ETS Infrastructure Management

CLIENT

ETS Infrastructure Management

ETS Infrastructure Management (ETS) is a vegetation management company specialising in power line tree-trimming, mechanical clearing, and disaster response and recovery. ETS works to make communities safer by maintaining the power infrastructures that keep lights on and fridges running.

BRIEF

Design a bespoke resource management tool for dispersed workforce

ETS engaged Conduct to redesign an existing resource management system they had previously built in-house. The objectives of the redesign were to enable staff with better capability to manage operational, administrative and financial activity, move ahead of ETS competitors, and provide a better experience for ETS clients.

Managing work strategically based on location and resource needs

ETS understands accountability and transparency is key to effective resourcing. Conduct partnered with ETS to design a tool for field workers, operation staff and clients.

Our goal was to create a unified system that would:
– manage and standardise contracts
– make planning, scheduling and resource allocation easier
– create greater visibility of job progress
– help improve productivity for all business units and reduce downtime.

The project started with unravelling user needs. We learned about Operations Managers adopting workarounds to try to understand the location of work and resource requirements. Organising crews and planning work was time consuming, difficult to manage and often involved printing and marking up maps. Managing work more strategically was the biggest opportunity for the new system. From here, we prioritised easy access to information that helps get the job done. Design implications included: filtering and map-based interfaces to visualise the location of work, summary dashboards and standardised reporting.

"Thinking more globally is a better model. Where are we going to have the most impact to our schedule of works... Sending the climbers and ground line where the climbers and ground line work is." - ETS stakeholder during discovery

Competitive advantage through bespoke software

While off-the-shelf products exist to facilitate crew management, ETS made the decision to design a bespoke platform. This option offers complete customisation, allowing ETS to configure features for different service lines and clients. A review of available SaaS solutions uncovered limitations around integrations and high cost of licensing and maintenance. We worked with ETS to build a product that provides full control. Designing a solution around the unique needs of ETS users meant processes and workflows did not have to adapt around the constraints of licensed software. Instead, the software would align with operational strategy and provide support where needed.

Introducing CanopyIQ.

A new platform to help allocate specialist resources to the work with the most impact

CanopyIQ is a multiplatform system designed to support digital transformation away from paper and manual processes. It fosters transparency by providing greater visibility of costs, deadlines and progress.

Web application

The web application allows ETS clients and general managers to see how jobs are progressing in real time. The system supports efficient planning of geographically dispersed work by minimising travel time and maximising high revenue opportunities.

iOS mobile application

The iOS app optimises in-field workflows for crews by providing a consolidated view of tasks. It’s designed to better track the lifecycle of tasks and includes more accurate information about task completion times and managing work that requires follow-ups.

CanopyIQ Technology and features

Currently used by over 500 people across Australia
Captures and translates field data to take the guess-work out of planning
Scalable solution architecture enables the system to adapt to changing needs
Supports tiered permissions access
Multi-tenant platform
Modular and cross-platform ready
Utilises React and React Native tooling
System is supported by sophisticated Azure serverless architecture for scale and security
Leverages Azure AD for identity management and authentication

Connecting operations to outcomes

Conduct worked as part of an internal team with ETS management and site workers to develop CanopyIQ. Through a three-month discovery phase with fortnightly workshops, one-on-one interviews, and on-site excursions, we observed ETS’s workflow and pain points. Our team followed an agile scrum project delivery model to build and roll out new iterations of CanopyIQ over 24 months. The growing codebase comprises over 430,000 lines of code and 2500 pull requests. We continue to collaborate with ETS to improve and enhance the platform as they bring on new clients and evolve. CanopyIQ is designed to measure progress based on client outcomes. It does the heavy lifting to translate data for users and pulls apart work for scheduling and resourcing.

Impact and results

Today, CanopyIQ underpins all aspects of ETS’s work, from scoping to execution and quality assurance and is used by teams nationally. Since its release, CanopyIQ has helped ETS to maintain and secure national government contracts by providing clarity around scheduled works. Clients have visibility of where budget and resources are allocated and reporting is made easy.