Automatically knowing who’s closest to the customer
By Jim Wolfe and Michael Smith, NiSource
During normal business hours, the Columbia Gas companies of NiSource rely on a mobile data solution for job scheduling and dispatching work. But after the normal business day ends, the utility employs a cloud-based automated callout process to locate responders and crews available to work in an emergency. Columbia Gas defines its automated callout software as a “Tier Zero” system, which is a business-critical technology. Tier Zero systems must be among the most reliable and dependable platforms because they have an impact on safety and customers.
In October 2011, the Columbia Gas companies automated their manual callout process. The manual process had dispatchers pouring over lists to reach available workers for after-hours events. Before 2011, the order of callouts, as is the case with most utilities, was based on a combination of things, including overtime hours and a worker’s seniority.
With a manual callout process, dispatchers might, on average, find an available technician 40 percent of the time after the first call. In the other 60 percent of cases, a dispatcher might call three more people for each event, at two minutes per call, to find one technician available to work. With the fully automated callout approach, a dispatcher gets a response immediately after engaging the system; this saves an additional four to six minutes, which can get a responder to the scene faster or enable a responder further away to arrive within a specific window of time.
Approximately 1,600 employees, including meter technicians, pipefitters, service technicians, operators, welders and others qualified to respond to a gas emergency, are accessible after hours via the automated callout system. Columbia Gas of Kentucky, one of the first NiSource companies to roll out the automated callout software, says it saw its after-hours callout response time drop immediately. After the initial implementation, the Columbia Gas companies expanded the use of the automated callout system across 24 of its operating areas.
Finding the closest responder
As the Columbia Gas companies used the automated callout system, managers wanted to map the location of available technicians relative to a customer in need. The technician’s drive-time to the emergency scene was rarely taken into account when deciding whom to call. Simply mapping the distance as “the crow flies” wouldn’t truly help dispatchers or responders determine the closest resource available. So the Columbia Gas companies worked with ARCOS® LLC, the provider of its automated callout solution, to develop a feature for calculating driving time and distances.
The proximity feature, called CTT by Columbia Gas, automatically orders the technician call list based on how close workers are to an emergency. Dispatchers can now input an address, see a map of the closest available technicians, and press a button to have the system begin making calls. The fundamental benefit of CTT is reducing not only a Columbia Gas technician’s response time but also the travel time to the customer’s location.
With CTT, Columbia Gas can send the closest available technician with the shortest drive time to a customer reporting, for example, a gas leak. CTT ensures that, if an available Columbia Gas technician lives in the same neighborhood as a customer with an emergency, Columbia Gas sends the neighborhood technician before reaching farther afield for support.
A higher state of readiness
Columbia Gas quickly learned that the closest technician isn’t always the one in the highest state of readiness. For instance, if CTT identifies that a technician lives eight miles from a customer in need but the technician living 10 miles away is in a higher state of readiness, then Columbia Gas wanted to choose the person located slightly farther away.
To account for this situation, in 2012, Columbia Gas and ARCOS developed a new function called “Bull’s-eye.” Bull’s-eye solved the business problem that was brought about by CTT. Namely, sometimes your closest, available technician isn’t the technician in the highest state of readiness. For example, a technician a mile or two closer to a trouble location may be at a family gathering or asleep. Bull’s-eye strikes a balance between readiness and distance for Columbia Gas managers, workers and customers.
With the Bull’s-eye feature in place, Columbia Gas has seen an 18 percent increase in acceptance rates by individuals. Bull’s-eye doesn’t typically exceed a 15-mile radius, but within that radius, the utility can reach technicians faster and call them with a request that could be affecting their community and neighbors. Within the first month of implementing Bull’s-eye, Columbia Gas saw responses that were two to four minutes faster than the month prior to putting the solution in place.
The automated callout system, along with the CTT and Bull’s-eye features, works for the majority of operating areas within Columbia Gas. The company has saved its dispatchers two to four hours per night. The savings in time enables dispatchers to more quickly and efficiently route orders to the field, provide more thorough customer contact information to technicians and monitor or pinpoint leaks.
Automated callout, CTT and Bull’s-eye should be evaluated by each gas utility with regard to its territory, work agreements and staffing. For Columbia Gas, automated callout, CTT and Bull’s-eye have provided the information and ability to know who’s closest to our customers in the highest state of readiness.
About the Authors
Jim Wolfe is the manager for NiSource Gas Distribution’s Integration Center & Mobile Application Support. Michael Smith is the team leader for Integration Center Technology at NiSource.