E.ON, Hungary's Largest Utility, Awards £4 Million Workforce Automation Contract to a.p.solve
E.ON Hungary, a new breed of 'Multi-Utility', to reduce costs significantly while achieving 30% productivity gains and setting new standards for customer service delivery
12 December 2003 - E.ON Hungaria Rt. (EHU,) a member of the E.ON Group, is one of the leading Energy utilities in the emerging Central European countries providing Electricity and Gas on a substantial scale to approximately 2.6 million consumers. Born out of the demand to redefine the customer service experience and responding to the growing pressure from regulatory bodies, EHU has refocused from infrastructure provision towards customer service.
Following a long and competitive selection process, EHU today announced a £4 Million deal with a.p.solve to implement its TASKFORCE intelligent field workforce automation solution through is:energy Hungary, its independent Hungarian IT service supplier. EHU selected TASKFORCE to manage its 1,500 field engineers, across 768 teams [previously managed by four separate organisations] as it was the only solution capable of enabling EHU to achieve the regulatory requirements of two-hour appointment windows for its consumers and meeting the regulator's demand for a reduction of price to the consumer. EHU also predicts a 30% productivity gain and a 5% reduction in overall operational cost. With such high complexity of operation and on such a large scale, it is only with full automation using a.p.solve's TASKFORCE that these criteria could be met.
An expansion to other members of the E.ON Group with approximately 30,000 field engineers in total is envisioned. Going live this year, TASKFORCE will enable E.HU to automate, in real time, the coordination, synchronisation and scheduling of its Hungarian teams of field engineers, including processes, Service Level Agreements (SLA's) and tasks, that will significantly reduce its costs while improving the quality of service available to its customers.
"The existing solutions designed to manage EHU's based field engineers needed further development to face increasing and more complex customer demands. TASKFORCE was the best solution we evaluated that would enable EHU to not only bring its disparate engineering teams under one centrally managed, automated, operational control, but was also capable of managing the changing and unexpected dynamics of the working day. This unique offering will provide a lower cost base and a tangible return on investment, creating a self funding project." said Josef Guggenhuber, Managing Director of is:energy Hungary. Utilising TASKFORCE, EHU will seamlessly integrate the entire customer service process from the point of the customer enquiry into the call centre, through to the field engineer servicing the call and back again to the head office. TASKFORCE will automatically take into account typical daily occurrences, such as emergencies, whilst ensuring SLA commitments to customers are met, penalties are minimised and resources are used to the maximum.
As a direct demand from the Hungarian Government to meet two-hour appointment windows by January 1st, 2004, EHU will also be using TASKFORCE Intelligent Appointer to provide real-time visibility of the availability and cost of getting an engineer to the customer. This enables an informed, two-way dialogue between the customer and the client, to find a time that keeps the customer satisfied, and at a known and controllable impact to the business whilst meeting its regulatory requirement.
TASKFORCE thinks for itself and learns as it performs, removing the traditional need for manual intervention from controlling staff, enabling the systems to do what they do best -- make continuous, but calculated decisions in situations where the sheer number of variables would outpace even the best planning minds. "a.p.solve is a proven solution that meets our requirement for a real time field force management system that dynamically manages a complex mix of tasks and dependencies. a.p.solve also provide a fast and seamless integration to our existing enterprise software system, SAP. This ability to redefine our business is an exciting one," said Dr. Manfred Heiszler, Member of the Board, EHU
Mark Horne, CEO of a.p.solve says "Having to consistently and effectively deliver against narrow appointment windows in an organisation now offering multiple services, presents a layer of complexity that makes conventional solutions inappropriate."
He continues, "E.ON's selection of TASKFORCE further validates our ability to deliver cost savings and considerable ROI to leading Utilities organisations as we are currently demonstrating in the telecommunications space. TASKFORCE offers the most comprehensive and scalable solution available today to manage the many uncertainties that daily life brings, including the specific narrow Service Level Agreements demanded by EHU's customers. TASKFORCE was created to meet the needs of the world's largest service organisations."
About a.p.solve
a.p.solve's mission is to transform the way corporations with mobile workforces operate, reducing cost and achieving operational efficiencies while empowering the organisation to deliver superior customer service.
Based in Ipswich, UK, a.p.solve develops, markets, sells and supports TASKFORCE, a pioneering intelligent field workforce automation solution, aimed at organisations with mobile workforces of 200-plus engineers. Focusing on companies operating in the telecommunications, cable and utility service industries, TASKFORCE today manages tens of thousands of mobile workers, allowing large organisations to provide a rapid, same-day response, at a significantly reduced cost.
Developed at a cost of more than £100 million and 1000 man years of effort, TASKFORCE uses inbound, real-time information to drive the mobile workers' daily activity. Patented artificial-intelligence-based technologies dynamically and automatically deal with a complex mix of planned, reactive and demand-driven work orders, optimising the co-ordination of each job's location with the skills of the mobile workforce.
a.p.solve works with a broad range of global partners to deliver the proven competitive advantage to the world's best service companies.
Media Contact:
Sallyanne Wright
a.p.solve
Tel: +44 (0)1473 696 300
Email: sallyanne.wright@apsolve.com
www.apsolve.com
Jo Timmins/Anthony Dalton
The itpr Partnership
www.itpr.co.uk
Email: anthonyd@itpr.co.uk
Tel.+44 (0)1932 578 800
