Expert view: Balfour Beatty streamlines job management and workforce scheduling with Kirona

Balfour Beatty is working with field service management specialist Kirona to improve workforce productivity and streamline ­processes in its gas and water business.

Balfour Beatty wanted to bring a fully integrated mobile workforce management and scheduling solution to two areas of its gas and water business. Cheshire-based Kirona worked with Balfour Beatty to configure its leading field service software; Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS) and Job Manager Software to enable the company to achieve its business objectives.

Kirona was selected by Balfour Beatty to enable improvements in two key areas of its gas and water business; Purge & Relight and Reinstatement. For the Purge & Relight business, it set out to streamline the process of raising work by having jobs created by the operatives in the field. Using Kirona’s Job Manager Mobile software, the operatives raise the requirement for a Purge and Relight Job from site, which is immediately visible to its back office team who interface with the Job Manager Control Centre. Kirona’s Dynamic Resource Scheduling application ensures that the requirements of each job are met in accordance with their SLAs.

Kirona has also delivered a solution which not only replaces Balfour Beatty’s legacy systems, but brings the best of Mobile Working and Scheduling technologies to the delivery of its Reinstatement business. The introduction of a fully integrated Work Management and Scheduling solution is set to bring the back office team much closer to the mobile workforce, who are armed with Kirona’s Job Manager mobile to guide the delivery of their work. DRS enables them to ensure each task within a line of Reinstatement is fulfilled in time and in sequence of any related or dependent activity.

Neil Harvey, CTO of Kirona said: “Balfour Beatty had a detailed outline of their business requirements. We worked closely with the Balfour Beatty Business to understand their requirements, and then deliver a fully integrated solution that is both flexible and scalable to cater to the needs of a range of services across their Gas and Water business.”

Balfour Beatty also implemented Kirona’s InfoSuite management information product to complement the mobile workforce management and Dynamic Resource Scheduling solutions.

InfoSuite provides the company with real-time actionable insights. Balfour Beatty’s operational management teams have the visibility of progress and performance information to enable them to react to challenges before customer service is impacted.

For further information, visit: http://www.kirona.com