ARCOS Introduces Native Two-Way Crew Communication And Announces Exclusive Integration With HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team

Improves communication between utilities and field workers and streamlines mutual aid logistics

Columbus, OH /PRNewswire/ - ARCOS® LLC, the leading field operations and workforce management solution provider for utilities and critical infrastructure industries, today announced new enhancements to Crew Manager, its comprehensive solution for assigning, tracking and managing crews. The addition of two-way texting and integration with HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team, a provider of lodging for mutual assistance crews during large-scale restoration efforts, improves communication and coordination for safer and more efficient restoration and reporting.

"Utilities are under immense pressure, from increasing natural disasters and outages to growing demands and grid modernization," said Paul Bernard, CEO of ARCOS. "Real-time communication with field crews and seamless management of native and mutual aid crews are more important than ever. We're committed to giving utilities a single, centralized platform that streamlines daily operations, accelerates outage response and improves safety outcomes – all of which enhances their reputation with customers. With these additions to Crew Manager, we're the first to provide native two-way communication between the office and field crews and exclusive integration with a trusted leader in logistics and lodging."

Two-Way Texting: Crew Communication That Keeps Up
From safety checks and alerts to availability, work status and assignment, and check-in, disseminating critical job and safety information requires thousands of daily communications in a high-speed, high-pressure environment. Gaps in communication can slow down operations, increase costs and compromise safety and reliability. Two-way texting within Crew Manager offers a single secure interface for exchanging and tracking vital information via text, enabling utilities and crews to:

• Communicate Faster: Share critical job and safety information with all crews in seconds, accelerating restoration through better communication.
• Improve Collaboration: Enable field workers to quickly answer urgent questions or provide updates directly to utility operations teams.
• Capture Communication History: Track and view messages via a centralized interface with an audit trail.
• Increase Safety: Provide timely updates that impact safety, with asynchronous delivery ensuring that if connectivity is lost, messages are delivered once it is restored.
• Work Uninterrupted: Workers can receive and send messages without interrupting their work, using smartphone assistants and hands-free devices to listen and reply to SMS without any additional apps needed.

HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team Integration: Streamlining Lodging Logistics
Building back the grid following a major outage event often requires thousands upon thousands of evaluators and line crew resources. Lodging and logistics for mutual assistance crews directly affect response speed, crew safety, costs and customer trust. Although difficult due to scale, uncertainty, local limitations and operational complexity, lodging and logistics are critical for every utility involved in mutual aid and disaster response.

The integration with HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team enables utilities to provision housing for mutual aid crews accurately and:

• Streamline logistics: Bulk hotel booking information is available in Crew Manager, reducing manual data entry for lodging coordinators, ensuring reliable, cost-effective housing for mutual aid crews and reducing unnecessary expense for unused rooms.
• Centralize Data: Managing reservations alongside crews in a single interface provides clear visibility into lodging needs.
• Prevent Overbooking: Utilities receive notifications when room reservations exceed the number of booked rooms, allowing lodging managers to correct allocations proactively.

Two-way texting and the integration with HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team are available today to Crew Manager customers. For more information, visit www.arcos-inc.com.

About ARCOS LLC
ARCOS provides innovative field workforce management solutions that help utilities and other critical infrastructure industries manage people, work, and assets in a single platform. ARCOS enables utilities to quickly mobilize personnel for blue and grey sky work, manage native and non-native crews in a single system, and accelerate operations with field mobility tools that deliver real-time situational awareness and significant productivity improvements. More than 200 utilities rely on ARCOS to advance safety, reduce field costs, and improve response times and customer satisfaction. To learn more, visit https://www.arcos-inc.com. Follow @ARCOS on LinkedIn.

About HelmsBriscoe & HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team
HelmsBriscoe is the global leader in hotel site selection and the placement of meetings and events for a variety of corporate, association, and government clients. HelmsBriscoe streamlines the meeting planning process by managing the time-consuming task of researching, contacting, and evaluating venues for their clients' events. In circumstances involving crises or catastrophes, including natural disasters, terrorism, strikes, riots, data breaches, or a sudden need for lodging assistance, HelmsBriscoe's Incident Response Team is the leading resource for lodging solutions and post-event reconciliation support. For more information, visit www.helmsbriscoe.com.