• Major U.K. water supplier to deploy ClickSoftware's suite of solutions to optimize the entire service chain
BURLINGTON, MA, Dec. 11, 2008 -- ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd, a leading provider of mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions, announced that Wessex Water, one of the UK's largest water suppliers, has selected and started to implement ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite. This includes ClickSchedule, ClickPlan, ClickForecast and ClickAnalyze to ensure its field technicians arrive on time, work productively and meet customer and regulator expectations.
Wessex Water provides water services to 1.2 million people and sewage services to 2.5 million people over a 10,000 square-kilometer region in the Southwest of England. The company had been using an in-house system to enable 30 schedulers to allocate work to more than 700 technicians in the field. The system required schedulers to manually match technicians to jobs, which was labor-intensive and often delayed response.
"Our mission is keep our customer satisfaction rate at 99.7% or better," said Dave Copeland, head of IT at Wessex Water. "That's not easy to do with manual processes. Following an extensive evaluation of products in the market, it became obvious that the proven experience of ClickSoftware in the utility and water industry, in conjunction with their comprehensive suite of solutions to manage the entire service chain, would drive enormous benefits both now and into the future. ClickSchedule, ClickForecast and ClickPlan will play integral roles in our IT infrastructure, which will also feature a new asset management system."
Wessex Water will deploy ClickSoftware's ServiceOptimization Suite to manage field technicians across several lines of business including clean water, waste water, infrastructure, metering and customer appointment booking. First to be implemented will be ClickSchedule to ensure all on-site visits for installation, maintenance and repairs occur on time and efficiently. Street-level routing capabilities will automatically provide the best route for technicians to take between jobs, ensuring they spend more time serving customers, not traveling.
The company will use ClickForecast to predict future demand for maintenance and repair on the hundreds of thousands of pumps and other equipment it has installed. ClickPlan will ensure Wessex Water has the right capacity to meet the demand for all of the maintenance, repair and installation work predicted by ClickForecast.
"Knowledge is everything when it comes to effectively managing your field operation, and ClickSoftware will give us the knowledge and decision-support tools to better serve our customers," said Copeland. The company will have further insight into technician productivity and the effectiveness of its service operations using information gathered in ClickAnalyze business analysis software. ClickAnalyze will provide a holistic view of everything from on-time arrivals to repair times, while allowing managers to track service-level indicators like travel, workload, asset repair and maintenance. This information will prove invaluable when reporting back to the industry regulator OFWAT.
"Wessex Water already has a solid reputation in the industry and among its customers," said Professor Moshe BenBassat, Chairman and CEO of ClickSoftware. "It is laying the groundwork to build on that reputation by deploying our integrated, end-to-end service optimization solution across the business. Wessex Water joins a growing list of companies that have recognized that effective management of the field operation starts way before the day of service. Combining proactive management, utilizing forecasting and planning, with real-time, dynamic scheduling enables organizations to truly streamline service delivery management, maximize resources, minimize costs and gives customers confidence they'll receive the service they need, when they need it."
Headquartered in Bath, Wessex Water is the regional water and sewage treatment business serving an area of the Southwest of England, covering 10,000 square kilometers including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire.
ClickSoftware is a leading provider of mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions that create business value for service operations through higher levels of productivity, customer satisfaction and cost effectiveness.
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