Seeka
Scheduling greater safety with Seeka
Energy theft is not just illegal. It’s also a costly and dangerous crime. There are also the financial implications. According to Ofgem, around £1.4 billion of energy is stolen in the UK each year, adding over £50 to every energy bill; as well as the significant safety implications. Put simply, tampering with gas and electricity supplies kills people.
For these reasons, energy suppliers have a regulatory obligation to investigate suspected energy theft. When they believe that theft may be occurring, they have a duty to investigate, and it’s often the team at Seeka, which is engaged to do the job.
Seeka, a part of M Group Services’ Energy Division, is an end-to-end revenue protection service. Providing specialist end-to-end energy theft and resolution services across the domestic and commercial utilities market, Seeka visits sites where a concern has been raised, inspects the energy supply, and if theft is taking place, makes the equipment safe. Every case is different and Seeka was looking for a scheduling solution that would help manage the unpredictable timings of their work and help make communities safer for everyone.
"Implementing Schedule Smart has been a really smooth process. Now we’re making vulnerable people and dangerous sites safe faster than ever."
The challenge
Scott Manson, Head of Seeka, explains:
“We are engaging with people in situations where we may not only be unwelcome, but on occasions, actively blocked from carrying out our services.”
This is one of the team’s major challenges, with the potential to derail field staff’s daily schedule when they must attend a site for longer than planned. With a number of unpredictable factors, scheduling Seeka’s highly-trained mobile workforce has always been complex.
It’s imperative Seeka makes efficient use of its resources to ensure health and safety compliance and meet its Service Level Agreements for clients. Scott knew there were likely to be efficiency gains that only a smarter scheduling system could deliver.
Our solution
Schedule Smart from Triopsis is our AI-driven scheduling solution designed specifically for the utilities sector, and the only tool of its kind on the market.
Schedule Smart takes account of the many variables that can affect scheduling for Seeka’s mobile workforce – including driving distances, skillsets, authorisations and SLA requirements – and delivers efficient, optimised schedules at the push of a button.
Scott says:
“Investing in Triopsis technology has speeded up our planning process, creating more efficient ways of working. It allows us to get the right people to the right job more efficiently, because the system plans the most efficient routes.”
“Working with Triopsis to implement Schedule Smart has been a smooth process, and ultimately, it means we’re protecting vulnerable people and making dangerous sites safe faster than ever. That really is the biggest gain for us.”
"Working with Triopsis to implement Schedule Smart has been a smooth process, and ultimately, it means we’re protecting vulnerable people and making dangerous sites safe faster than ever. That really is the biggest gain for us."
The Triopsis difference
Seeka’s gains are supported by some key figures that reveal just how effective our AI-driven Schedule Smart solution really is.
Seeka’s compliance metrics have improved too. First visits are, on average, being carried out two days quicker than before, and jobs being completed on average, two weeks earlier than before. Scott’s team has always met its compliance targets, but Schedule Smart, has helped create the opportunity to provide even better training, development and mentoring for the team.
This has created extra capacity for us. By using this efficiency to develop our people they benefit from and so do our clients, as we get even better and quicker at what we do.”
These are business benefits that are tangible – but Scott keeps coming back to the major goal that drives his entire team.
Making vulnerable customers and dangerous sites safe, fast, is the right thing to do,” he says. With Schedule Smart, we’ve achieved real safety improvements and gained benefits for our clients, our people and our business. The benefits it brings are visible to everyone.”
Facing the future
Seeka’s readiness to invest in new technology has clearly been reaping rewards. As early adopters of Schedule Smart, Scott has been able to see how it could benefit his business more widely.
We are starting to look at where else we can realise these benefits. There are other workstreams where I suspect it could make a real difference for us.
And as a part of M Group Services – one of the largest essential infrastructure services providers in the UK and Ireland – we’re now asking whether similar benefits could be achieved elsewhere in the Group,” adds Scott.
Ultimately, Schedule Smart is helping Seeka make communities safer, something that should always be a top priority.
"Since we implemented Schedule Smart, we’ve seen a significant uplift in productivity at an individual level.”"