CGI's Mobile Workforce Management Solution proves a powerful tool for PSE&G

“CGI and PSE&G have developed a very strong relationship over the past couple of years. We respect each other's expertise and work together to achieve success for both companies. Open communication and quick response are the two main reasons for the successful relationship we established.”

Paul W. Caffery, Manager, Asset Information and Systems Policy PSE&G

Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey's oldest and largest regulated electric and gas delivery utility. With 3.5 million customers and 6,400 employees, the company serves 300 communities across a 2,600 square mile territory.

PSE&G was facing increasing pressure to provide continued, steady earnings to shareholders despite regulatory uncertainty, economic softening, an aging infrastructure, and mounting customer expectations. The company needed to focus on utilizing technology to optimize utility operations and improve efficiencies. It therefore decided to implement a Universal Mobile Dispatching system to support smart resource decision-making, schedule work and complete tasks with the most economical crews, equipment and materials available. It connected with CGI's Utility Solutions team to implement its flexible and configurable Mobile Workforce Management solution.

The Challenge
PSE&G was looking for consistency, economy of scale and global support, but flexibility and the ability to seamlessly dispatch routine and emergency work across different departments was equally important. The Universal Mobile Dispatching system, which was replacing a first generation system installed in the '90s, would need to support several foundational applications, such as CGI's Outage Management Solution (OMS), SAP's Electric & Gas Delivery Work Management (DWMS) and Substation Computerized Maintenance Management (CMMS) systems, in order to provide end-to-end operations management in the areas of planning, construction and maintenance.

With more than one million orders worked per year, the new system would also need to schedule, assign, complete, and close the work of more than 1,300 crews daily. It would manage crews and materials through a real-time wireless network. In addition, it was imperative that it be tightly integrated with SAP and provide a common dispatching platform for multiple departments, including Distribution Operations, Construction, Maintenance and Markouts.

The system would also need to provide data collection capabilities to feed a condition-based maintenance management program targeted to reducing failures and overall maintenance costs.

The Strategy
As both the product vendor and integrator, CGI brought vast product expertise to the project. Moreover, because of CGI's breadth of knowledge in the utility sector, its experts spoke the same language as their PSE&G counterparts, which greatly impacted project efficiency.

“PSE&G was looking for a “state of the art” system that could not only meet the current requirements of PSE&G but be flexible enough to allow customization to meet future needs,” explained Paul W. Caffery, Manager - Asset Information & Systems Policy for PSE&G. “Upon evaluation, CGI was chosen because of their proven track record within the utility industry and the direction the company was taking.”

The CGI team focused fully on the deliverables involved. To facilitate this, they made effective communications a priority. Biweekly meetings were held with the client, executive sponsors were dedicated to the project, and the right resources were brought into the engagement at the right time. Open communication of deliverables and project progress was emphasized. Deadlines were driven by the client's business, and CGI pulled out all the stops to meet these deadlines.

“CGI and PSE&G have developed a very strong relationship over the past couple of years,” continued Mr. Caffery. “We respect each other's expertise and work together to achieve success for both companies. Open communication and quick response are the two main reasons for the successful relationship we established.”

The CGI team also focused on the tight integration with SAP. This aspect was a priority of the project and one of the system's most advanced features, providing interfaces for multiple operations and human resources tasks, including timesheets, order status, order uploads, HR upgrades, service entry creation, and notification creation and change, to name just a few.

CGI's strict adherence to standards and controls, as well as its open communication with PSE&G, kept the project on track.

“CGI brings to the table a strong utility background and proven success within the industry.” added Mr. Caffery. “They are very customer focused, which is demonstrated through their concerns and efforts in making the user group process a huge success. CGI asks its customers for feedback and suggestions on how to improve both their products and services. The associates are very professional and took the time to ensure the system functionality meets the utilities' needs.”

The Technology

• PragmaCAD – Automated dispatch and scheduling module
• PragmaROAD – Wireless gateway technology
• PragmaLINE – Outage and Network Management solution
• Database servers: Oracle / Sun
• Application servers: MS Windows 2000
• Workstations: Microsoft
• Mobile Computing Hardware: Panasonic

The Results
Implementation of CGI's Mobile Workforce Management solution has provided PSE&G with numerous benefits. Work management is now integrated into SAP, allowing for cross-organization work management, improvements in material forecasting, and more accurate financial reporting. The company now has a common dispatching and scheduling platform, interchangeable mobile units for fully optimized resource utilization across business units.

Storm restoration has been improved, with the dispatch of trouble orders now transmitted from CGI's OMS directly to crews. Administrative work has been decreased, while regulatory compliance has been reinforced. Customer estimate cycle time has been reduced, and customer service delivery is now highly responsive due to real-time information availability.

Moreover, PSE&G's associates now have an increased awareness of the value of data and information, with full cost data available outlining actual dollars and incurred costs, including material. Attention to data accuracy is also more focused.

“CGI's Outage Management solution has been identified as one of PSE&G's core systems related to our success,” concluded Mr. Caffery. “With the implementation of the Outage and Workforce Management solutions, we are now able to track and respond to initial trouble work and associated follow up work required. Since we began using the CGI integrated system, we can now dispatch outage work orders directly to our construction crews, thereby reducing our response time to emergencies.”