Digital Utility Software Automates Callouts

COLUMBUS, Ohio – September 1, 2021 – Since implementing the ARCOS® Software-as-a-Service Callout and Scheduling solution, managers at a Northeastern natural gas utility say dispatchers using the technology have moved from a manual process for calling workers for gas leaks and repairs to an automatic one that locates and assembles available crews in minutes. The callout system’s Closest to the Trouble technology helps workers quickly identify the closest qualified resource with the right equipment, so utility managers can expedite emergency response. 

“CTT is a game-changer for us, especially after-hours,” said a manager overseeing workforce scheduling and dispatch at the utility. “If there’s a gas leak, we find the nearest resource in seconds through ARCOS.” 

The utility operates and maintains thousands of miles of natural gas transportation and distribution infrastructure to serve hundreds of thousands of customers. 

According to utility managers, the ARCOS callout solution centralizes data for hundreds of employees including first responders, foremen, mechanics, dispatchers, and customer service representatives. The ARCOS solution also stores contact information, backfills shifts in the event of unplanned absences and tracks a worker’s status. Gas utilities like this one rely on the ARCOS solution, in part, when calling out workers for unplanned or emergent work. The solution accounts for complex work rules that ensure overtime is parceled out to gas chiefs and mechanics in accordance with union agreements.  

The natural gas utility uses the ARCOS solution around the clock. But dispatchers rely on the system after regular business hours. If, for example, a first responder arrives at a gas leak on the weekend and secures the leak but still needs a crew for repairs, dispatchers tap ARCOS to launch a call out in seconds and assemble an available crew minutes later. 

The ARCOS solution replaced a sometimes-tedious process in which dispatchers would have to juggle directing field personnel or other work while manually searching a list and making phone calls to find available crews. In extreme cases, a callout would take a dispatcher an entire shift to complete. With the ARCOS solution automatically running a call out in the background, dispatchers monitor incoming calls about gas leaks and devote their attention to handling emergencies. If the volume of emergency calls outstrip the number of available first responders, dispatchers use ARCOS to immediately identify and bring in additional first responders. The impetus for buying the ARCOS solution, says the utility, was making more efficient use of dispatchers’ time, while getting crews to work quickly and safely. 

About ARCOS LLC 

ARCOS provides the leading SaaS-based resource management platform built specifically for utilities and other critical infrastructure industries. Using ARCOS, companies manage the real-time availability of unionized workforces and contractors alongside long- and short-cycle work necessary to keep services flowing for more than 90 million people and businesses across the United States and Canada. ARCOS’s best-in-class customer support coupled with its quick return on investment, automated callout capabilities, electronic crew management, contractor management, emergency mobilization, work distribution and field service mobility solutions help its customers safely respond to, restore, report on, and manage critical activity that keeps electric, water, gas and travel running smoothly. Learn about ARCOS resource management software at https://www.arcos-inc.com. Follow ARCOS on LinkedIn, @ARCOS LLC, and Twitter, @ARCOS 

Mobilizing Crews Faster

COLUMBUS, Ohio – August 24, 2021 – To improve resource management and the speed with which it mobilizes crews, Pennsylvania American Water will implement the Software-as-a-Service ARCOS Callout® and Scheduling solution for its field service representatives, first responders and utility workers. Pennsylvania American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, joins Tennessee American Water in choosing the ARCOS solution.

“Among the key drivers for choosing ARCOS is the software’s ability to make it efficient for us to pinpoint available crews in an emergency,” said Jake Gentile, senior manager for Operations, Southwestern Pennsylvania, at Pennsylvania American Water. “The ARCOS system will automatically mirror callout procedures and help us quickly mobilize our response.”

The ARCOS Callout and Scheduling solution helps utility managers act on emergencies by automatically locating and alerting available crews to respond to water main breaks, shut off meters, or handle other emergent issues.

