Stedin to Manage Smart Meter Rollout in the Netherlands with ClickSoftware
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Workforce Management and Enterprise Mobility to Provide Stedin With Visibility and Control of the Field Employees Responsible for the Delivery of this Important National Project
BURLINGTON, Massachusetts - ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. (NasdaqGS: CKSW), the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for the service industry, today announced that Stedin's meter replacement subsidiary, Stedin Measuring Company, has gone live with ClickSoftware's workforce management and enterprise mobility solutions in order to facilitate the rollout of smart meters to two million homes in the Netherlands. Stedin, which will be increasing its field activities tenfold for the project, will use the solutions to align its workforce to the successful delivery of the objectives set out by the regulator and to meet its own high customer service levels.
Stedin and its field engineers are responsible for the rollout of smart meters to residential customers; the project begins in 2012, quickly gathering momentum over the next few years. ClickSoftware's workforce management solution will effectively schedule a large part of Stedin's rapidly growing workforce during a time of rapid growth and intense activity. Enterprise mobility will allow the company to deliver and collect crucial field data relating to the smart meter deployment so that better informed decisions can be made about the rollout and future maintenance of the infrastructure.
The government, and ultimately taxpayers, in the Netherlands are making a considerable investment in smart meters in order to meet European directives and climate change targets on energy use. With considerable political and economic focus on the project it is critical that the rollout of smart meters is managed in the most effective manner possible.
"There is considerable focus on this project, it is critical to get it right," said Arjan Donker, General Manager at Stedin Measuring Company. "We chose ClickSoftware because it is a proven solution that will reduce the potential risks associated with such a large scale project. It will also allow us to rapidly grow the size of our workforce and deploy resources by the most effective means to meet regulatory targets."
When creating the schedule for Stedin's engineers, the solution optimally factors regulatory commitments, engineer availability, skills and location to help deploy the right individual to the right property at the right time. This, combined with enterprise mobility, will make it easier to get important customer service details right which is essential given the high profile of the project.
"Mobility will eliminate the errors that paper based systems are prone to," added Donker. "So for instance engineers will, via workflow on their mobile devices, have to record and match the right meter serial number to the right property. This is a vital customer service issue because energy use will be collected via meters remotely and you don't want to send the wrong bill to the wrong customer."
ClickSoftware is currently helping many utilities companies around the world that are seeking to monitor and reduce the consumption of energy with major smart meter rollouts.
"Stedin is planning the rollout in the Netherlands with meticulous precision and we are delighted to be a part of the project," said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Chairman and CEO of ClickSoftware. "Smart meter deployments are being monitored closely by governments and the public. Under such close scrutiny workforce management and mobility has an important role to play by giving utilities greater certainty of a successful smart meter project. "
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware is the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business. Our portfolio of solutions, available on demand and on premises, create business value through higher levels of productivity, customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. Our patented concept of 'continuous planning and scheduling' incorporates customer demand forecasting, long and short term capacity planning, shift planning, real-time scheduling, mobility and location-based services, as well as on-going communication with the consumer on the expected arrival time of the service resource.
As the pioneers of the 'W6' concept more than 30 years ago, we have perfected solutions for solving a wide variety of problems on Who does What, for Whom, with What, Where and When. The combination of proven technology with educational services helps businesses find the right balance between reducing costs, increasing customer satisfaction, employee preferences and industry regulations/legislation. ClickSoftware's solutions manage hundreds of thousands of resources in service businesses across a variety of industries and geographies. Our flexible deployment approach, breadth and depth of solutions and strong partnerships with leading CRM/ERP vendors and system integrators makes us the number one choice to deliver superb business performance to any organization.
The company is headquartered in the United States and Israel, with offices across Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.clicksoftware.com. Follow us on Twitter [http://twitter.com/ClickSoftware ].
ClickSoftware Media Contact
Kristin Amico
ClickSoftware
kristin.amico@clicksoftware.com
+1-781-272-5903 Ext: 2364
Source: ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd
