asset management

A D V EE RR TT II SS E M E N T
[ C A S E S T U D Y ]
To put it simply, the Toughbook implementation has helped
British Gas achieve unusually high customer-satisfaction levels
— the Holy Grail of all enterprises trying to increase market share,
profits and ROI via new business acquisition and retention.
Another utility company that has used cutting-edge mobile computing
and communications technology to lead its industry in customer
satisfaction is Arizona’s Salt River Project, recipient of the 2004 J.D.
Power and Associates Distinction for Electric Utilities Award.
SRP, which uses fully ruggedized Panasonic notebooks such
as the Toughbook CF-29—a MIL-STD-810F-tested, Centrino-compliant
portable—reports that increased use of rugged portable
computers in the field has resulted in substantial savings in both
dollars and personnel hours.
And, SRP says, those are only some of the benefits attributable
to the Toughbook deployment. Others include increased work crew
efficiency, better communications and scheduling, safety improvements
related to having the most current electric maps available
for each job, safety improvements related to a decrease in miles
driven to obtain maps and support at field offices, decreased radio
and cell-phone traffic, an increase in customer service quality and
a decrease in the amount of time customers are out of service.
Since SRP’s corporate culture orbits around customer service,
the last two items on that very impressive laundry list are arguably
the most important. The company’s 2004 rating of 112 on J.D.
Power’s utility customer satisfaction list outranked that of every
other electricity supplier in the U.S., and company officials plan to
do at least that well this year.
SRP managers attribute a good part of their long-term customer
honeymoon to the company’s policy of constantly upgrading and
updating their mobile computing capability, adding applications
and enhancements as they become available rather than waiting
for the end of their hardware’s life cycle to renew the system.
While companies throughout the utility spectrum are faced with
the challenge of increasing profits without raising rates, there is no
place where the shift to a new earnings model is more dramatic
than in the cable television and telephone industries.
Faced, for the first time, with competition from other cable
companies as well as satellite providers, cable operators in many
parts of the country are fighting increasingly bitter market-share
wars. Rates are going down, the number of basic, nonpremiumtier
channels is going up, and customer acquisition and retention
enhancements like HDTV receivers or personal video recorders
are being offered at cost or below. Despite all these factors, surveys
still identify dissatisfaction with customer service as the most
common cause of television provider churning.
If market conditions in the broadcast-delivery business are
chaotic, those in the telephone industry are in a state of complete
bedlam. According to some surveys, the number of households
that switched local telephone providers increased by more than
60 percent in 2003-2004, with more than 10 percent of all U.S.
telephone users either changing their primary carrier or abandoning
traditional copper-wire service completely.
Virtually every consumer willing to spend 30 minutes in online
research can find a cellular provider offering them an almost unlimited
number of online minutes, free voicemail, free long distance and
free nationwide roaming for less than $50 a month. And they are
willing to deliver all this service, as well as a “free” phone, directly to
the customer’s mailbox, thus changing the service equation from a
standoff — sitting at home waiting for an installer vs. standing in line
at a cell phone store — to a win for the cellular provider.
Given the advantages of reasonable monthly costs, free longdistance,
no in-home service calls and portability, it’s no surprise
that increasing numbers of Americans are firing their landline
phone companies.
“Utility professional
continually trust the
Toughbook CF-29 and
convertible
Toughbook CF-18 for
rugged reliability and
industry-leading uptime
at a significantly lower
total cost of ownership.”
Responding to this pressure, many traditional phone providers
have relinquished some of their most historically cherished profit centers
to maintain market share. Package plans bundling unlimited local
and long distance calling and a range of premium services — everything
from call waiting and voice mail to distinctive ring tones and, in
some cases, DSL — for a fixed, cut-rate price are proliferating.
Making money while offering customers more bells and whistles
for fewer dollars demands rigorous attention to cost control
and employee productivity. Getting customers to subscribe — and
stay subscribed — to those packages, regardless of their value,
requires an almost obsessive focus on customer service. “While
price will always be an important factor, satisfying customers has
become more about the quality of the relationship and the provider,”
says telephone industry analyst Steve Kirkeby.
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