For service organizations, location-based services are no longer a luxury. Ensuring hundreds of field technicians arrive at service calls on time, work efficiently and complete all of their jobs every day is an absolute necessity. Workforce management solutions are extending beyond automated scheduling to include LBS features such as street-level routing to provide technicians the best route to get from job to job.

Dr. Moshe BenBassat

Street-level routing (SLR) gives dispatchers and managers the information they need to make smart scheduling decisions. It removes the guesswork so routes can be mapped efficiently - ensuring technicians spend more time completing jobs and less time driving.

It's also table stakes for most service organizations that want to compete effectively.

Progressive service organizations are turning to next-generation SLR, which combines real-time intelligence with automated routing to enable drivers and dispatchers to react immediately to traffic situations, helping minimize or eliminate any impact on scheduling. Intelligent SLR coupled with automated decision support technology helps service organizations optimize their workforce scheduling, which provides better customer service so organizations can strengthen customer relationships, minimize travel time, boost productivity and increase revenues.

RUNNING THE ROUTE
SLR blends detailed, current maps with geographic information system (GIS) points. When combined with effective workforce management technology, SLR enables companies to plan routes across the entire field workforce. SLR eliminates the inherent problems with linear distance or "as the crow flies" route planning. Congested neighborhoods, slow-moving highways, 1-way streets and natural boundaries such as rivers or mountains all slow travel - even though two job sites may be close in linear distance.

When service organizations incorrectly estimate travel time between two points, they pay more for fuel, vehicle wear and tear, periodic maintenance, etc. Worse, estimated arrival times change, ultimately affecting customer satisfaction.

Suppose a mobile worker has six jobs to handle today and the company has accurately estimated travel times for all jobs except for between the third and fourth task. If the company is lucky, it overestimated the travel time and merely lost the chance to increase productivity and revenues by squeezing in yet one more task. Underestimation means the technician will likely be late to the last three jobs, and may not even make the sixth job that day. Because organizations set out to match field technician capacity to workload, it is unlikely a dispatcher will find an available worker close enough and not committed to another job to "jump in" and take one of the remaining tasks.

Using SLR incorporated with global positioning system (GPS) and workforce optimization software not only lets organizations know where their technicians are and where they need to go, it also automatically adjusts the schedule to address unforeseen events and delays. For example, if a technician is 40 minutes late leaving for the next job, the system can find another technician who is ahead of schedule and close enough to the first technician's second job to cover the schedule.

A PERSONAL HELICOPTER
Next-generation SLR leverages new data points such as real-time traffic updates to make sure field technicians avoid the traffic jams and other problems that delay on-time delivery and affect the rest of their schedules. This approach enables service organizations to dynamically select the shortest travel time - not necessarily the shortest distance - to minimize time on the road and maximize productivity and efficiency.

Most existing SLR systems rely on static GIS data, and can't predict if new construction or a vehicle accident will cause a 30-minute delay. By incorporating real-time traffic updates into their SLR-enabled workforce management systems, companies can change drivers' routes on the fly to avoid traffic delays caused by accidents, construction, traffic jams and other unexpected events.

In this approach, the company's workforce management system receives online traffic updates on an as-needed basis, and compares that information to the GIS routes between jobs. If the traffic updates indicate a problem, the scheduling system can automatically reroute field technicians to a faster route via dispatchers or direct messages to mobile devices.

Traffic is not the only thing that can change unpredictably. Every service organization knows the situation when urgent jobs have to be squeezed into an already-tight schedule. In such a case, it is important to know the time it would take for each mobile worker to arrive on the scene. Estimating travel times based on linear distances will often lead to responding far too late. On the other hand, combining SLR and traffic updates delivers exactly the required accuracy.

As with any workforce management solution, the technology should be flexible enough to let the company set rules on how to handle different scenarios. For example, managers can determine whether to have the system automatically reroute field technicians and push the schedule out (based on the anticipated delay), or do it manually. Larger organizations with busy field workforces likely will choose to automate the process while smaller organizations may choose to handle traffic-related situations on a case-by-case scenario.

This smart SLR is like having a personal traffic helicopter watching every route, delivering online traffic updates to help maintain an efficient schedule, and when needed - changing the work assigned to each mobile worker. Online traffic updates tied to SLR-enabled workforce management systems are another important step toward the creation of the real-time service enterprise where mobile workforces are more efficient, productive and responsive to customer needs.

BenBassat is founder, chairman and CEO of ClickSoftware.