Clevest Advances New Crew Management Capabilities With The 3.5 Release Of Its Mobile Workforce Management Solution

New capabilities allow utilities greater flexibility in scheduling crews and managing the composition of crews

Clevest Solutions Inc. announced enhancements for managing crews with the new 3.5 version of its mobile workforce management software solution, which automates virtually any utility field work activity. The new capabilities allow utilities greater flexibility in scheduling crews and managing the composition of crews, and provide for increased crew productivity, improved customer satisfaction and enhanced workforce satisfaction.

"Crews are a fundamental part of a utility's field operations and they can be extremely dynamic in nature," emphasized Lily Ligocki, VP Product Management, Clevest. "With the latest release of our solution, utilities can now distinguish between individuals and their orders and an individual's role within a crew and the crew's orders. Moreover, the solution can now accommodate planned or last-minute changes in crew composition and resource availability in real-time, which empowers utilities to make more timely decisions and complete work more accurately in the field."

A key component of mobile workforce management, enterprise scheduling helps utilities improve the responsiveness of field operations by eliminating manually-compiled, paper-based schedules and automatically assigning work optimally. With the 3.5 release of the solution, more sophisticated scheduling capabilities take into account both crews and the workers within them when assigning or reallocating orders.

In real-time, the solution accommodates expected changes in crew composition due to temporary circumstances such as an appointment or vacation. It also supports unanticipated temporary events due, for example, to illness, vehicle breakdowns or task completion times. Orders are then scheduled or, if necessary, rescheduled based on an accurate representation of resource availability. Utilities are also now better equipped to manage more permanent changes in crew requirements over time.

The solution also incorporates Esri-based routing capabilities when scheduling and managing crews.  Routing functionality calculates travel times and directions based on the road network and a utility's infrastructure, which is used to automatically optimize route plans and minimize travel time for crews, which improves overall responsiveness, decreases fuel costs and reduces wear and tear on vehicles.

A number of utilities from Clevest's existing customer base have already contracted for the latest mobile workforce management solution. Clevest expects to begin the first of these upgrades in September, 2012.

About Mobile Workforce Management
Specifically built around the needs of utility operations, Clevest mobile workforce management addresses the rapidly transforming electric, gas and water industries. It is a complete, configurable solution that provides actionable information for informed decision-making, which improves field and office operations. The solution is fully GIS-integrated, providing real-time visibility into field work activities and assets. All field workflow information and tools are integrated onto a single mobile computer, eliminating the need for multiple devices. By linking field workers with mobile supervisors and the dispatch center in real-time, both operational decisions and efficiency are improved.

About Clevest
Clevest provides software for mobile workforce automation and smart grid deployment and post-deployment operations exclusively for electric, gas and water utilities. Over 100 utilities worldwide have chosen Clevest to transform their field operations by harnessing the power of our software and deep domain knowledge of mobile computing and utility operations. Clevest’s award-winning platform powers a product suite that includes mobile workforce management, GPS-enabled automated vehicle location, meter reading solutions and a patent-pending configuration tool, as well as the only complete solution for smart grid deployment and post-deployment activities. For more information, visit www.clevest.com.