Walsh provided fulfillment, logistics, and the needed project management to successfully deploy Xora for AC Square.
Background
AC Square provides installation and repair services to the cable, satellite, and wireless industries, with customers including Comcast, AT&T, RCN, Time Warner, Century Cable, and Media One. Based in Burlingame, California, AC Square employs approximately 180 field technicians and office personnel, and earns revenue in excess of several million dollars annually.
Challenges
The very competitive nature of the telecommunications business mandates that AC Square regularly explore new ways of differentiating itself. The company began looking into the use of advanced GPS, wireless and application software technology for directing field operations. The goal was to better understand where and how technicians were spending their time, in order to optimize it.
Solution
AC Square began using the mobile phone-based workforce management solution from Xora, Inc. in 2003 to automate the process by which dispatchers and operations managers kept track of field technicians. Thus far, the Xora service has enabled the company to improve customer service, lower operating costs, and increase revenue.
Using the Xora service is as simple as turning on a cell phone. Field technicians carry their normal Sprint Nextel® phones, which are equipped with the workforce management software program and a GPS chip. Satellites pick up data from the GPS chip, including the precise location of technicians, how fast they're traveling, and how long they've been stopped at a job. This data is transmitted wirelessly from the phones to Xora servers, which can be accessed over the Web in the form of maps and business reports. The entire process happens in real time, providing up-to-the minute details of field activities. Currently more than 100 AC Square field technicians carry cell phones equipped with the Xora solution.
Customer service has been greatly improved. Dispatchers can now provide customers a narrower time window of when they expect a technician to arrive, often less than 45 minutes when it used to be up to two hours. They use the maps and reports to estimate how long it will take a technician to complete a current assignment and get to the next one, and customers are updated accordingly. The system also helps AC Square respond to unscheduled customer calls. Previously, dispatchers would call multiple technicians to assess their locations and availability. Now, they simply check the web maps to identify the nearest technician that is best-equipped for the new assignment. This way, the correct tech is sent to the job the first time. Xora's advanced dispatching enables dispatchers to route technicians without having to access a separate routing application.
To track its valuable assets, AC Square has affixed GPS-enabled "black boxes" running the Xora service to construction equipment, such as air compressors and generators, as well as to 45 trucks. When the equipment is in use, the boxes are sending a location signal to the satellite, which office staff can check via the Xora maps. If any equipment turns up missing, AC Square can easily determine its last location.
Since deploying the Xora system, AC Square has realized quantifiable business benefits that include an estimated $1,000,000 in increased annual revenue, thanks to improved field management that enables each technician to perform one additional job per week. Likely future benefits include a 10 percent reduction in miles traveled by technicians due to optimized dispatching, the availability of driving directions, and limiting unnecessary trips, resulting in savings of $192,000.
"The dynamic nature of our business calls for a system that is flexible and rich with features that enhance visibility into and productivity of field operations," said Andrew Bahmanyar, managing director at AC Square. "Thus far, Xora has generated substantial new business for the company, while indicating the potential to reduce costs in several areas. Very clearly our decision to implement Xora has paid huge dividends for AC Square and its customers."
