NWL FA Full Width

We try to invest our money back into our operating regions wherever possible. The quality and value that Shout deliver makes that a very easy decision. We have worked with them over a period of several years now, developing apps for our customers and employees. They have been great to work with.

Nigel Watson

Chief Innovation Officer - Northumbrian Water

An image of a woman interacting with her phone

Improved UX

An image of a calendar

Informed scheduling

A diagram showing connected digital processes

Powerful integrations

Phase 1

The challenge

Consolidating work management into a single application

Field operatives were previously using a combination of disparate devices to carry out their work onsite.

Integrating with their digital ecosystem

Building a solution that would work alongside Northumbrian Water’s existing applications was vital to limit the disruption and expense of significant change to back office processes.

Delivering robust offline capability

Teams were often working in remote locations where connectivity could prevent them from accessing necessary systems.
Shoutdigital A Group Of Friendly Looking Men In A Hard Hats Mak B9792dcc 834E 4046 B5d1 653B89a9c2a3

Phase 2

The approach

By analysing the challenges experienced in the field, we were able to implement business rules that allowed field teams to capture key data and complete essential tasks in as few steps as possible, for a clean and frictionless user journey. We harnessed remote storage and activity queuing to make sure connectivity would not interfere with productivity.

The simple interface surfaces a host of complex integrations. Utilising Microsoft .NET MAUI and the Azure Cloud app service, we delivered an application that worked seamlessly with Northumbrian Water’s complex architecture, and made their existing systems work harder for them by taking advantage of the functionality available via mobile.
NWL Fa Tiles New

Personnel coordination

Fieldworkers were able to view shifts, sign in for work and log their availability to perform tasks, with all of their information and progress updates being transferred back to corporate systems when connectivity was available.  

Task management

Making use of geolocation to be able to allocate themselves to nearby jobs, maintenance operatives and technicians could access and update all information and attachments relating to a task, using the camera and QR code scanning to efficiently provide comprehensive job information  as efficiently as possible. 

Customer communication

We made reaching customers effortless, with the ability to make in-app calls or texts and employing the Google Maps API to provide directions without the need to locate customer information.

Phase 3

The outcome

At its heart the project aimed to further Northumbrian Water’s efforts to cultivate a winning employee experience, by providing the tools to make jobs easier. But in the process the app has become fundamental to the delivery of their water services, achieving significant benefits to operations and making a positive contribution to the customer experience. 

 

 Field based teams are spending more time solving problems and less time on admin, while the greater visibility of their activity has enabled the group to set achievable KPI’s, improve on resolution times and identify further opportunities to streamline their field processes.   

 

The success of this project led to our appointment to work on Northumbrian Water’s customer facing app and we’re proud to continue supporting them in strengthening their digital initiatives, through our ongoing software partnership. 

Looking to achieve something similar? 

Book a call with our team to discuss how we can help.

Let's talk Let's talk

Related content

Novuna Thumb (1)

Novuna

Multisite Umbraco estate driving £40m in daily revenue opportunity for leading finance provider.

Read more Nwl Thumb (1)

Northumbrian Water CX

An industry-leading experience delivering improved CX through personalised and integrated service.

Read more Smtb Thumb (1)

ShareMyToolbox

An award winning tool inventory app combatting widespread asset losses in the construction industry.

Read more