Johannesburg, 11 Jul 2012
Looking at IT trends worldwide, businesses and consumers are attracted to mobile computing and enterprise information. Companies that operate in the field implement systems such as SAP Mobile Plant Maintenance, with the understanding that it will manage all their plant maintenance needs effectively. In reality, SAP Mobile Plant Maintenance addresses only half the plant maintenance field workers' requirements, as it does not support document transfer.
Without full and instant access to various documents that support the field work, work order operations cannot and do not operate at full efficiency and effectiveness.
Field workers need access to templates and reference documents that are associated with the work order operation they are working on. They need required documents requested from the corporate repository to be sent to their mobile devices almost immediately. The ability to edit documents, such as risk assessments and customer surveys, also forms a critical aspect of their work. Current practices use disconnected systems, such as e-mail, to move documents between field workers and the office. This takes time and can often be subjected to delays, making it an ineffective practice at times.
Imagine being able to send and receive documents while in the field in real-time and without delay. Imagine having the ability to prove that work was carried out by attaching before and after photos to a work order. Imagine being able to upload any and all types of documents to a corporate repository with associated SAP and GIS metadata, have them stored in the repository and automatically linked to the SAP work order for instant access. With newly developed technology, now available in Africa, companies no longer have to imagine these possibilities.
I was recently invited to South Africa to present a case study at the Mastering SAP Plant Maintenance Conference, held in Sandton, Gauteng, on a newly developed solution that pushes not only data, but documents too, onto mobile devices out in the field. South African company, NokusaEI, will be the first to roll out this technology in Africa, and will be instrumental in helping businesses implement this truly complete mobile solution.
The solution was developed in 2011 to fulfil the needs of a large water utility company operating in the United Kingdom. The company supplies water and wastewater services to more than six million domestic and business customers in the east of England, and is one of the top 10 water utilities in the UK. The company was undergoing an upgrade of its mobile plant maintenance system and wanted to improve on its existing SAP technology. The shortcoming of its SAP solution at the time was that, although it supported mobile computing out in the field, it did not support the sending and receiving of documents, which played a pivotal role in the company's operations.
Of all the water utilities in the UK, this particular company has the largest geographical area to cover. This meant that field workers were often hundreds of kilometres away from the office when they needed to send or receive documents necessary to carry out their work. Field technicians carry out 6 000 work orders per day.
My team and I looked at the existing technology the company already had in place (SAP, OpenText and Extended ECM) and developed a solution that would allow field workers to get documents sent to their devices on demand and allow them to send documents back after completion of the work. This greatly reduced cycle times, as documents could be pushed wirelessly through the GSM signal back to the office. The company went live with the solution in March this year, and it has been incredibly successful.
After presenting this case study at the Mastering SAP Plant Maintenance Conference, a number of companies stepped forward expressing their interest in incorporating this new solution. NokusaEI is engaging with these companies to establish their individual needs and determine whether this solution would be effective for them. With NokusaEI celebrating its 15 birthday in June 2012 (having been in operation since 1998), and being a SAP and OpenText partner, it certainly has the skills and experience needed to deliver this solution to Africa.
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