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Contractor management can be challenging. After an incident has happened and crews are being dispatched, four things are often asked about contractors and utility service providers: 

  • Where are they?  
  • How many are they bringing? 
  • What are they doing now? 
  • When did they do that? 


Miscommunication, bottlenecks, and bad roster exchanges have plagued the utility and contractor relationship since a tree downed the very first powerline. It is a gap that keeps widening as weather events keep becoming more and more severe.  

The Resource and Contractor Management Solution 

ARCOS closes that gap with Resource Assist. Resource Assist is a centralized solution that automates the assignment of contracted resources. Utilities no longer must endure the long, time-wasting process of manually identifying and reaching out to multiple contractors and utility service providers, checking their available resources, integrating their committed external assets, and then releasing them and waiting months for the contractor’s expenses and reports to come back.  

Restoration work can be accomplished with no hiccups, misunderstandings, or garbled transfer of information thanks to Resource Assist’s advanced data sets and automation. How does Resource Assist provide instant clarity on what resources are available?  

Efficiently Exchange Data to get Work Done 

Utilities use Resource Assist to make a detailed request for assistance which is sent to contractors they choose and that have signed up to be a Resource Assist utility service provider. Contractors receive a notice that a request has been made and use the platform to quickly review, respond, and adapt resources to meet the utility needs. The data the contractors share is previously vetted by the app and ready to go, including rosters that are pre-formatted in the way a utility desires. The utility can then use a solution like Crew Manager or Mobile Workbench to get the crews to where they need to be. Resource Assist also enables utilities to finally have accurate reporting for full situational awareness and post-event summaries as it keeps track of everything in one historical record of truth.  

Contractors can also expand their use of the ARCOS suite by running their operations with Mobile WorkbenchCallout, or Crew Manager. The automated benefits offered to utilities by these solutions are an advantage to the workflow and resource management of utility service providers – plus the ease of data transfer when everyone is using the same system can speed up job acceptance, encourage more work opportunities and lead to a contractor being a utility’s top choice under any circumstance.  

Check out the free version of Resource Assist, Resource Assist Lite and get a quick start on restoration efforts so you can respond, restore and report faster. Contact ARCOS to learn more.  

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