SYDNEY WATER – DOWNER PIPETECH

Intro

Downer Pipetech is a service vendor with over 18 years of experience working on major commercial and civil projects across both government and private sectors, and is contracted to manage and execute field services jobs on behalf of Sydney Water.

Offering a full range of plumbing services that include water services construction, sewage works, underground boring and excavation, and plant hire, Downer Pipetech is also the largest provider of main to meter services in Australia.

Back in 2005, Downer Pipetech (then ITS Pipetech) was one of 15 contractors performing mains to meter services for Sydney Water.

Growing the business profitably required gaining operational efficiencies in the back office and generating productivity gains in the field, coupled with stronger management of compliance, health and safety, finance and audit reporting.Today, Downer Pipetech is one of the utility’s preferred plumbing suppliers as a result of its outstanding performance.

They manage in excess of 30,000 jobs per annum for Sydney Water alone, maintaining the assets between the water main and water meter, as well as meter assembly.

The Challenge

Before ConnectiX, Downer Pipetech were struggling to dispatch, monitor and manage their field services staff.

Back-office process required six full-time staff that manually allocated, dispatched, managed and collated the job sheets for the 24 field workers.

The Solution

With ConnectiX, Downer Pipetech is able to automatically receive jobs from Sydney Water, dispatch to field staff, have field staff enter and comply with health and safety requirements, hazard checklists and other key documentation, and automatically update Sydney Water with job status and details.

The flexible configuration of ConnectiX has enabled Downer Pipetech to automate its best practice processes at both the operational and the field level. Through ConnectiX, Downer Pipetech is able to provide Sydney Water with a variety of information online and in real-time, including safety forms, site arrival and departure dates, DBYD plans, a record of activities performed by crews and job deadlines.

The company has been able to reduce overheads by 28 per cent per annum and increase KPIs for Sydney Water from 54 per cent to 95 per cent.

In comparison to the monthly subscription fee, ConnectiX represents a significant return on investment.

The Outcome

ConnectiX has delivered the following benefits:

• Increased OHS through guided workflows and hazard checksֿ
• Increased data accuracy from the field, especially with regards to inventory usage and time-sheetingֿ
• Substantial time reduction related to recalling job information for audit and warranty claims (10 per cent of all work)ֿ
• Full visibility of the field including location, safety compliance, job status and GPS integrationֿ
• Rapid adoption in the field as it enhanced their strong culture of innovationֿ
• Increase in the average years of service