BACKGROUND
Sutton & East Surrey Water (SESW), located in the southeast of England, supplies around 160 million liters of water to 655,000 people and 17,000 businesses through a water network that covers 835 square kilometers. Groundwater accounts for 85% of their supplied water; the remaining 15% is extracted from Bough Beech reservoir, and they maintain 3,400 km of water mains. Their major assets include: one surface reservoir, eight treatment works, 23 pumping stations, 31 service reservoirs and water towers.
CHALLENGE
With a service area that includes multiple local jurisdictions, SESW must comply with strict local authority permitting requirements. For example, when working on a highway or footpath to perform emergency water system repairs, SESW must inform the authority, within strict time constraints. Failure to meet authority deadlines can result in a financial penalty. The utility was facing the imminent end of life of Google Maps Coordinate, the product that provided an existing automation solution for SESW field crews and needed to find a replacement.
SOLUTION
SESW selected Trimble Unity software and rapidly configured and implemented the software to provide a modern solution for field crews. By deploying cloud-based information management with embedded Esri mapping technology, Trimble Unity is able to provide increased transparency and efficiency in job control and field data collection. In addition to helping streamline the field operations, Trimble Unity also supports SESW field crews’ collection of site specific information to document compliance.
The basic deployment of Trimble Unity provides SESW with the ability to send work to its mobile workforce and to receive information--including photographs and accurate GPS based location data—collected by on-site field teams using Android based mobile devices. The system also allows managers to view field team locations and enables the company’s inspectors to raise additional work on-site.
In adopting Trimble Unity’s single platform approach, SESW determined that the solution could solve their immediate need for improving field team operations and mobile work management. Another significant influencing factor was that the solution can be easily extended to enable smart water management techniques and provide a single view of network operations in line with their current project to build a Water Smart Network.
BENEFITS
- Single-Platform Solution Improves Business Efficiency in Field and Office Operations
- Rapid Timeline: The go-live timeline for SESW was rapid and achieved in less than 14 days so SESW was able to begin collecting data prior to Google Maps Coordinate end-of-life
- Compliance: Local authority compliance can be met in a timely manner to avoid costly financial penalties
- Capture: Trimble Unity's ability to record photographs and send images back with the work detail ensures SESW can demonstrate compliance
- Direct Data Entry: Trimble Unity has replaced many of the paper forms previously used by SESW for job control and data collection in the field with a goal of Trimble Unity replacing all existing paper forms for field based activities
- App Builder: The application builder in Trimble Unity enables SESW to build bespoke forms and workflow to meet their exact business needs and publish these instantly to field users to quickly and efficiently adapt to changes in its operational environment
- Single Platform: Trimble Unity's single platform format is expandable and is enabling SESW to drive decisions based on the information the system provides out to the field teams without the complications an additional costs associate with traditional mobile solution integration
