VOO boosts installation and repair productivity with Oracle Field Service Cloud
VOO is the commercial brand of the Belgian cable distributor Nethys, together with Brutélé. VOO is the main cable operator in the Walloon region of southern Belgium and parts of Brussels. Each day, VOO dispatches an average of 500 technicians—90% of whom are subcontractors—to install, maintain, and repair networks.
The company operated a paper-based work order process, resulting in excessive document administration and poor visibility on technician activities. After realizing the inefficiency of the current processes, VOO looked for cloud-based workforce management and adopted a solution developed by TOA Technologies, subsequently acquired and enhanced by Oracle.
“With Oracle Field Service Cloud, we increased the productivity of our technicians, slashed travel time and improved reporting, communications, and customer satisfaction. It’s been a complete operational turnaround. We now have everything we need for first-class customer care.”
Business challenges
- Eliminate paper work orders and low-quality document handling by adopting a cloud-based workforce management system
- Optimize field engineer route planning and increase the number of installations and repairs per day
- Gain visibility into the location and tasks of field engineers and execute more accurate financial forecasting
- Boost repair productivity by automating the dispatch and tracking of technicians through mobile working
- Improve tracking and tracing of spare parts and materials assigned to installation and repair technicians
Why VOO chose Oracle
“We chose Oracle Field Service Cloud for its workforce management expertise in telecommunications backed by references, its deep understanding of field service requirements, ability to reduce IT costs, its ongoing evolution of its roadmap, and seamless integration with our IT landscape. We’re now more efficient.”
—Hasan Yavuz, OSS Engineer, VOO (Nethys SA / Brutélé SC)
Results
- VOO purchased the solution from TOA Technologies and due to change management and its first encounter with the cloud, spent 18 months on the rollout of what became Oracle Field Service Cloud modules Routing, Mobility, Capacity, Collaboration, Customer Communication, and, later, Oracle Map and Geocoding.
- TOA Technologies (now Oracle Field Service Cloud) trained VOO’s dispatchers and they trained the sub-contractors, whose technicians were equipped with tablets and began working as mobile field engineers. The organization went into production mode and has since done no customizations, preferring to adapt process to the out-of-the-box configuration, and keeps close watch on the roadmap guiding development of Oracle Field Service Cloud.
- Monitored technicians’ real-time location and maintained communication channels at all times with the capacity routing and customer communication functionalities of Oracle Field Service Core Manage Cloud Service—ensuring maximum utilization of available resources, correctly routing maintenance and repair technicians to customer sites
- Achieved up to 30% increase in productivity with Oracle Field Service Mobility Cloud Service through the online dispatch and monitoring of work orders and flexibility for technicians to start each day from home, not head office, while agilely reacting to updates on mobile devices
- Increased the daily average number of work orders issued and completed
- Increased the number of contracted telecom technicians due to better performance of Oracle Field Service Cloud driving provisioning and repair, leading to more renewals and new clients
- Cut customer care costs by reducing logistics expenses through optimized route planning, spare parts delivery, and elimination of paperwork
- Expedited the scheduling and dispatch of technicians to work sites by 8% through automated workflow and the geocoding calculation of travel distance and time capabilities of Oracle Field Service Routing Cloud Service
- Boosted communications between customer care, field engineers, and customers with Oracle Field Service Customer Communication Cloud Service—resulting in greater agility in assignments, higher efficiency, and more satisfactory customer experience
- Gained stability in contractor prices through ability to compare sub-contractor profiles, performance, and quotes and negotiate from a stronger base
- Provided management with real-time reporting on a number of provisioning and repair tasks completed, average duration of tasks, upsell, and technician performance—with key performance indicators linked to the billing system
- Implemented track and trace of spare parts assigned to installation and repair technicians, along with access to service history, account profiles, and contact information
- Augmented efficiency of dispatchers by utilizing Oracle Field Service Core Manage Cloud Service as a one-stop workbench for planning, scheduling, committing, monitoring, and adjusting field service activities and schedules
- Enhanced customer and subcontractor communications, fixing guarantee days and timeframes for interventions and by automating information and document flow with Oracle Field Service Collaboration Cloud Service