International Empire Electric corp. has over a decade of experience in the electrical field and specializes in all phases of electrical contracting for the industrial, commercial and residential markets.
International Empire Electric
International Empire Electric corp. has over a decade of experience in the electrical field and specializes in all phases of electrical contracting for the industrial, commercial and residential markets.
Quick Summary
Challenge:
- Need geo-tagged site reports without expensive GPS handhelds
- Need to streamline quoting, reporting and site service delivery
- Better information from the field for all project sites in all phases
Solution
- Edge notebooks for organizing and sharing site forms, photos and notes
- Custom forms synced over the air to TerraGo Edge app on worker phones
- Online and PDF site reports for customers, managers and crews
Results
- Improved customer communication with instant project updates
- Accelerated estimates, work order approvals and site inspections
- Increased efficiency and operations with workforce management features
The Challenge
With a wide range of clients in the industrial, commercial and residential markets, International Empire Electric (IEE) was looking to streamline their reporting, quoting and overall paperwork filing into a more efficient and time-saving process. For IEE, every second of delay is a dollar lost. With field workers throughout the State of New York, it was hard to get information back to the main office in a timely fashion. It would sometimes take days, or even months to compile the necessary reports to assess, quote and start a job. To add to the challenge, field crews would have to add photos and detailed observations to their normal reporting in order to highlight specific project aspects and proposals. At this point, not only was management looking for a faster way to deliver information back to the main office, but they were looking for a way to provide their customers with the most accurate information, to get the job quoted, started and completed in the shortest amount of time possible with the highest level of accuracy. They also did not want to deploy any specific proprietary hardware for their field crews, which would delay deployment, require training and add another item for them to pack.
“When we started with TerraGo Edge, we used it for doing daily reports and site reports on tablets and phones. We could fill out all our forms and attach photos of the work progress. This alone was a huge productivity improvement and time-saver over managing paper forms. Over time, we realized we could take advantage of Edge to change the way we were managing customer projects from start to finish. We didn’t have to wait on paper estimates, work order approvals or manually create invoices back in the office. Edge lets us work faster and smarter; that is a difference that benefits our customers and our bottom line.” - Edwin Quintanilla, Manager of Field Operations at IEE
The Solution
International Empire Electric needed a customizable field data collection solution that would meet the needs of both its field crews and managers, and ultimately help deliver exceptional results to customers. Field crews needed an easy data collection solution that could be used on smart phones and tablets and not require any sort of proprietary hardware and specialty training. They also needed the ability to customize the required information collected in the field from each crew member – the solution needed to support multiple industries with manager-defined forms and ability to upload photos and media.
In order to meet these requirements, IEE surveyed and evaluated the market for mobile data collection solutions. They selected TerraGo Edge.
“We did not have to make a large investment in specialty hardware and handhelds because my crews already use smartphones and tablets in their daily routines.” - Edwin Quintanilla, Manager of Field Operations at IEE
The Results
For International Empire Electric, TerraGo Edge has provided a flexible solution that makes the field crews and managers happy. Field workers can now easily document their findings (with text and multi-media), record observations and cite the required information defined by the main office. For the managers, it gives them the information they need to make critical decisions faster. The reports are instantly synched back to the main office from anywhere, anytime. They are able to review site reports as needed, without waiting days, months or even hours for them to come in. This has also made their customers happy with the speed and efficiency of the project milestones and accomplishments.
TerraGo Edge enables crews to instantly share photos, forms and job site reports with customers via text messages and emails. Also, they can bring a customer virtually to an installation and get immediate approval on a change order so they can keep working, eliminating delays and saving customers time and money.
Additionally, since TerraGo Edge is so user-friendly and adoption and deployment required minimal time, the ability to add more field crews, as needed, per job, is easy, no one needed any special training or additional devices. TerraGo Edge has allowed International Empire Electric to be scalable, regardless of the job.
TerraGo Edge’s workforce management features and data have helped IEE to improve efficiency and operations by tracking service goals, work quotas and maintenance activities.
Ultimately, TerraGo Edge helped International Empire Electric do the work they do so well, even better. As the old saying goes, “time is money,” and they are opening doors that were not open in the past due to their increased reporting efficiency. Less time spent using paper documents, and more time actually on-site, making customers happy and fixing issues critical to electrical infrastructure.
“We started by moving our forms to mobile and now we’ve shifted towards optimizing all facets of field service and customer delivery. In the field, we work faster because the smart forms take minutes instead of hours. And our back-office systems are also more efficient because we’ve eliminated delays in all phases of the project from estimates to work orders to change orders, all the way through to inspections, invoicing and maintenance. Once you start working without paper, you start to see the power of your mobile devices and on-site data to transform customer service.” - Edwin Quintanilla, Manager of Field Operations at IEE
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