Resco > Case Studies > How Alectris makes sure all technicians have the info they need thanks to resco.Guides

How Alectris makes sure all technicians have the info they need thanks to resco.Guides

Customer Company Size

SME

Region

Europe
America
Asia
Middle East

Country

Greece
Italy
United States

Product

resco.Guides
Resco Mobile CRM for Dynamics 365
ACTIS ERP

Tech Stack

Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft SharePoint

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Digital Expertise
Employee Satisfaction

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

Applicable Functions

Maintenance
Field Services

Use Cases

Remote Asset Management
Onsite Human Safety Management
Predictive Maintenance

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Alectris takes care of renewable energy assets. With roots in solar plant construction, it has grown into a global service and software provider. It operates in mature solar markets in Europe, the USA, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Alectris uses ACTIS ERP, its own proprietary renewable asset management and monitoring platform built on Dynamics 365. This helps it achieve optimum performance of assets, reduce internal and external costs, and streamline operations. ACTIS ERP consolidates technical, operational, and financial data and reporting into a single place. Alectris selected and implemented Resco Mobile CRM as its mobile app for field technicians. With its comprehensive suite of services & products, Alectris reduces risk and delivers maximum financial returns for solar investors & plant owners worldwide.

The Challenge

Alectris’s field site engineers fill thousands of work orders globally each year. They spend most of their time in the field, performing preventative and corrective maintenance. They take care of hardware made by various producers; the assets are very complex. The field engineers need to resolve issues quickly and efficiently, ideally on their own, without engaging anyone else. They need robust onboarding and swift access to manuals and documentation to do that. Senior and junior engineers need to share information on how to proceed with tasks. When a senior engineer leaves the company, their tribal knowledge must be retained. Alectris has used Microsoft SharePoint to keep some manuals and documentation in one place. It had several disadvantages. The engineers need to access everything on the go. They could not reach the cloud drive when they were in a place with low or no connection. The manuals and documents were uploaded by backoffice staff. They didn’t have a perfect overview of what the engineers needed. Some simple tasks were not documented. They have raised questions from junior engineers and kept the seniors busy answering them.

The Solution

Alectris chose resco.Guides to capture, standardize, and distribute all instructions. resco.Guides works with Alectris’s proprietary ERP software and is seamlessly aligned with Resco Mobile CRM. The company placed all the manuals and instructions directly into the Mobile CRM. Engineers use it daily, so it is a good spot to have everything at hand. They have the device with the app conveniently at hand while working. “Alectris engaged the engineers in creating the guides. Data, including photos, have been harvested in the field. The knowledge manager asked the technicians to suggest a number of guides that would be useful to have. Then he assigned these topics to field service engineers. He provided them with office hours to be able to create the guides. The most experienced technicians have written guides. After a guide was written, a knowledge manager in the back office reviewed it, designed it, and published it. Once the guide is uploaded, field engineers can access everything on the go, even with low or no connection.

Operational Impact

Quicker onboarding: The guides save time when onboarding new field service engineers. They quickly and conveniently provide them with a single source of information verified by the knowledge manager.
Saving the time of skilled staff: Instead of repeatedly answering the same queries from junior staff, senior staff members can now focus on other tasks.
Retaining important information: Complex tasks are now documented in the guides, meaning less technical information loss if an experienced engineer leaves the company.
Improving the days of field service engineers: In the guides, the field service engineers have all the information they need to fill their work orders. That means they need to spend less time googling manuals and calling colleagues. Every time, they are sure they have an up-to-date manual for the equipment they are inspecting or servicing. All the necessary information is accessible on the go, the guides load quickly and are readily available. Alectris’s field service engineers often work in rural areas with poor internet connection and having the guides available in offline mode is vital for them.

Quantitative Benefit