OVERVIEW
An application for E.ON field technicians to manage their scheduled work, install smart meters effectively and increase the efficiency of the technician’s day. The application improves data capture quality through barcode scanning and utilises an improved, intuitive user interface which strengthens the security of customer data.
BUILT USING
- Sencha Touch
- Motorola RhoMobile Suite
- Ruby
- HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript
THE BRIEF
E.ON is one of the UK’s leading energy providers, supplying around five million people with electricity and gas in the UK. By 2020, energy companies in the UK are expected to have installed smart gas and electricity meters in all residential and SME properties. The logistics of this is a considerable challenge and in order to be as efficient as possible, its field force needed a scalable, robust and resilient application. Which also needed to provide seamless integration with existing metering and retail systems whilst also enabling field technicians to install more meters per day.
THE SOLUTION
Using Motorola’s RhoMobile and Sencha’s “Sencha Touch” frameworks, SwarmOnline created a responsive and interactive user experience that is compatible on multiple platforms. The application, coded with Ruby and JavaScript, has been designed to run on Android, iOS and Windows Desktop.
Our team spent considerable time on-site embedded within the mobile team at E.ON’s IT offices. Any work required to be completed in isolation of E.ON’s offices, was taken to SwarmOnline’s Glasgow office for completion by the rest of the team. This provided an opportunity for E.ON to trial both new technology and the agile project management methodology used by SwarmOnline.
Our Team Leads engaged with the project on a daily basis and encouraged the correct application of the methodology. In addition to pair programming; regular training and software architecture sessions were held to develop the skills within the team.
Since deployment, E.ON now have the ability to install more meters per day through the mobile field application. This also includes improved processes, a smarter workforce, increased collaboration, improved service and customer satisfaction.
Furthermore – because the SwarmOnline team were embedded into the E.ON team – our expert knowledge of the Sencha Touch framework was imparted on to E.ON through teaching and mentoring. As such, the E.ON IT team are now experienced in the design and implementation of Sencha Touch based solutions.
THE BENEFITS
The use of future proof architecture allows E.ON to combat the problem of fast changing technologies, and a single code base reduces future support, development and testing costs. The intuitive and dynamic user interface reduces time spent on data entry and helps improve data quality.
