Mobile fieldwork control solution helps Atro technicians be more efficient

Finnish energy group Atro is using a fieldwork control solution integrated by Tieto to assist its technicians. Now, repair job management – including the final reporting stage – is carried out via mobile phones.

Atro, a provider of energy services for 105,000 customers, is also responsible for electricity transmission in its own network area. To ensure network faults are repaired in a more efficient and simple manner, the company introduced a fieldwork control solution integrated by Tieto.

 When Atro's customer service division is notified of a fault, the details are sent from the care centre system directly to the mobile phone of a technician in the field. The technician manages his work in real time, without paperwork or visits to the office.

Matti Ryhänen, Atro network manager, says: “From the customer viewpoint the service becomes both quicker and more certain – the job will remain ‘active’ in the system until the fault is repaired.”

Mobile solutions improve quality
The mobile technology for the solution is created by Tieto’s partner Navicore Oy and appropriate terminals come via the 60-series intelligent phones. Niko Mykkänen, of Nokia’s Enterprise Solutions division, which manufactures the intelligent phones, says: "Job management linked to a mobile phone enhances and improves the quality of fieldwork."

The electrical network and road map data recorded on the phone’s memory card helps the technician to find the most direct route to the job. In this way, the maps required by the fieldworkers are always available in their pocket.

Harri Saikkonen, Tieto, says: “Following the example of Atro, the hope is that specific applications of the fieldwork control system will be found for logistics professionals, telecommunications network operators and others."