Working Remotely with T Mobile and Firstline Digital
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T-Mobile’s network coverage drives innovation for Firstline Digital’s mobile workforce
Industry: Digital Installation Services
Number of Employees: 1,000
Number of Subcontractors – 1,000
Number of Locations / Offices: 4 - Chester, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh
Solution: 800 T-Mobile MDA Compact III devices, 50 Motorola Devices and 20 T-Mobile SIMs all using T-Mobile Mobile Broadband
Key Quotes:
“The strength of the T-Mobile network combined with its technical support and good value tariff made it the obvious choice for our needs. T-Mobile has continued to build on its mobile broadband speed and coverage over the years, which has greatly benefited our business.”
“T-Mobile understood our business needs and responded to them with a tailored offering to keep our expense to a minimum. As our system relies so heavily on mobile broadband, we see this as an investment rather than an expense.”
Mike Cooke, Managing Director of Firstline Digital
Company Background
Firstline Digital is the UK's leading supplier of digital installation services. It is one of only three nationally approved SKY installation partners and works with an ever growing list of companies as well as maintaining and growing its residential clientele. It is also one of the key Digital Switchover experts in the UK, helping make the transition from analogue to digital signal as smooth as possible for its customers. With high standards of customer care, the company is constantly looking at new ways it can use technology to streamline its processes and improve customer service.
The Challenge
Firstline Digital aims to offer the fastest turnaround possible for all its installations, frequently committing to carrying out jobs booked before noon by the next day. To ensure such a fast turnaround, seamless connectivity between its call centre, distribution centre and engineers is essential. Software company Alternative Logic implemented their field management solution for Firstline Digital to relay information in real time between engineers and distribution centres regarding the status of engineers, jobs, inventory and customers.
Accessing and inputting information into this system is an essential part of the smooth running of the engineers’ working days, as the software acts as a schedule of their daily jobs and a log for their updates on jobs completed. This information is always accessible to the customer service centres, which means that any enquiries from customers or work providers can be addressed with live, detailed and accurate information.
In order to gain the most from the system, Firstline Digital required extensive mobile broadband coverage, through which all information is transmitted. With engineers travelling across the whole of the UK, access to the system from the most remote, rural locations is key.
Mike Cooke, Managing Director of Firstline Digital, comments, “We know that nobody wants to wait for installation. That's why we're totally set up for fast turnaround. We work closely with Alternative Logic to ensure our back end system is as streamlined and efficient as possible. Finding the right network operator was a crucial step in progressing our business, as the entire system relies on extensive network coverage and a good value tariff.”
The Solution
Firstline Digital carried out extensive tests to determine the operator which could offer the best network coverage at an affordable price. The tests conclusively revealed T-Mobile’s coverage to be the most consistently reliable across the UK and the company therefore selected a range of PDAs and mobile phones through T-Mobile including 800 T-Mobile MDA Compact III devices.
Since making its decision to use T-Mobile in 2005, Firstline Digital has been very impressed by the continued improvements to network speed. T-Mobile’s network coverage now serves over 99 per cent of the UK population. Its high speed Mobile Broadband network is capable of supporting mobile broadband speeds of up to 4.5Mb per second, which is important for businesses such as Firstline which rely so wholly on constant fast access to mobile broadband.
“As network coverage is so crucial to our business we wanted to assess it independently. The strength of the T-Mobile network combined with its technical support and good value tariff made it the obvious choice for our needs. T-Mobile has continued to build on its mobile broadband speed and coverage over the years, which has greatly benefited our business,” says Cooke.
The Benefits
Simplicity of use
Firstline Digital worked with T-Mobile to select devices that would offer the most flexibility and scope for further development of the system. Its engineers now use 800 T-Mobile T-Mobile MDA Compact III devices alongside several other PDAs. Its QWERTY keyboards are useful for filling in the online forms, and stylus pens are used to capture customer signatures. The large touch screens make it easy to see information clearly, make calls, access the internet and check emails.
Cooke comments, “The functions and design of the T-Mobile MDA Compact III devices from T-Mobile made them one of the most appropriate devices for us to do business. The feedback we have had from the engineers has been extremely positive.”
Value for money
With so much of its communication relying on mobile broadband, Firstline Digital also needed a tariff that would not penalise the company for its extensive usage of this service. Firstline Digital has a corporate monthly billing plan with T-Mobile and Cooke is satisfied that the company receives excellent value for money.
“T-Mobile understood our business needs and responded to them with a tailored offering to keep our expense to a minimum. As our system relies so heavily on mobile broadband, we see this as an investment rather than an expense.”
Scope for development
With a reliable infrastructure in place and a good value price plan, Firstline Digital has been able to extend its use of mobile broadband, introducing Alternative Logic’s vehicle tracking to its company fleet. Alternative Logic embedded software, hardware and T-Mobile SIMs within the vehicles to track and send data regarding a range of information including the vehicle location, speed, fuel consumption and driving style to help users to reduce their carbon footprint while at the same time saving costs for the company.
This improved transparency leads to better customer service, including accurate estimated times of arrival. As well as producing up to date information, the system stores all the data from the journey, which can be analysed to produce reports, identifying areas where efficiency can be improved. Contractors such as the SKY and EAGA (Contractors for the BBC switchover help scheme) can also access relevant information regarding the status of jobs via a portal, also designed by Alternative Logic.
Cooke comments, “It is early days for our use of vehicle tracking but we already recognise that this technology can help improve our service, by offering greater transparency of our procedures to our customers.”
The Future
As its business expands in different areas, such as its work for the Digital Switchover, Firstline aims to continually improve its services. In the future the company would like to use technology to automate more of its processes, further capitalising on its use of Alternative Logic’s advanced software and T-Mobile’s high speed mobile broadband. Amongst other things this would allow the company to dynamically schedule appointments, increasing efficiency throughout the organisation.
Cooke concludes, “We have come a long way since our early days as a paper-based organisation and our profits and growth reflect our investment in new technology.
We are confident in the ability of T-Mobile and Alternative Logic to match our own advances with a reliable and fast network infrastructure and provide us with a high standard of support as we grow our business.”
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