With NEO Mobile, customers benefit from shortened deployment times. These come from fast data transfer, the solution’s ease of use, and simplified material management.
Customer benefits
Customer
FairNetz GmbH
Branch
Energy Networks
Contact
Stefan Westermayr
Team Leader SAP Customer Service and Asset Management
+49 89 456785839
Contact us
In 2010, FairNetz GmbH implemented a decentralized workforces management system based on SAP. At present, around 100 industrial employees and 16 trainees are scheduled via Workforce Management. For mobile use, the Reutlingen-based company used MAM/MAU based on SAP MI (Mobile Infrastructure) until recently. However, with support expiring at the end of 2017, the network operator decided to replace the existing system.
The most important criterion for the new mobile solution: the technology must function as far as possible as an SAP standard and be state-of-the-art. In addition, administration and maintenance of the new system will be outsourced to a service provider.
From a single source: development, implementation, support
As a long-standing SAP partner, implementation and support specialist, we, Axians NEO Solutions & Technology GmbH, can meet precisely this need. “The introduction of our workforce management had already been carried out previously by NEO,” explains Markus Digel, Head of Coordination Order Control at FairNetz GmbH. “We’ve always been extremely happy with the support and wanted to continue on that basis.” In addition to improved synchronization times and holistic support, the project had another requirement in store: the ease of use of the new mobile solution. “We have employees who didn’t grow up in the smartphone generation. So it’s important for us that as much information as possible is pre-selected when the technician enters his data on site.”
NEO Mobile takes over proven functions
Due to the requirements described, we decided to introduce our specially developed NEO Mobile. It is considered the leading mobile solution for order and message management, material and business partner management, and technical object management. Based on the question of which functions could be taken over from the old MAM/ MAU client, we created a prototype for the Reutlinger. We proceeded according to agile project management methods. “The Scrum method has proven to be very efficient for us. We spoke on the phone twice a week with our contacts on the NEO side and were thus able to immediately tip in adaptation requests. This enabled us to achieve success particularly quickly,” Digel is pleased to report. The project approach resulted in another plus point for FairNetz GmbH: The tickets maintained by the NEO developers in the internal Wiki serve as documentation for the network operator. “This way, we don’t have to record the project steps additionally with us.”
Cloud skepticism proves to be unfounded In contrast to the legacy system, we relied on the cloud variant with NEO Mobile. “Before, a cloud solution was not even conceivable for us for security reasons. Today, however, we can say that our data is very secure,” emphasizes Dirk Ulbricht, Head of Information Technology. For FairNetz GmbH, the use of its own servers is thus obsolete. “The entire infrastructure is no longer an issue for us. We have an absolutely stable and highly available system for the technicians on site.”
Easy data acquisition, instant synchronization
The switch to NEO Mobile means much shorter synchronization times for FairNetz GmbH. Today, data transfer takes only 20 to 40 seconds. Using a smartphone or tablet, technicians can directly access the data required for the respective maintenance operation and record order and confirmation data online and offline and post it back to SAP – without any errors. Whereas technicians could only capture their own data in the past, each endpoint now has multi-user operation. This allows operations managers to transfer the times of the entire team. The intuitive user interface makes data collection much more user-friendly.
And yet another function makes the technicians’ everyday work easier. With NEO Mobile, they can now “look into the warehouse online” to create material reservations. The physical journey to the warehouse is eliminated, which in turn saves time and costs per operation.
NEO Mobile makes my day-to-day work much easier. At the customer's site, I can view our stock levels and reserve or reorder spare parts at the touch of a button - that's a function I no longer want to do without.
Electrical engineer, FairNetz GmbH
Conclusion and outlook
“Thanks to the simple and fast operation, the use of modern end devices and the simplified material management, we were able to increase our employees’ acceptance of a mobile solution many times over,” says Digel, describing the benefits. The greatly reduced operating times save costs and the operating agreement with the municipal utilities is now being overfulfilled. And what happens next? NEO Mobile is continuously being expanded with new functions. Currently, for example, a checklist function that makes on-site data entry even more intuitive and efficient.
About FairNetz GmbH
FairNetz GmbH, based in Reutlingen, operates the electricity, natural gas and drinking water supply networks in the region with around 350 employees. Fairnetz GmbH is committed to modern technologies, environmentally friendly solutions and the responsible use of resources. With a wide range of services, it contributes to strengthening the regional infrastructure.
