To help service organizations understand the power of data in action, Bryan Morrow, Director of QA/QA at SUEZ, and Pat Foley, Client Director at ProntoForms, discussed how working together helped SUEZ fundamentally transform their inspection processes into indispensable intelligence-generating tools for field technicians.
Author Radiana Pit | Copperberg
Photo: Freepik
SUEZ, a global expert in the water and waste sectors, realized that its manual inspection processes held a goldmine of data that could be turned into actionable intelligence for field technicians. Doing so would not only make the job of the technician easier but also help build pricing practices as well as ongoing future maintenance strategies based on relevant data.
The initial approach to this digitization project was one of urgency. It was imperative for the organization to set it in motion as quickly as possible. However, the company soon realized that achieving that was going to take longer than previously expected—not because the project was difficult to implement, but because SUEZ recognized that digitization creates more opportunities for a complete end-to-end process workflow.
With field staff in mind, SUEZ simplified its inspection form process, reorganizing it from 750 questions—on one form for a single inspection which took three hours to fill out—to an à la carte menu type of solution, which received positive feedback from field technicians. This was made possible by adopting technology and bringing the IT department to the table in the planning stage. But beyond the digitization of inspection forms, SUEZ leveraged technology as a whole, including drones and ROVs, unlocking a whole new stream of revenue.
Technology alongside the ability to put together a quick process of expediting and reviewing deliverables helped the organization reduce 80% of admin time on certain tasks, decreasing time spent from hours to just minutes, while also increasing turnaround time for customer delivery by more than 50%.
Drawing from its success story, SUEZ advises service organizations to realize the importance of leveraging technology and updating CRMs and mobile apps for technicians to make room for improved processes. There is much more that can be achieved by upgrading forms to automate processes and enabling technicians to review rather than write up the information from scratch.
Last but not least, SUEZ emphasizes the importance of gathering different departments around the same vision and understanding how technology and its capabilities can create new solutions.
