read bulky manuals, and you get full value from your device right away.
Mobile Mentor is available in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
