SouthWest Water Company Partners with BullsEye Telecom® for Agile and Responsive Mobile Workforce

Improves Service Reliability and Reduces Mobile Expenses

“ With an increasingly mobile

workforce, over 33% of our

total telecom spend is allocated

to mobile. Leveraging our

partnership with BullsEye Telecom,

BullsEye Wireless™ provided

an overall savings of 30%, with

additional savings projected

as we continue to consolidate

our mobile voice and data

services.”

– Mark Dinning, Telecom manager, SouthWest Water Company

®

C A S E S T U D Y

Wireless

BULLSEYE TELECOM INC. | www.bullseyetelecom.com

SouthWest Water Company (SWWC) strives

to provide responsive service and support

to business and residential customers

nationwide. Making strategic investments

in its network and communications

technologies at call center, data center

and regional office locations had taken

the company to the next level.

Now, to become more agile in an increasingly

competitive market, SWWC had to find

new ways to streamline field operations

and consolidate costs. All of this had to be

achieved while maintaining award-winning

operations, including two recent Plant

of the Year awards, Safety Agency of the

Year award, Supervisor of the Year award

and an Inspirational Operator of the

Year award.

The Rogue WayOne of the company’s most significant

challenges has been to reduce the high

cost of its mobile communications.

According to Mark Dinning, Telecom

manager at SouthWest Water Company,

“We were working with several carriers

to meet the demands of our nationally

dispersed and growing fleet of service

engineers. More than one thousand field

employees require mobile technology,

yet we were never provided a formal

service agreement, the ability to

negotiate discounted rates or offered

any kind of dedicated support from

our previous providers.”

Although SWWC had a corporate managed

mobile program, employees would often

purchase mobile devices on their own.

Since previous providers did not allow

pooling of minutes. Each employee

had his own separate plan and contract.

The process became decentralized and

required Accounts Payable to allocate funds

in multiple ways. “This was a logistical

nightmare for our internal Telecom

department, not to mention the process

of tracking individual contracts, handsets

and service level agreements,” said

Dinning. “Lines had to be allocated to

general ledger (GL) codes manually,

and there was no real-time way to view

all of the lines or features for which we

were paying.”

The disparate process of ordering and

paying for mobile service did not allow

SWWC any business insight into its mobile

telecommunications, which made up more

than 30% of its total telecom spend. Having

had success with BullsEye Telecom® as a

partner for all its other telecommunications

services, SWWC decided to take a look at

the BullsEye Telecom wireless service.

The BullsEye Telecom® SolutionA Tried and True Partner

For almost two years, BullsEye Telecom

has helped SWWC achieve increased savings

while enhancing its telecommunications

infrastructure nationwide. Consolidating

wireless and mobile solutions for SWWC

corporate and field employees was just

another benefit of working with a total

business solution provider such as

BullsEye Telecom.

BullsEye Telecom migrated the company’s

existing mobile lines over to BullsEye

WirelessTM service with a 100% network

availability guarantee and zero interruption to

services. Next, BullsEye Telecom introduced

a Corporate Group minute plan that allows

pooled minutes to be available for all

SWWC employees, which eliminated all

line level overage charges and included a

corporatewide voice, text and data package.

“ The BullsEye WirelessTM solution put an end to our employees’ rogue purchasing habits. By selecting specific handsets that meet our employee requirements, our corporate office streamlined procurement and contained costs.”

– Mark Dinning, Telecom manager

According to Dinning, “The BullsEye

WirelessTM solution put an end to our

employees’ rogue purchasing habits.

By selecting specific handsets that

meet our employee requirements, our

corporate office streamlined procurement

and contained costs.”

BullsEye Telecom® then added all mobile

lines to SWWC’s consolidated telecom

bill with the appropriate departmental

GL codes. “We no longer receive multiple

invoices for wireline, data and mobile,

as all our services are on one electronic

invoice,” said Dinning.

The BullsEye Telecom solution also

includes a client portal that allows SWWC

to run custom reports, including tracking

usage and reporting inventory, for all

locations nationwide. The client portal

provides business insight that allows

SWWC to project utilization by department

and forecast annual mobile spend with

a consistent monthly rate nationwide.

“Now we can make better business

decisions about departmental usage

and consolidate device costs through

inventory management,” said Dinning.

Emergency Response

As part of SWWC’s emergency response

initiatives, supervisory control and data

acquisition (SCADA) devices have been

installed to monitor and measure water

pressure and flow. These devices are

supported by BullsEye Telecom wirelines

and are critical to operations. When

the SCADA devices report a change in

pressure, they ring to central dispatch.

