Email Service Orders

Date: October 1st, 2009

Instead of printing and distributing hard copies of service order data to field personnel, you may want to consider using email to send the data. The service order can then be completed in the field and the results emailed back to the office so that office personnel may close the service order. This procedure has the following advantages over the hard copy distribution:

     Field personnel do not need to physically go to the office to get service order data.

     Service orders may be sent to the field upon demand.

     Field personnel can key in and send back data without the need to write anything.

     Copies of the service order request and the completed service order data may be routed to multiple parties.

A cell device with ample screen display lines, such as a Blackberry should be used in the field.

Example:

A customer calls the district office to report a problem such as water discoloration or a bad odor. A customer service representative in the office inputs the service order information and sends the data to field personnel who can then review the data on their cell device and proceed to the customer site. After the service order work is completed, the field personnel keys in the data such as date/time, meter read and comments on the problem. The data is emailed back to the district where a district customer service representative can close the service order.

The transmission from the server is accomplished using the SENDMAIL command which picks up the service order data and sends it to the default gateway internet router which, in turn, emails it to a cell device such as a Blackberry.

The completed service order data is emailed from the cell device to a district PC. A customer account representative uses this information to close the service order on the server.

See the diagram below.