Shortest Distance to Clean Water
Veolia Water Company Indianapolis is one of the nation's largest water utilities, serving over 260,000
customers in central Indiana. Using paper work orders for hydrant testing, valve testing, and customer
service issues was a cumbersome method of managing operations and collecting data. Veolia turned to a
customized Palm PDA computing system to update and improve their practices.
Many of the field employees had minimal computer experience, but Veolia found a creative way to overcome
that obstacle - field employees were given Palm PDA devices and encouraged to play games so they would
become familiar with the controls and the text writing capabilities. They also received training,
practice data, and a brief "cheat sheet" before being sent into the field.
The improved system eliminates several manual reports and automated order processing. Field crews complete
as many work orders as possible, then sync their PDAs with the computers back at base. They can sync up on
site, through a PC, or using the PDA's modem.
At night the work continues. New work orders are mapped and routes
maximizing time and travel are loaded onto the PDAs.
Results
Since implementation, PDAs have been used daily by 30-40 service field crews to process over 229,000 work orders
Employees with minimal computer experience are now Palm-savvy and a valuable part of data input and collection
Field data accuracy has improved, and redundant, time-consuming paperwork has been eliminated
Veolia has a cost-effective and resource-efficient way to manage work orders
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