My project wins Cox Vision Award!

My project at work just received a "Vision Award" :

The Vision Awards recognize significant achievements that exemplify a commitment to our company’s vision and values. Entries can represent a group or individual effort that has or will contribute to the long-term success of the company.

Of course, I didn't get to go to the fancy dinner or anything but it's the thought that counts!

Here is a write up of it, in case you are burning with curiosity. I think it's interesting but I'm guessing it is probably quite boring for everyone else!

Nomination Summary:
The Atlanta Field Service and IT MSS team, in conjunction with the field IT and Field Service teams at all sites, replaced the aging WFA solution from Ventyx with the new iWerks and TOA solution, for every Cox employee in every system in 2008. This was accomplished without severe disruption to the business and has provided a stable, extensible platform so we can extend even more capabilities to our Universal Home Techs in the future. The end goal is providing high quality service to Cox's customers through the use of a standard process enabled by the tool.


Situation:
Since its introduction into the workplace in the late 1990's Cox's Technicians have relied on our WFA, or Workforce Automation, solution to manage their daily workload. The tool has allowed Cox to implement programs like "Home Start", where our Techs don't have to come into the office in the mornings, instead using laptops or PDA's to get their work assignments for the day. The solution has become critical to the productivity and financial performance of our Field Service teams.

Although we've had a great run with our WFA solution, we have the same version of software in production that we've had since it was launched in the late 1990's. Our efforts to upgrade to more recent versions have all been troublesome, each having significantly disruptive issues with features, ICOMS integration, and stability hampering their viability for a business so dependent on the product.

Finally, Ventyx - the product vendor - announced plans to focus their development efforts on the Utilities market and away from Telecommunications, as well as announcing the end-of-support date for Cox's version of WFA in 2009.

We had to replace WFA and we had to replace it quickly!


Solution:
The Field Service and IT MSS teams conducted extensive evaluations of solution providers and decided on a two-pronged approach.

. The ETA Direct work order management application hosted by TOA Technologies
. iWerks portal solution, developed by Cox IT, for our in-house Techs which would enhance the capabilities of ETA Direct

The two communities who perform Cox's Field Service work are our Home Service Technicians, Universal Home Technicians, Dispatchers, Routers, and Installation and Service Contractors. The ETA Direct tool would be extended to both of those communities, marking the first time the company has had a standard view into ALL work being done on a daily basis, regardless of source. Our previous WFA solution was only for full-time Cox employees.

One unique aspect of this solution is that both the iWerks and ETA Direct tools are web-based - no software to install and maintain on laptops. In fact, the chosen solution frees Cox to move away from high end laptops to lesser cost models and even PDAs in the future.

However, that also proved to be one of the largest challenges in the development and deployment of the iWerks solution. The laptops used by the Techs connect to the network through a broadband data card. Performance of the tool over that slow connection was paramount, and the team worked diligently to shave off precious seconds to get the tool working within defined parameters.

Additionally, teams from the local site and the Atlanta MSS team performed coverage studies prior to the deployment of the next generation WFA solution at the local site to determine where there were coverage issues. The carriers were then brought in to address those issues prior to the launch of the solution, which helped ensure a successful rollout.

Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the team was the deployment of the solution. Beginning with our pilot site, Cleveland, in May and ending with our final site, Palos Verdes in December, the team rolled out to every site and every Technician in 2008. The coordination required to train and deploy 4,500 full-time employees and 2000 contractors on the new solution was daunting, but the team developed and refined a solid procedure for managing the change so that the later site deployments were effective and efficient.



Results:
During calendar year 2008, the extended team successfully executed a plan to migrate all users off the legacy WFA system and onto the next generation solution. By January of 2009, there were no more Field Service users depending on the legacy WFA system for their daily work order management.

. Financial: By executing the project on time and budget, the project team was able to save the company $3.6MM in projected cost associated with staying with our previous WFA Vendor. The operational benefits tied to reducing calls into our back office have resulted in a 12% reduction in back office cost per point or roughly $3.3MM given equivalent volume.

. Enterprise view: Deployment of ETA Direct has given Field Service dispatchers, supervisors, and management now have a complete view of where all its Technicians, full-time or contract, are at any time. All sites now have a smart system that gives proactive alerts when a technician is projected to arrive late.


. Improved Ability to Communicate Arrival Times: A key feature of the ETA Direct solution is its ability to accurately predict arrival times for a Tech to any job based on recorded past performance. The new solution also offers Cox the ability to share these estimates across the enterprise and even to our external customers via the IVR and web. The feature that supports this capability is called "Where's My Tech?" and has been deployed to all iNav users and is planned to be added to the IVR and Web in 2009.

. Extensible platform: The combination of ETA Direct, supported by iWerks, gives Cox the ability to grow its capabilities quickly and at a minimal cost in the future. As an example, the original version of iWerks was augmented with extensive performance improvements and Home Certification tool integration in three months without the need to grow in-house or third party resources.