Being Pakistan’s largest telecommunication provider, PTCL holds an important strategic position in the sector as it provides services to not only the country’s corporate sector but also the other telecom providers nationwide. Before the implementation of LMKT’s digital solution, PTCL’s inspections of fiber cable cuts were carried out through a manual process. This mechanism was old and rife with all the usual headaches, including long waiting times between the manual entry in the field and receipt of information at the head office and multiple manual entries of information into the system. This already slow process was complicated further as no digital record of maintenance and restoration activities was being maintained. Spreadsheets used were extremely complicated and were subject to data tampering by the staff. As a result a lot of post-restoration work was needed to actually realize value from information.

Since the adoption of Field Forms, LMKT’s workforce management solution for the field staff, the overwhelming benefit has been the speed in which data collection is now being carried out. A combination of demonstrated benefits of Field Forms and the convenience and appeal of a device like a smartphone or tablet has meant that workers now want to use Field Forms over the older, traditional alternatives. PTCL was specifically in need of a system that made location specific projects possible at a nominal cost. In the telecommunications field, location of every disruption and restoration activity is important. Keeping accurate records that connect correct files and teams is vital for task verification and follow up. LMKT’s Field Forms allows PTCL’s managers, at all levels, the ability to monitor their teams’ progress in the field in real time. PTCL now has a fully scalable and readily adaptable solution that allows supervisors to verify potential threats and send out teams to exact cable cut locations for restoration. Reports of restorations, which previously took around a month’s time to get filed with the head office, are now filed in real time as well.

LMKT’s Field Forms has certainly helped PTCL save time in the field and in the office as the staff can report and process infrastructure related data easily and quickly. Employees are able to download, integrate and process data very easily because the reports are in a manageable format from the get go. Field Forms also increased the speed at which patrollers and OFC guards were able to update their managers on their daily progress. Using Field Forms also eliminated their concerns regarding data loss and tampering. The real time data availability allowed PTCL back office managers to call up their field staff on the fly if any updates to the data collection mechanisms were needed. This also allows PTCL to improve its own data collection processes in real time.

Auto GPS Logging of Records

Auto GPS logging of records has eliminated the need for a separate device. The automatic logging also eliminates the risk of incorrect recording of location as well as the risks associated with transcribing and sometimes transcoding that information.

Simplified Task Reporting

The ability for issues to be recorded and sent through in a structured report format to managers directly from the site has significantly reduced the lag associated with addressing issues. This feature has allowed for more efficient management of the 400+ member field staff, distributed all over Pakistan. A key challenge with field-based work is task assignment and making sure that high-performing staff always has enough to do. Field Forms allows managers to assign specific tasks to specific people and monitor their progress in real-time. Tasks can easily be reassigned to another person, if needed, thereby decreasing the number of interruptions in daily operations.

Linking Information to Correct Data Sets

PTCL needs its field staff to take photos and link them to the correct data set/report. Before LMKT’s Field Forms, threat and resolution reports were paper based and photos were captured separately and shared over a social communication app. They were later manually linked to each report. This was quite a cumbersome process that caused various mistakes. With Field Forms’ photo capture feature, PTCL was able to save a lot of time, cost and effort as the staff did not need to go back and do data entry on the desktop.

Data Collection in Remote Areas

PTCL also uses Field Forms’ capability to collect data and create complex forms offline. The offline information is then periodically synced with a central server so that data collection can be carried out smoothly even in remote areas where Wi-Fi and cellular services can be spotty even with 4G-enabled handsets. Through this offline data collection feature, teams can submit reports in real time and sync to server once they are back in the office or in a stable connection area.

Simple and Intuitive User Experience

PTCL needed and were provided with a solution  that proved to be simple to operate as much of their field staff is not particularly tech savvy. For them, Field Forms became a handy tool that was easy to use once they got the hang of it.