To guarantee safety, improve efficiency, and meet regulatory requirements, electrical utilities must collect reliable, consistent, and accurate data from a vast range of inspections and field operations, including pole inspections, vegetation management tasks, and more.
Too often, however, utilities rely on contractors or field workers who arrive on-site with their own set of digital or non-digital inspection tools. In most cases, using different collection methods leads to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in data, culminating in an overall unreliability that does not meet a minimum standard for efficient or effective service.
With the advent of user-friendly, cloud-based inspection software, electrical utilities should insist that their contractors use a single, standardized Software as a Service (SaaS) digital inspection platform to ensure the utmost consistency and accuracy.
Benefits of using a single field inspection platform
Join us as we look at what a leading field inspection management platform can bring to utilities and why all their employees and contractors should only be using one system.
Continuity of Results. A single platform ensures a standard methodology in data collection across various inspections and operations. This uniformity paves the way for comparable, consistent, and reliable results, eliminating the disparities that often arise from multiple tools and methods. With a single source of truth for all field data, utilities can confidently derive actionable insights to drive operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve service delivery.
Ease of Updates. A single, cloud-based platform like Fulcrum promotes agility and responsiveness to changes on the fly. Managers can conveniently push new tasks, SOPs, or updates from the office to all workers simultaneously and in real-time, ensuring swift and uniform adoption. This not only saves time and effort but also ensures that no worker is left behind or working with outdated instructions.
Real-Time Monitoring. Fast and seamless communication and data sharing puts an extra set of eyes on site. To start, real-time monitoring helps guide inexperienced workers through inspections. And in the case of critical situations or emergencies, real-time visibility provides instantaneous insight from the field. Timely data empowers decision-makers to understand the situation as it unfolds, react swiftly, allocate resources more efficiently, reduce downtime, and adjust strategies.
Integration with GIS. Advanced electrical utilities inspection software like Fulcrum integrates seamlessly with Esri and other Geographic Information System (GIS) platforms, bringing spatial intelligence to field operations. By automatically geotagging results with coordinates, inspection platforms provide a geographical context to the collected data. With geographical data tied to each piece of information, utilities can easily map their operations, track progress in different regions, and make location-specific decisions, all of which enhance the effectiveness of field operations and inspections.
Coordination with Your GIS and Back Office. Using a single platform enables seamless integration and coordination between field operations and back-office processes, a bi-directional flow of data that mitigates data silos. And with better coordination and data sharing, inspection platforms ensure that decisions are made with complete knowledge of the situation, yielding optimal operational effectiveness, and fostering a unified workforce.
The power of unity
With the resources they invest in field workers and contractors, electrical utilities deserve to receive the best, most reliable, consistent, and accurate data. And given the critical nature of the work, utilities shouldn’t settle for whatever tools, methods, or platforms employees show up with, risking not just inspection or operational quality but potentially wider and deadlier hazards. Working for you, employees should be using the best field inspection software – Fulcrum.
As for contractors, it’s in their best interest to adopt Fulcrum too, even if certain utilities might not be using it yet. With its compatibility and integration capabilities, Fulcrum offers the flexibility to integrate with any system in place, including in-house and bespoke solutions.
In the drive for reliable data and efficient operations, Fulcrum lets electrical utilities embrace the power of unity and illuminate the path to improved service delivery.
Hey, electrical utilities – want to learn more about Fulcrum can save you time and money and help streamline your field operations? Hit us up for a no-obligation conversation to see what Fulcrum can do for you!