Severn Trent Water is equipping its infrastructure field workforce with 1000 fully rugged Panasonic detachable notebooks to help improve operational efficiency and customer service.

The water company has invested in the Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 detachable notebooks for the long-term and as the ideal device for use alongside its development programme for more intuitive mobile applications.

The notebook, which can also be used as a standalone tablet, is being rolled out to Severn Trent Water’s infrastructure field workforce. The device will be the primary information, reporting and communication tool for the teams as they carry out maintenance and emergency repairs to their network.

The Panasonic Toughbook notebook will be used for receiving work instructions, reviewing utility and infrastructure maps and reporting, including photographic evidence to accompany electronic work records. The device can also be used for Skype communications with the operations centre to help improve efficiency and customer service by providing live updates from site.

John Vaughan, Technical Service Manager for Severn Trent Water commented:

“The ability to use the device as a tablet or a traditional notebook allows us to achieve operational efficiencies and customer service improvements today whilst ensuring we have a future-proof device for the long-term that will be ideal for our plans to develop more intuitive mobile applications for the workforce.”

 He explained that although today some of Severn Trent Water’s mobile applications require a keyboard for data input, moving forward the company was keen to develop more intuitive applications and that a device that could deliver both tablet and notebook functionality was ideal.

Panasonic also recommended the use of NetMotion Wireless software to improve connectivity and productivity for the workforce when in the field. With the old devices the Field Teams were frustrated by a lack of connectivity via 3G and 4G mobile signals in rural areas and regular connection drop-outs meant that data often had to be re-inputted.  More importantly, the delays in updates and receiving new jobs often had a negative impact upon customer service.

 John Vaughan added:

“With the new Panasonic devices and NetMotion Wireless we are seeing connectivity rise in testing from 68% to 80% plus in our region, which includes some of the most rural parts of the country. This has been an instant benefit.”

The rollout of the new devices started in September.