A couple of weeks ago, we caught up with Sean O’Brien, Market VP of Operations at Oregon Aerial Construction (OAC), a long-time Field Squared customer. We wanted to understand how using the field automation platform has impacted their field operations.
Sean, who started as a field technician at OAC, now oversees operations. OAC, the largest aerial telecommunications construction and maintenance company in the Pacific Northwest, serves customers along the West Coast and has grown to approximately 23 crews utilizing Field Squared.
Previously drowning in Paper
Before adopting Field Squared, OAC’s processes were manual, cumbersome, and time-consuming. Jobs were manually input into spreadsheets, printed, and handed to field workers in person. Technicians had to go to the office to receive them, and once on-site, sending or receiving information was challenging. Sean recalls, “We printed out 11 to 17 pages and handed them all out. When field workers returned, I had to hand-key everything back in. So, it was a lot of work trying to get work out to the guys, and if they wanted more work, we had to take pictures and send them to them. A lot of paper was involved, and it was much more work.”
A Flexible and Configurable Solution
Sean and one of his technicians collaborated with Field Squared’s customer support specialists to tailor the implementation to OAC’s specific needs. “It was really nice that we could build it how we wanted and make it fit how we wanted to use it,” Sean says. Now a self-proclaimed super-user, Sean has worked closely with the Field Squared team over the years, finding them supportive and responsive in making product improvements based on his feedback.
Significant Cost Savings
“By replacing our paper-based processes with Field Squared, OAC has saved about $12,000 annually just on printing costs. That’s how much we were going through because it was stacks of 800 sheets for one spreadsheet sometimes,” says Sean.
Greater Efficiency
Field Squared has streamlined the process of assigning jobs to field crews. Configured to OAC’s needs, job information can now be easily input and distributed. “I get jobs from a couple of my companies that are 3-4000 lines with multiple pieces of information. I can upload it, move it to how I need it, get it into Field Squared, and assign it to people in about 15 minutes,” Sean explains.
Improved Field Communication
Supporting teams in the field used to be difficult. Finding the poles was a challenge and assisting them once there was even harder. Sean now says, “If our field workers take a picture, we can see it almost immediately, and we can help them without having to do too much extra work.”
Fast and Easy Data Retrieval
With all data digitally available, retrieving information for field crews is now a breeze. “I have 65,000 job entries in Field Squared right now, and I can go back to any point on those 65,000, open an email and go, hey, I need this pole number. What’s going on with this? I can find it in five seconds and give them the information,” Sean shares.
Greater Crew Productivity
The ability to assign jobs remotely has significantly boosted the productivity of field crews, especially important given OAC’s expansion to around 23 crews using Field Squared. Sean notes, “Previously, crews had to return to the office to receive their next job. Now they can go straight on to their next job without waiting, so it’s made us more productive.”
As OAC’s operations continue to grow, Field Squared supports its mission to provide excellent customer service. “We give so much information to our clients or the companies we work for that now they tell other people, hey, we want you to use the same system because it is so much easier on us,” says Sean.
Field Squared has positively impacted other areas of OAC as well, including enabling OAC to realize revenue faster by reducing the time to invoice. Read the original case study here.
