Industry overview
What is shaping electric power
Power utilities serve millions of households and businesses, and are judged on reliability, billing accuracy and how well they communicate during outages. Smart meters are changing the relationship.
- Smart meters are changing billing and payment behaviour
- Outage communication strongly affects satisfaction
- Digital payments are replacing counter payments
Client background
A power distribution company, working in Gujarat. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A power distribution company
- Sector
- Electric power
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- Mobile app development, Data analytics & dashboards, API development & integration
Client challenge
Fault complaints were passed to crews by phone, and work completion was recorded on paper. Managers could not see restoration times or crew workloads. Consumers often called repeatedly because they had no idea when crews would arrive.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: a field app for line maintenance crews.
- Design around the real needs of linemen.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 900 linemen.
- linemen900
Audiences we typically reach in electric power
Residential consumersCommercial and industrial consumersSmart-meter usersField and call-centre staffRegulators
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Gujarat. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Crew interviews
- 3Offline-first app
- 4Fault dashboard
- 5Insight
We interviewed linemen and supervisors, then built an offline-first app in Gujarati and English for receiving faults, recording work with photos and closing complaints, integrated with the complaint system and a dashboard. The app also sent automatic SMS updates to consumers when a crew was assigned and when the fault was resolved. Offline operation was essential in rural areas, and data synchronised automatically when crews returned to coverage.
Mobile app developmentData analytics & dashboardsAPI development & integration
Sampling strategy
- linemen
- 900
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Restoration times became measurable by area, complaints were closed with evidence and managers redistributed crews based on workload.
A simple app designed for line crews created data management had never had.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: a simple app designed for line crews created data management had never had.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: restoration times became measurable by area, complaints were closed with evidence and managers redistributed crews based on workload.
Business impact
- Repeat complaint calls fell as consumers received updates.
Deliverables & next steps
- Interactive dashboard
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what drives smart-meter acceptance?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.