As a company specialising in the installation, maintenance and replacement of gas and water meters as well as house service regulators, this is a task which GasGe, one of the industry’s most experienced service providers, has prepared for early on. Even in the 1990s, the company had overseen the conversion of city gas to natural gas.
However, just like the specified timetable, the large amount of the devices that must be surveyed and adjusted – some of which are older than 30 years – poses a challenge for everyone involved, from network operators to manufacturers, service providers to customers. This is compounded by the requirements for the technical skills of the installers, which must be verified, as well as the documentation and evaluations that are specified by the German Association for Gas and Water Applications (DVGW). At GasGe, this quickly resulted in the conclusion that a custom-fit, scalable IT solution was required for all the tasks, namely the processing of high volumes of orders for the gas device survey, adjustment and quality control.
This is exactly the solution provided by T-Systems MMS, for which a standard workforce management solution was gradually configured to meet the industry requirements and the necessary additional applications were developed.
T-Systems MMS has implemented its portfolio of WFM solutions in various markets and industries for over ten years. The development of a customised solution for marketplace conversion started in 2014 and has been used with a mobile connection at GasGe since 2017. The solution is multi-client capable and operated in the Microsoft Azure Germany cloud as software as a service, comprising the following components:
►For installers, the mobile client is the direct connection between the central planning office and their individual work locations, the private households. It helps them plan and process the order with data compilation and adjustments. Review and adjustment tasks are captured intuitively in electronic forms on the tablet and, where appropriate, supplemented with local photos to document the condition. Customised workflows and plausibility checks also support the installers as they work on site. An important feature is the mobile client’s offline capability, since the inspected gas equipment is often located out of wireless range.
►Automatic Bluetooth transmission of readings of peripherical devices - for example to measure exhaust gas. Manufacturer-specific apps and protocols were integrated for each workflow so that installers can receive the results of their measuring processes in the electronic order form without further operations.
►A connection to the gas equipment database from the DVGW, which can be used to access all information, such as technical specifications about operating modes, setting parameters, order numbers for new gas nozzles or adjustability. If new gas devices are found that are not on file yet, existing information (manufacturer, type plate, etc.) can be sent to the DVGW via a defined interface for follow-up registration. This central database currently has over 16,000 entries.
►Through the integration of the mobile solution into the central planning portal and infrastructure of GasGe, the orders for the specific consumer sites are assigned to the installers and, after the execution message, encrypted with the compiled data and returned via auto-push.
Thanks to the continuous data exchange between the three key elements of the solution, GasGe always has an overview of the current status and progress of the work at the consumer sites.
Gasanlagenservice Gelsenkirchen GmbH (or GasGe) is a specialised service partner for energy supply companies. The company’s range of services includes, among others, the conversion and adjustment of gas equipment, the cyclical replacement of gas and water meters, inspections of house service regulators for gas, replacements of house service regulators for gas, technical services for manufacturers of gas equipment and inspections of interior parts of gas and water lines in buildings. For its customers, GasGe also handles installation tasks on gas lines as part of a conversion from counter meters to house service regulators.
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