ENGLEWOOD, Colo., April 13, 2005 — Datria, a leading developer of field service applications, has announced the availability of Datria Storm Recovery and Datria Scouting & Inspection, which are both voice self-service applications for mobile field employees.
Storm Recovery
The Storm Recovery application helps energy utilities and telephone companies restore service more effectively after outages caused by weather events such as tornados, hurricanes and ice storms.
Many energy and telephone companies provide reciprocal emergency services to other companies in their industry. During an emergency, companies lend employees to each other to help restore service. The on-loan employees are experts in repairing infrastructure but often do not know how to receive work orders or report their work using the host company’s scheduling and dispatch system.
The result can be an organizational nightmare. Because of communication lags, the company responds to information that’s hours or even days old. It’s difficult to know what work has been completed and what remains to be done. The same work is often scheduled multiple times. Additionally, it’s difficult to communicate with customers and public utility commissions.
Datria Storm Recovery uses voice self-service to deliver real-time information to and from the field. With as little as 30 minutes of training, technicians use telephones or two-way radios to report their work and receive new assignments. Storm Recovery uses programmed dialogs to ask questions; technicians respond in natural language. Storm Recovery converts the voice to data and updates the host company’s work database. With real-time information, the host company responds to the situation as it is rather than as it was. The company can deploy resources more effectively, communicate more accurately, and restore service more predictably.
The new packaged application is modeled after a storm recovery system that Datria deployed for a major Florida utility in 2001. The system has been used successfully after numerous weather events, including Hurricanes Gabrielle, Charley, and Francis. One of the major advantages of the system is that the company can train on-loan technicians quickly and begin dispatching work immediately. The company also has a much better understanding of what work has been completed and what remains to be done. Thus, they can respond more quickly and plan more effectively.
Scouting & Inspection
Datria’s Scouting & Inspection application helps geographically dispersed companies locate, manage, and maintain their assets.
Geographically dispersed companies can spend enormous sums of money maintaining assets such as power transmission facilities, phone, cable and fiber optic lines, complex medical equipment, pipelines and vehicles. Scouting & Inspection uses voice self-service to simplify the process and accelerate the information flow. With minimal training, technicians use a telephone or two-way radio to report their observations to Scouting & Inspection. The application converts the voice to data and updates the company’s asset system. Scouting & Inspection uses voice — a simple, inexpensive, and universally available technology – to deliver high quality, real-time information to corporate systems.
Scouting & Inspection improves productivity in both routine and emergency situations. In routine applications, companies use the application for regularly scheduled inspection processes. In emergency situations – such as extreme weather events – companies can use Scouting & Inspection to quickly assess the damage and create a detailed inventory of the work needed to repair the damage. With real-time information, emergency planners have a much better understanding of the situation and can respond more effectively.
Scouting & Inspection also allows field technicians to open trouble tickets (also known as work orders or service orders) directly from the field, using a set of voice commands. This is the fastest, most accurate method of reporting new work requirements. By eliminating multiple steps in the service chain, companies can react more quickly and with a better understanding of the overall situation.
Both applications, Storm Recovery and Scouting & Inspection, are available as both premises-based solutions and as a hosted services.
About Datria
Datria Systems Inc. designs, sells, and services voice-enabled, packaged software applications focused on improving the productivity of mobile workforces while reducing the cost to support them. Datria’s products enable customers to exchange real-time information between a central office and field representatives, using only human voices and a phone or two-way radio connection. Datria serves the broadband, utilities, telco, and health care industries. Founded in 1997 and a member of the VoiceXML Forum, Datria is based in Englewood, Colorado. For more information, visit www.datria.com.
