Southern Water taps into smartphones

Utility company Southern Water is rolling out Nokia 9210i smartphones to its field service staff to improve communication with dispatch teams and mobile workers.

The rollout, which the company expects to conclude by September, will provide the new phones to 800 staff working out of the office, connecting them to the company's central systems.

Two years ago, Southern Water kitted out its staff with the Nokia 9110 Communicator phones. Now, the upgraded version will help improve communications and move workers to a unified client application.

A company spokesman says the project will improve communications and provide a more robust and timely service to its customers.

'The new phones provide colour screens and a range of software enhancements that benefit our field workers and improve two-way communications,' he said.

The new application, developed and implemented by IT services company Telepartner, will allow mobile workers to receive emergency and centrally controlled job orders, as well as create their own orders for routine maintenance.

Service calls from the central despatch office trigger an SMS to an engineer's phone, which then automatically dials into the server and retrieves the necessary job information.

Southern Water delivers water to around a million homes in the South East of England, as well as treating and recycling dirty water from around two million households.