The Key To Field Service Excellence In A Time-Critical Environment

Tom Gorman is the former VP of Field Operations for Charter Communications and a long-time board member of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE). In 2011, he won the prestigious SCTE Person of the Year award. Tom now owns OPXL, a management consulting firm based in Colorado. Trimble Field Service Management recently talked with Tom about how he helped Charter achieve field service excellence in a mission critical environment and what other field service businesses can do to achieve the same result.

What is field service excellence?

Providing best-in-class products and services for customers that also simplify and optimize the business experience. The goal is to respond quickly to customer needs, whatever they may be. It takes four criteria to meet this goal: Be on-time; allow enough time to do the job; have the right skills; and bring the right equipment.

What was the challenge at Charter?

We needed to improve productivity and control mounting fuel expenditures. We implemented a Trimble Fleet Management solution, which enabled us to track, manage and optimize scheduling, driver performance and vehicle idling. This helped us to optimize productivity and profits. The fleet management solution allowed us to find the closest vehicle to a job and then make assignments based on real-time schedule status. We could view and print detailed reports about daily activities for the entire fleet, which helped us with planning and forecasting.

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