There’s no doubt that COVID-19 created a seismic shift in how businesses in all industries operate but also how they plan for widespread and debilitating emergencies. Yet, for utility companies, c For example, data from the National Interagency Fire Center shows an average of approximately 70,000 wildfires per year—wildfires that often cause destruction and utility outages.
It’s the combination of COVID-19 and extreme weather events like wildfires that have more and more utilities going digital for help, with many of those utilities trusting EnSight+ for their field service software. Here’s a quick look at how using the solution from EnSight+ can help a utility handle immediate emergencies and plan for future difficulties.
It’s cliché to say, but time really is of the essence in the event of an emergency. Emergency personnel handles the crisis side of these events, while technicians repair damaged equipment in the aftermath. With EnSight+, dispatchers can see technicians’ locations in real-time.
By quickly scanning for location, back-office personnel can make contact with the technicians closest to the emergency and dispatch them immediately.
Utility employees were deemed essential in the early days of the pandemic and many people were forced to miss work due to contracting the virus or exposure to infected persons. As a result, some utility companies found themselves scrambling and rescheduling jobs to make up for those absences.
But EnSight+ offers unique visualization capabilities that allow utility leadership to have customized calendar views of employees’ schedules. If an employee must miss work for multiple days, it’s simple to see scheduling gaps and plan accordingly. The software aligns employees with the right skills and available hours, eliminating the risk of assigning untrained or overtired employees to a job.
One of the more significant problems that occur during natural disasters is fallen trees or utility poles. In many cases, the reason those things fall is that they are either dead or rotting. It’s hard to keep track of utility pole status with paper-based maintenance schedules. If utilities want to stay current with preventive maintenance and routine inspections, they need automated software like EnSight+.
Our solution allows you to set recurring work orders and maintenance requests. It will assign your most capable technicians to trim back brush that’s likely to spark during a fire. It can also help identify weakened poles based on historical maintenance records and relevant data such as current weather patterns.
We’ve already talked about how EnSight+ can help you dispatch the technician closest to an emergency. But what about assigning the right one? Through customization, utility leadership can add profiles for each technician with their skill set and licenses. These fields can also house information related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccination status.
In an emergency and for day-to-day operations, field service software from EnSight+ is a crucial tool to have on your side. The software is fully customizable and ready to launch to any utility’s tailored specifications. To learn how we can help your utility be better equipped to seamlessly navigate emergencies, book your demo today.
All monitored by you, in real time. Are you ready to take control?