Clevest Solutions is one of the fastest growing private companies in BC, and Keith MacLachlan from Clevest Solutions came to the Inside Track Vancouver to talk about some of Clevest’s SAP integrated solutions. Clevest Solutions currently focuses on customers in utilities, hydro, and gas. As an SAP partner they deliver a complete solution including software, hardware, and services.
For many energy and utility companies, the corporate data sits on an enterprise system, but their employees work in the field! How do they use their enterprise systems to optimize their field operations? Clevest’s solutions wirelessly extend the office into the field. The Mobile Field Force Automation solution delivers service and work orders to the field via mobile devices. Workers in the field follow electronic business processes on their mobile devices.
Keith shared an example of an electric utility company in Texas with whom they are working to integrate their mobile solution on top of an SAP infrastructure. Outbound processes send relevant work order information from SAP ECC to the Clevest dispatcher using the SAP Exchange infrastructure. The work order is passed into the Clevest web server and then is pushed out to the mobile devices in the field. The representatives in the field interact directly with the SAP system through this infrastructure.
Keith gave a live demonstration of the interaction between the enterprise system and a mobile device as a work order is deployed from the enterprise system to a representative in the field. Business processes and data validation are built into the workflow for the exchange between the mobile worker and the enterprise system. The dispatcher can track the location and activity of the field employee through this system. The field representative can even take and attach photos which will be associated with a customer’s file.
Clevest is also preparing solutions to support the coming smart grids that will one day provision electricity to our cities. Keith showed a video of Vancouver at night to illustrate the amount of power that is being consumed in just this one city. When you imagine the power consumed by all the world’s cities it is apparent that we need a better way to manage power consumption. The smart grid will combine electricity distribution with monitoring devices that will measure the consumption of energy. This will combine the electrical distribution system with an information system. This will also result in a proliferation of new data collected by utility companies about their customers and their customers’ energy consumption.
As the planet becomes more energy smart, there is a great opportunity for transformation and for resource management and information tracking systems to make an impact on how we can more wisely use our resources. Keith’s presentation opened my eyes to the complexity of implementing a solution and the great influence SAP and our partners can have on transforming the world’s energy consumption practices in the future.