About ARCOS LLC

ARCOS provides the leading SaaS-based resource management platform built specifically for utilities and other critical infrastructure industries. Using ARCOS, companies manage the real-time availability of unionized workforces and contractors alongside long- and short-cycle work necessary to keep services flowing for more than 90 million people and businesses across the United States and Canada. ARCOS’s best-in-class customer support coupled with its quick return on investment, automated callout capabilities, electronic crew management, contractor management, emergency mobilization, work distribution, and field service mobility solutions help its customers safely respond to, restore, report on, and manage critical activity that keeps electric, water, gas, and travel running smoothly. Learn about 1ARCOS resource management software at https://www.arcos-inc.com. Follow ARCOS on LinkedIn, @ARCOS LLC, and Twitter, @ARCOS

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Automated Callout Solution for Control Center Staff

COLUMBUS, Ohio – March 23, 2021 – This summer, ARCOS^® LLC, the market leader for utility and critical infrastructure resource-management solutions, will roll out its ARCOS Callout and Scheduling Suite for Minn.-based cooperative Great River Energy, a provider of wholesale electricity to 28 member-owned cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so the co-op can automatically identify available employees after business hours and direct them to restoration work.

“For years, Great River Energy has made manual calls for communications between our control center and field crews,” said Mark Peterson, system operations manager for Great River Energy. “Automating callouts will save time for our control center staff, so they can focus on their core responsibility, operations.”

With Great River Energy’s manual, after-hours callout process, control center operators search (one call at a time) for available employees. Once they reach a worker, they describe the problem and dispatch them. Staff manually input worker status through established work rules tied to seniority, hours worked, scheduled time off and proximity to a job site. A recent winter storm sped up the decision by Great River Energy to take the chore of manual callouts off the operators, so they could automatically launch calls with ARCOS and focus, instead, on front-end analysis linked to restoring substations, identifying transmission infrastructure damage, or starting peaking generation.

“Our operators have tools to pinpoint issues and analyze conditions, but it takes concentration and dedicated time to make the most of these tools,” added Peterson. “Every minute spent on a manual callout is a distraction that reduces situational awareness in the control center.”

Approximately 200 Great River Energy employees will be listed in the ARCOS System including control center workers who log in to launch and analyze callouts. According to Great River Energy, managers will measure the success of automated callout in two ways: First, the number of people reached through the system (versus a manual process) and the success rate for each call; second, how much time automation shaves off the callout process per event.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – February 22, 2021 – ARCOS^® LLC, the market leader for utility and critical infrastructure resource-management solutions, has implemented ARCOS Crew Manager® at Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO), so utility managers can not only see where, what and how long the co-op’s 40 service and construction crews are working but also create a digital snapshot of which crews and equipment are available minutes, hours or even weeks ahead.

“Crew Manager is an evolution from the ARCOS Callout and Scheduling Suite we installed in 2006,” said Ronnie Wise, Distribution Operations manager for SMECO. “ARCOS callouts use algorithms to call crews in the order our business processes dictate; with ARCOS, we’ve assembled 14-person crews in 24 minutes. Before that we made callouts by hand, one call at a time – it could take an hour to build a crew.”

During normal business hours, SMECO’s distribution system operators (DSOs) use Crew Manager alongside the work and outage management system to keep tabs on crews’ field work and customer appointments. Crew foremen, which SMECO calls operations supervisors, begin their shift and enter the status of crew members into Crew Manager. The software then tracks and computes hours worked, breaks and availability – on a dashboard for the DSOs.

To manage resources for a forecasted storm, SMECO’s managers access a visual display of the status, skill sets and location of crews and equipment in Crew Manager via color-coded icons. Managers drag and drop icons across the utility’s territory to create different restoration scenarios. If a scenario shows a gap because, say, a crew will have worked too many hours or there aren’t enough resources to cover a set of circuits, SMECO can reorder its plans in Crew Manager and quickly see an alternative or know precisely how many contractors to call on.

SMECO has also relied on Crew Manager during the COVID-19 pandemic to split its crews into blue and gold teams to better manage, or mitigate, a potential outbreak. The system allows DSOs to quickly see if a field assignment might cause crews from different teams to inadvertently converge at a work site, which helps to prevent crossover.

DSOs also rely on the crew management software to set up attributes, or badges, for resources. For instance, next to a truck’s serial number in Crew Manager, a DSO can link a color-coded badge reading “digger-derrick” or “single-bucket truck.” Before Crew Manager, SMECO relied on an ever-evolving number scheme to track truck types and other equipment.

Wise added, “Cooperatives that don’t have these systems will ask, ‘Why do I need to buy a software system to make calls and track crews when I have dispatchers?’

“We gave our DSOs these tools, so they can put more time into researching what crews need, or formulating a game plan for restoration,” said Wise. “In the midst of chaos, it’s made life less chaotic.”