Case Histories

Rapid and reliable maintenance reporting is easy to implement with Autopage.

FREEDOM serves the whole utilities sector and industry too, counting amongst its key clients some of the UK’s biggest electricity supply companies. Part of the service it provides is maintenance work at electricity substations nationwide, working either through franchisees or sub contractors. It has seen demand grow rapidly and now looks after in excess of 100,000 remote sites which serve half the population of the UK.

Problem

Each of Freedom’s client organisations has its own maintenance protocols and reporting systems. Efficient and cost effective service requires rapid response times, low call costs and reliable reporting of maintenance calls. According to Freedom’s Development and Implementation Director Bryan Schofield: “Previously we had no real communications system but had to wait until the operative filed a paper report, which could take days. But now with the Autopage text messaging system in place we know instantly. It really is live data.”

Solution

After evaluation, Freedom chose the Autopage for Windows text messaging and File Importer system to give live information as to where operatives are working and when they have finished the job. Since it was installed, the company has improved response times and call costs and vastly increased call traffic.

Mr Schofield explains that Freedom is monitoring between up to 500,000 visits per year. “We need to know where operatives are working and when they have finished the job. The text messaging system is ideal for this. It is reliable, easy-to-use, scaleable and appropriate to both the skills of the operative and the information they need to convey.”
Freedom is able to set up standard templates on operatives’ personal mobiles which are filled in by punching in four-digit numbers, before being texted back to base. The templates can be varied according to each client's needs.
“The system allows us to offer a bespoke service to each client company. Some simply want operatives to report they have arrived on site, others that they have attended, carried out certain works and completed the job. It is a very cost-effective way of gathering information as there is no capital outlay in kitting out operatives with equipment. They simply need a mobile and this sector of the workforce has used mobiles for years, so it is technology they understand,” Mr Schofield said.

The information comes into a central server configured by Autopage at Freedom’s Tingley office in West Yorkshire. Regional bases around the country are also networked and can access the information.

“The texts can be held in a stacking system, so the lines don’t get engaged. The system was easy to set up and it runs itself. We’re very pleased with it and it allows us to make stepped changes as contracts with clients alter.”

The company has also recently started using the system to send ‘flash calls’ out to targeted groups of workers. “When we had storm damage recently, we had to put some groups of workers on stand-by,” Mr Schofield says. “The Autopage text messaging system is ideal for this, allowing different target groups to be alerted with different messages. I can see us moving forward with this to sending a lot more messages by text.”

Autopage has been praised for ease of set up, ease of use and long term reliability As for the customer service it has received from Autopage, Mr Schofield commented: “We just don’t need to talk to Autopage because the system works!”