By integrating the BullsEye Telecom wireless

solution, SWWC is able to program the

devices to ring directly to on-call employees

after normal business hours. This ensures

24/7 availability and significantly reduces

emergency response times.

Protecting the Environment

The BullsEye Telecom solution has also

contributed to the company’s conservation

efforts. As part of an environmental

protection program, SWWC posts signage

with a dedicated toll-free number for

citizens to call to alert the company

of any incident involving wastewater.

Rather than paying outside resources to

monitor the line 24/7, SWWC provides

an automated system that alerts on-call

employees when a message has been left

on the dedicated line. Through BullsEye

Telecom’s Simultaneous Ring feature,

the dedicated line rings local employees’

mobile phones simultaneously, playing

the message back to the first responder.

“The program has greatly improved

SWWC’s ability to respond on a timely

basis,” said Dinning. “With the range of

telecommunications services we get from

BullsEye Telecom, we’ve been able to

create new enhancements that bring us

closer to unified communications initiatives.”

Planning for the Future

SWWC continues to leverage the

partnership with BullsEye Telecom to

expand network capabilities and meet

future telecommunications requirements.

In the current model, fleets of SWWC

service employees are dispatched to

their local serviceable and remote areas

across nine states. Each employee is

randomly contacted via a phone call

or email on his mobile phone from the

dispatch hub. This creates issues with

not only the timeliness of response, but

increases opportunity for communication

errors relating to service needs.

To improve the effectiveness of SWWC’s

field employees, service vehicles will

soon be equipped with mounted

laptops and connected through data

cards and GobiTM chips provided by

BullsEye Telecom. This will enable service

employees to view service orders directly

on their laptops, and log response/resolu-

tion information directly to dispatch. GPS

tracking devices will also allow dispatch

to send service orders directly to the field

employee closest to the location in need

of service. This minimizes response times

and maximizes the efficiency of SWWC’s

mobile fleet.

“BullsEye Telecom’s broad solutions

portfolio touches every aspect of our

communications network. Through our

partnership, SWWC is enabling a more

agile mobile workforce, thereby increasing

productivity and decreasing total cost of

ownership,” said Dinning.

© 2011 BULLSEYE TELECOM | www.bullseyetelecom.com | Confidential & Proprietary

“ With the range of telecommunications services we get from BullsEye Telecom,® we’ve been able to create new enhancements that bring us closer to unified communications initiatives.” – Mark Dinning

BullsEye Telecom® is an experienced leader in telecommunications for national multi-location businesses in the United States. Through our flagship Corporate Advantage® program, we empower enterprises with the tools they need to consolidate and better manage critical business functions. BullsEye Telecom provides customized solutions, dedicated account management, consolidated billing and invoice integration all in a single-source environment. Our diverse services portfolio, coupled with our deep industry knowledge, make us the ideal partner to customize a Total Business Solution for organizations such as yours.

BullsEye WirelessTM

Get the mobile advantage while reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for your telecommunications. With BullsEye Wireless,TM you’ll benefit by streamlining the complicated process of managing multiple providers, unfavorable cost structures and the monthly hassles that comes from processing and paying multiple wireless bills.

Reduced hassle and time spent managing different wireless providers

Extensive nationwide wireless coverage

Enhanced visibility into and improved tracking of wireless usage and spend

Competitive rates and multiple rate options: Individual, Corporate Group and Shared plans

Retained use of select mobile phones and equipment

Simultaneous RingSimultaneous Ring is a Digital Voice feature that enables you to program calls to your Digital Voice line to ring at up to 10 different numbers. With this feature the call ends when it is answered by the first available person. Calls can be programmed to ring to any wireless, home or office number. With Simultaneous Ring, you’ll never miss a call and your calls will be answered more efficiently. For complete self-managed flexibility, you can independently program this feature via the Digital Voice online portal. Simultaneous Ring also helps ensure business continuity.

BullsEye Telecom stands by our solutions, offering best-in-class service and support 24/7/365. Our team of highly skilled technical experts is on hand to provide accelerated resolution for all your needs. We’ll provide consistent, secure and innovative telecommunications that keep your business competitive by addressing its changing needs. Start a conversation with a BullsEye Telecom sales representative today!

Toll-Free: 1.877.438.2855 | sales@bullseyetelecom.com

www.bullseyetelecom.com

®

Competencies on This Case Study