Wheatley Associates Launches Assign

Replacing Wheatley Associates’ previous generation GRASP software suite, Assign also features improved performance and back-office infrastructure integration.

“Multi-dimensional scheduling requirements demand new ideas and new thinking and the launch of Assign delivers on this promise,” said Jeremy Goulding, CEO of Wheatley Associates. “The enhanced capabilities and performance that Assign delivers reflect the importance and exacting demands that field service organisations place on the automation of their operations. Assign maximises field workforce efficiency, increases productivity and integrates seamlessly with existing back-office systems, taking mobile and field workforce management and scheduling to a fundamentally new level.”

Assign provides a powerful, browser-based appointment booking, work scheduling, operative tracking and mobile communications solution for managing any size field workforce in real-time. It dynamically balances work allocations and takes account of changing events to maximise productivity and ensure the optimal use of costly resources, while also ensuring customer service commitments are met.

Assign is applicable to a broad range of markets from the public sector and housing associations through to the utilities, facilities management, engineering services, capital equipment, construction and logistics industries.

Assign’s intuitive user interface and job booking wizard significantly eases the initial job booking process, enabling customer service operatives to book jobs directly on to the scheduler with visual prompts of optimal appointment options. Additionally, Assign can be easily interfaced to existing call centre systems. Once jobs are booked, Assign’s sophisticated, proprietary scheduling algorithm allocates work to maximise the efficiency and productivity of the workforce, using its detailed knowledge of all the available operatives, pre-planned work and existing customer service commitments.

Assign’s powerful mobile communications technology enables work schedules to be dispatched directly to operatives’ PDAs either one job at a time or as a sequenced list. Operatives use the PDAs to capture data about the job, recording data inputs such as access information, parts used, additional requirements and completion authorisation, thereby reducing errors and minimising back-office overheads. By constantly monitoring feedback as jobs progress, Assign can dynamically re-schedule work and re-output jobs to an operative as needed. Assign’s integrated mapping display, visualised on any popular web-based map, tracks the location of each operative in relation to the route that has been planned.

Assign fits neatly into existing IT infrastructures. Industry-standard interfaces enable it to be easily integrated with most current back-office applications. Wheatley Associates manages the integration task directly with third-party software vendors on behalf of clients. Assign also features an optional profit and loss reporting module enabling profitability analysis to be undertaken by customer, invoice, month or job.

“The launch of Assign delivers a comprehensive and user-friendly scheduling solution for improving mobile field workforce efficiency and productivity,” concluded Jeremy Goulding. “It puts the right skills in the right place at the right time, automatically creating hundreds of operatives’ schedules, quickly determining the optimum workload distribution and minimising fleet management costs. Assign balances the complex issues of efficiency and customer satisfaction in the context of any size of field workforce.”