ENGAGEMENT
A major North American communications service provider faced mounting challenges in optimizing its legacy network and customer field work operations. Over time, the company’s infrastructure and operational processes had become outdated, particularly within its field service division. Technicians, who were essential for delivering both network maintenance and customer service, were bogged down by inefficient and antiquated systems. The company’s leadership recognized that its outdated processes, tools, and scheduling practices were no longer sustainable in an increasingly competitive and digital-first market environment. With a pressing need to modernize its operations and streamline technician management, the company sought a comprehensive solution to significantly improve its field operations and overall service delivery.
PROBLEM
The core problem stemmed from the company’s reliance on a labor-intensive and ineffective legacy system for routing and scheduling its field technicians. The existing processes were heavily manual, requiring supervisors to spend hours creating technician schedules, which often resulted in misaligned assignments and inefficient resource allocation. Technicians were assigned jobs based on outdated or inaccurate information, leading to unnecessary travel time and delays in service completion. This system bottleneck resulted in technicians completing an average of only five jobs per day—significantly below industry standards, which typically see upwards of seven to nine jobs per day.
In addition to operational inefficiencies, the company was contending with an oversized field workforce that was costly to maintain, especially given the shrinking margins in the communications industry. The lack of optimized scheduling tools, coupled with poor visibility into technician skills and job complexities, led to increased operational costs, high levels of customer dissatisfaction, and a general inability to scale service delivery. These inefficiencies became particularly glaring as customer expectations evolved toward faster, more reliable service. The company’s inability to address these issues with their legacy systems threatened not only their profitability but also their ability to retain customers in an increasingly competitive market.
SOLUTION
To address these challenges, the company enlisted DayBlink Consulting to conduct a comprehensive assessment and develop a solution tailored to modernize its field operations. The engagement began with an in-depth analysis of the company’s existing systems, workflows, and field operations processes. DayBlink Consulting identified significant gaps between current operations and industry best practices, particularly in the areas of job scheduling, technician routing, and workforce management. These gaps were driven by the limitations of the legacy tools and the absence of real-time data integration.
DayBlink Consulting recommended the implementation of a cutting-edge workforce management solution designed to optimize technician routing and scheduling. This new system leveraged advanced algorithms to match technicians to jobs based on real-time job requirements, technician skill sets, and geographic locations, while also integrating seamlessly into the company’s existing technology stack. This allowed the company to not only modernize its operations but also ensure that technicians could access accurate, real-time information from their mobile devices, improving their ability to execute tasks efficiently.
DayBlink Consulting played a critical role in guiding the project from vendor selection through deployment. They gathered detailed requirements from various business and technology stakeholders, mediating conflicts, and ensuring alignment between different departments. Throughout the project, DayBlink Consulting also managed key risks and maintained a close watch on project progress, ensuring that the solution met the company’s specific needs.
RESULT
The solution was deployed over a seven-week period across five regions, impacting more than 1,300 in-home and business technicians. The transition was executed smoothly and efficiently, with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. Field technicians were quickly trained and adapted to the new system, resulting in almost zero downtime during the transition. The company saw immediate benefits, with technician productivity increasing by 10% within the first two weeks. Over time, this efficiency gain stabilized at a 25% increase across the entire field workforce.
The operational efficiencies realized from this increase in productivity allowed the company to significantly reduce and repurpose its field staff, enabling the Field Operations team to achieve an annual savings of $7.5 million. Furthermore, the improved technician routing and job scheduling processes contributed to higher customer satisfaction, as service times were reduced, and issues were resolved more quickly. The successful rollout of this field service solution set a new internal benchmark for operational excellence, positioning the company for future growth and better competitive standing in the marketplace.
The modernization of the legacy systems not only addressed immediate operational challenges but also laid the foundation for future innovations, including further automation and predictive analytics, to enhance both customer service and operational efficiency.