14 January 2004 00:00 East Midlands Electricity scoops top industry award for revolutionary new technology
East Midlands Electricity has scooped the IT Initiative award for its innovative pentablet wireless computers at the prestigious Utility Week Industry Achievement Awards.
The pentablets hold details of all of the company’s overhead and underground cables and give staff on the ground instant access to all the information they need when working away from the office.
Around 400 engineers working with East Midlands Electricity now rely on the technology to help them in their daily work on the distribution network.
The company, which distributes electricity to 2.4 million people in the East Midlands, beat off competition from rivals such as National Grid Transco and Thames Water to take the award for the first time.
Alan Raymant, General Manager Infrastructure for EME, said: “This is recognition that East Midlands Electricity is at the cutting edge of the utility industry as a whole and not just the electricity industry.
“This technology really is state-of-the-art – it makes our engineers’ lives easier and helps to make an already excellent service even better for all of our customers.”
Before the pentablets were introduced, engineers would need to return to base between each job to collect the necessary paperwork for each call out.
But, by using the latest mobile phone technology, they can receive, on the pentablets, all the details they need to go straight to their jobs, so cutting down the time required to respond to incidents.
Once on site the engineers can also keep customer service teams fully informed by updating electronic job folders on screen. They can also access the company intranet and, by using more conventional wired connections, can collect updates to their network records and a comprehensive technical library, including safety and operational bulletins.
Ends
Notes to editors:
• EME worked with Syntegra on the project.
• Staff have access to a helpdesk and have been given docking stations and a phone line at home to charge the pentablets
For more information and pictures contact:
Jonathan Smith on 024 7642 5741