Case Eltel - Manage the enterprise resource planning with Waplane

Highlights

Existing ERP system to mobile use with Waplane
Field service highly improved and processes streamlined
The data integrity was increased significantly

Background

Eltel Networks is a company specializing in design, construction, and maintenance of electrical and telecommunications networks.Eltel Networks mainly supplies parts or complete products for the construction of power transmission and telecommunications networks, mobile support stations, antennae, for the electrification of railways, and also consultation.

Eltel Networks employs approximately 2300 people of which 940 are in Finland, 250 in Sweden, 680 in Norway, 60 in Russia, and 290 in Poland. In addition Eltel Networks has associated companies which employ 230 in Finland and 600 in Estonia. There are also personnel employed in Eltel projects outside the Nordic countries.

The need

Eltel had a specific need for a mobile ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that would be on-line with the reporting and workforce assignments. Most of Eltel’s employees work on the field and updated information about open tasks and available resources was not flexibly accessible. When a new task was reported, it was time-consuming to locate available service engineers near-at-hand to the task. Eltel was also unable to offer their customers reports on how and when the ordered job was done.

Thus, Eltel needed to rationalize the ordering and administration system of their repair and construction tasks. They wanted to get rid of the paper work that was scattered to different offices making it very difficult to stay up-to-date with open and finished jobs. Eltel had an idea of a mobile interface to all repairs and construction tasks, which would considerably ease supervision and also improve the efficiency of the field engineers’ work – they would not be dependent on paper documentation anymore and could be assigned new tasks even while on the road.

The solution

Sofor brought Eltel’s ERP into a web user interface through IBM/Lotus’ Domino database. Sofor’s Waplane was then used to extend the use of the ERP to field engineers’ mobile devices.

The project took 40 days, of which the mobilization took approximately 10 days.

Now, Eltel’s service engineers use their mobile devices to browse and report tasks. At logon all open tasks in the region will be displayed, and the field service manager/engineer can look up available engineers in the neighbourhood to assign the task. Once an engineer is selected from the list and assigned to a task, their name is removed from the list. While at work, the field engineer can report the stages of the task with their mobile phone.

Benefits

Before mobilization, Eltel’s field service process was very complicated and took time: the field service manager gave print-outs of tasks to the field service engineers in the office who then went out on to the field to fix the problem. When the work was done, the engineer wrote down a report and office personnel then entered the report into the ERP system – a pile of paper reports and unnecessary office work in between.

Today, thanks to Sofor’s Waplane, the field service engineers sign for their tasks and report the job status in their mobile devices in real-time. Also, because law requires that the different stages of the tasks are recorded, there is an automated agent that logs task acceptance, start of task, pausing work for related more critical task, finishing the task, etc. And, since Eltel sells this service to electrical companies, their customers can now track down job status on line and better serve their clients when estimating when the problem will be fixed.

The field service engineers travel extensively, and reporting company car usage is also now much easier. Earlier, they had to write down the kilometreage at departure and arrival and then re-write it to the ERP system when back in the office. Now, the field engineer logs on to the system and enters the kilometreage when they leave and then again when they return the car. The information is directly stored in the ERP system – no need to re-write anything. The management can track the kilometreage virtually real-time, which makes it easier to plan car usage and services.

Technology

ERP system: Visio
Web and Mobile backend: IBM/Lotus’ Domino with Waplane
WAG gateway: Uses various telecom operators’ gateways as needed.
Integration interface: XML

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