AUTOMATIC DATA
Success story
CAPTURE
Intermec supports
BSkyB Customer Service
ritish Sky Broadcasting operates
B
Sky Digital, a subscription
television service in the UK
and Ireland. With 9.2 million
subscribers, the entertainment
company is now in one in three households
across the UK and Ireland. It also supplies
telephony and is a fast-growing broadband
provider. Sky’s main headquarters are in
Osterley, London with a large number of
staff – including its Field Operations team –
in Scotland. The number of subscribers
continues to grow, and in order to respond
to the increased demand for new Sky, Sky+
and Sky+HD installations, BSkyB sought a
reliable solution to facilitate the work of its
field service team. For this, it turned to
Intermec Technologies.
Sky had been equipping its engineers with
The Intermec CN3 has afforded considerable cost savings for Sky.
PDAs but was interested in exploring other
options. Because these devices were WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a choice of WAN In addition, the specially-designed software
consumer-grade products, they were fragile radio (GSM/EDGE or 3G CDMA/EV-DO). allows engineers to order equipment that
and broke relatively easily. The batteries on Specially designed to withstand the rigours they need for their work, such as cabling
the devices also degraded rapidly, lasting of industrial environments, these rugged or set top boxes. They click on a pull-down
only 3-4 hours if they were not charged devices are resistant to shocks, water and menu, which lists the stock items and
between customer visits. This required Sky dust. They also have a 13-hour battery life input the number they need. The items
to not only frequently replace the batteries for use while on the road, making them are then ready for loading into their van
but also to purchase in-car chargers for all highly dependable. the next morning. In addition, the Intermec
of its engineers. It also meant that if a CN3 comes with a built-in barcode
charger was broken, the engineer could BSkyB uses the CN3 to send its engineers scanner, which the consumer-grade
not use their device. the details of their jobs for the following devices did not possess.
day. The engineers can then call the
customers to give them the time window
Enhanced services
in which they expect to arrive and to make
Low total cost of ownership
sure the customer will be home at that time.
In addition, Sky sought to provide its If the engineer is delayed for any reason Overall, the Intermec CN3 has afforded
customers with enhanced services including during the course of the day, they can call considerable cost savings for Sky. “We
providing them with a specific time window the customer to inform them. The device find that the total cost of ownership is
for the engineer’s visit. “We must take into also enables the use of customised software. much lower than with the previous
consideration other commitments our Sky was therefore able to design a special devices,” said Scott. Sky is now looking
customers may have such as the school CN3 application that makes it easy for the at developing several additional functions.
run or going to the supermarket,” explained engineers to update the main office of their Scott explained: “Ideally, we would like
Marion Scott, head of Supply Chain Services progress throughout the day. Engineers our technology to be so advanced that
for BSkyB. “They don’t want to have simply click on a pull-down menu in order when an engineer clicks on their CN3 tab
to spend all day at home waiting for an to indicate whether they have just arrived to indicate that they have arrived at a job,
engineer.” In order to provide its engineers at or just completed a job. The information this triggers an automated SMS, email
with more robust communications is then pushed into a backend system or phone call to inform the customer at
equipment, BSkyB purchased 2100 that allows the main office to monitor the the next job and provide them with an
Intermec CN3s. The CN3 is an industrial- locations of their engineers, giving them estimate of how much time it will be
class handheld computer with integrated visibility of jobs completed in real time. until the engineer arrives.” circlesolid
30
MANUFACTURING
&LOGISTICSIT July 2009
www.logisticsit.com
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