Over the last few months, municipal utilities have faced challenges like they’ve never seen before. Every day you’re having to fill unplanned absences, get the right workers to the right job at the right time, and manage overtime hours – not to mention implement policies to reduce transmission and keep your workers safe. This leads to daily operations and work management being an extremely complex affair, with many manual, disparate processes that reduce efficiency.
Automating these manual processes and being able to fill absences due to illness or quarantine, deliver work to crews remotely, and manage crews in the field can save you a LOT of time and money during workload and workforce management.
Sounds great, right? Now comes the hard part, finding the money to pay for it. How do you procure funding? Some of you may even be experiencing a budget shortfall due to the ramifications of the current COVID pandemic. The good news is that there are options. In 2020, to help deal with the fallout of the COVID pandemic, the federal government has created the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to help many businesses (including municipal utilities) convert their operations to remote work where possible and to help communities respond safely. Some public works organizations and municipal utilities are applying for funding through the CARES act for resource and work management systems like ARCOS.
In CARES Act, the government explains that there are several conditions that will make your company eligible for funding from the government. Specifically, “Expenses of actions to facilitate with COVID-19 related public health measures such as; Expenses to improve telework capabilities for public employees to enable compliance with COVID-19 public health precautions.”
ARCOS Resource Management fits nicely into those categories with the following features:
Facilitating and Improving Telework Capabilities
- Mobile Work Ticket Delivery & Job Status
- Real-Time Availability of Resources
- Virtualizing Safety Briefings and Mass Communications
Complying with COVID-19 Public Health Precautions
- Tracking & Monitoring PPE
- Crew Contact Tracing
- Alternative Crew Structures to Reduce Transmission
If you are feeling the pinch from the pandemic and are looking for a way to help you keep your employees safe , the ARCOS platform can help – and you could even get help paying for it. To learn more about the CARES Act, please go to the following link: https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares
