International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
Using a Mobile App to Improve Performance of Management of Services Orders and Teams Processes Paulo R. M. de Andrade, Otávio F. Frota, José F. da Silva Filho, Mirko A. N. Morais Abstract: Manage the company process faster as possible and in the automated way has been one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Companies are constantly looking for the improvement of its processes in order to achieve a competitive advantage in the market and the reduction of internal costs. This challenge is particularly strong in government companies providing utility services to the population. The company Cagece (one basic sanitation company of the Brazilian government) know this problem and the difficulties it generated. In this paper, we present in a systematic way, a little about the problem, the suggested solution, and the results collected through the relationship disciplines of Software Engineering and BPM in order to show the innovation applied and to guide companies that search improvements in their processes. Key words: bpm, process, optimization, software engineer, mobile.
INTRODUCTION One of the public management features that more recognized by society is the quality and effectiveness of the service offered to the population. It should be considered that this is subject to continuous and constant supervision of all who need to use the public sector or services that are subject to its regulations. Hence the need for innovations in working methods and procedures that increase the quality of service and increase its effectiveness according to the expectations of citizens, in keeping with the character of the democratic construction process. As part of public administration in the management process, should be given greater attention to the needs and priorities of society, increasing the narrowness of the link with communities and increasing the responsiveness and solution to their requirements, informing a timely manner to when people cannot be met due to limited resources or other causes. Of course, it is not possible separate the quality and effectiveness from the efficient use of resources. You can offer a quality service and effectively within the limits of available resources whenever seek reputable way to do it [5]. In this context, the management of service operations has gained prominence, considering the growth of the sector and the challenges inherent to services. However, even with all the recognition that the management of service operations acquired in academia, empirical evidence shows that the focus of research and teaching in most studies in the area of production management is still geared towards manufacture. This situation differs greatly in the business environment, in which the management of service operations is in an earlier stage. Probably, the lack of a specific approach is one of the factors that hinder the implementation of the principles of production management in services. The position they occupy in the economy, whether through participation in the gross domestic Product or in the generation of jobs, and for the analysis of trends and transformations that the world economy is experiencing demonstrates the relevance of services activities in our society. It is noteworthy that the activities of services play a major role in the performance of other sectors of the economy. The principal one of which is in the industrial sector. However, with increasing population, the development of technology, the improvement of the media, among others, we have a new kind of customer. Therefore, new demands for services and with a greater degree of requirement as to the quality of services is already a reality. This paper will show on a problem faced by a Brazilian Public Company in managing the operation of their services. We identify how the company could solve the problems in a
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
sustainable way by using a mobile application. The remainder of this work is divided as follows: in section 2 we have some related work; in section 3 will be presented the company target of this case study and the problem encountered; in section 4 will be shown the solution found. In section 5 will be shown on the results obtained and finally in section 6, is shown the conclusion and suggestions for future work. RELATED WORK Ramollari, Dranidis and Simons [4] developed a survey of methodologies for developing service-oriented, they identified which features before comparing with existing approaches. Among the methodologies studied, the authors cite BPMN to BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) as an approach for expressing business processes in an abstract model, which is automatically mapped to BPEL description language being implemented by a machine process. The authors also believe that agile methods like XP (Extreme Programming) are successfully employed in SOA projects. Patricia et. al. [3] proposes a model for the interaction between the activities of business processes and the functionality provided by service. Use BPMN for process modeling, level of granularity for modeling services, and the identification and specification requirements are process oriented. Such an approach provides interaction between steps of process modeling and service modeling, based on characteristics of frameworks SOAF and MINERVA. Delgado et. al. [1] uses the OMG SoaML standard, for generation service from the steps defined by the methodology called BPSOM. These allies are the concepts of BPM, SOA and prototyping in a sequence of steps based on the structure of RUP. Munehira [8] believes that there is a gap between actual and implemented business systems, which can solve by a method of developing BPM combined with SOA. In this method, the services are registered in a repository of services and classified into three categories, which are: process services, business services and basic services. Andrade et al. [6] talks about the efficient use of a hybrid approach to support the business. This kind of development can reduce costs, time and improve the organization image with the population, when you are selling services. THE COMPANY AND THE PROBLEM The water and sewage Company of Ceará (Cagece) is a public company that provides basic sanitation services the entire state of Ceará (Brazil). This means that the company provides treated water to 8.645 million people (98.26% of the State's population) and it provides sewage collection for 2 million people. With so many clients, and certified with ISO 9001:2000, the company seeks to always maintain the quality in the services it provides, by maintaining good attendance and agility. On water and sewer services executed by the company itself or through partner companies, there was a problem in the management of teams and services, thus we had as its main challenge and difficulty answering a few questions: For teams: What is the location of the team? Which the route carried out by the team during every day? How to identify if the team is in transit or in attendance? How long the team is performing a particular service? Referring to services How to identify in real time when a service has initialized and or completed?
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
How to enable the visualization of geographical distribution among the services performed? How to control the run-time of a service in an automated way? How to flag employees that a service is close to the deadline or has expired? How to turn these processes in a more sustainable process, reducing the use of paper?
From the difficulty of the “business units” in answering questions such as those described above, without having the need to be in contact with the teams on the field through telephone every time. For example, the company perceived the need to automate and streamline this process. Were still detected some adverse situations or not satisfactory, such as those described below: Difficulty of the unit in identifying the location of the team, as well as verify the service is running, it was necessary to carry out some means of contact; To perform the low service orders unit employees had to wait for the return at the end of the day that teams were fielded to the unit, and from the forms with low data perform the proper typing the information in the commercial system; It was not possible the unit ensure a real sequence of execution of services, getting that decision at the discretion of each team. It underestimated the operational capacity of some of them; Need to carry out the impressions of the orders of service to execute. Based on the last obstacle, the company verified that it prints over 10,000 orders of services only in a single day (having an average of 1.3 pages per service, which represents an average emission of 105 kg of CO2). This number directly affects the following strategic objectives of the company: ensure sustainable growth and work with social and environmental responsibility [7]. As in some situations, the operational capability of the team was underestimated, that affects also the optimization of results, which generated an accumulation of the services that the teams will execute. This problem creates delays in the implementation of these services, directly affecting the following strategic objectives of the company: “optimize economical and financial results” and “raise the level of customer satisfaction and improve the institutional image”. THE PROBLEM SOLUTION We conducted a benchmarking with companies in the sector of basic sanitation in search for solutions implemented to solve these problems. The 4 largest companies were visited sanitation system of Brazil, 1 sanitation company of Israel, 2 electric companies Brazil and 3 private sector companies. All companies had good ideas, but none of them could answer 100% of the questions raised in section III of this paper. It was then assembled a multidisciplinary group to gather and analyze the information gathered during the benchmarking, bearing in mind the three main problems: real-time information, immediate closure orders of service and sustainability. The solution needed to be thought through and planned from the need of the company to achieve a better management in the execution of services and operational teams, using new technologies. So the solution was conceived and developed, the requirements had been raised, and from the design processes of each business unit using BPM [1], the same have been validated with their representatives individually, and highlighted the best practices. The group created a single process using the best practices of each “business unit”, and then there were new meetings with all representatives of the service units, performing the company's process validation. The main source of inspiration of the solution was the use
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
of mobile devices with GPS capability and internet connection that allow us a greater management of teams and work orders. The new process would require the development of a new mobile application. The application, now called "OS Mobile" needs to be developed for the Android platform, since it already existed technical knowledge of internal team on the platform, with the deadline for the development of 6 months. The function of this application would replace the role that teams received at the beginning of each day, turning the process into something more dynamic and interactive. The app was done by the authors. The evolution of the project followed initially with the requirements for the release of a version to allow the deployment of the Mobile. After the release, were separated and requirements released in weekly versions, thus the evolution is being controlled. The project used the Agile PDD methodology [2] in its development and management. THE NEW PROCESS The client performs the service request through the service stores, by phone using the Cagece App (a mobile app) [7], being registered by the company's employees in the commercial system, including reporting if is a service of urgency. At the opening of the service, the system in an automated way defines the period of execution, as well as which unit will be responsible for execution. Once registered, the service business units identify all available services and generate a schedule of services that each operational team will execute. In this schedule, the services are organized based on some criteria for carrying out, as for example the proximity and priority of execution. It also describes which team will perform the services. The next step will be to download the services in a mobile equipment for each team on the field. This download does not depend on location, being only necessary to have 3G network. Since then the team begins to be monitored through televisions installed in units or local machines via commercial system, as illustrated in Figure 1, showing the geographical location of the teams in conjunction with the services that are under their responsibility, the information in this screen are real-time information displayed on the screen of monitoring: The geographical position of each team and order service; If a team is in transit, in attendance, with or without 3 g connection; Information describing the teams and services; If a service is in attendance, within the time limit, close to the deadline, late, completed or whether its execution was prevented;
Fig. 1 Teams and service orders in commercial system
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
At the time that the team starts the service, the team reports in the application that initiated the implementation of the same and the monitoring screen notified the business unit. During execution, the same will inform the material used until the conclusion of the service. With the completion of the service, the transmission of information are carried out on-line form for the unit, where employees now perform data analysis and record the confirmation of completion of the service, without relying on the return of the team that is in the field. We can see the initial screen of the application in Figure 2 (the language of this screenshots is in pt-BR).
Fig. 2 “OS Mobile” Application
There are situations where it was not possible to perform a service by the team because the property is closed, the client does not authorize, among others, for this kind of occurrence the developer unit reschedules the service for another moment, with that the whole cycle of implementation of the service is performed. Because of this process, we will have management reports and thematic maps that assist in decisions that may add value to the company. In cases of emergency service, inclusion of new services or changing the order of services, the operation team can performs an update in the lineup and sync with the team on the field, excluding the possibility of the return of the team to the business unit. To the Process Evaluation, the company observed some points that make it possible to assess the performance of the application, they are: amount of services performed and average time of execution of the services. We observe that the amount of completed services has increased, while we can analyze the average time of execution of the service that this measurement was not possible before. When it launched the "OS Mobile" had not been thought of the case that when we get to perform a service not run for some reason, as external charge is not in the real estate and property closed. It has since been included the option to inform the impossibility to perform the service. Another improvement obtained after initial evaluations, was the inclusion of the functionality that enables accounting of the service run-time, where the team on the field to
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
get to run the service reports on "OS Mobile" that initiated the execution and the completion is reported with the low information. COLLECTED RESULTS The UN-MTL (business unit of East metropolitan region) has worked with the "OS Mobile" since August 2014 and she has today 50 teams working with the application. In this way, we can see the evolution in the number of services performed and quantify the run-time of such services. For example, the company collected some data from commercial system to illustrate the increment of work orders executed each month, as shown in table 1. TABLE I INCREMENT OF THE AMOUNT OF SERVICES Services Types Increment (%) Verification of cadastral data 27,21 Verification measured consumption 114,75 Repair leaks 123,18 Leak repair on the easel kit 22,88
The reduction of prints is another significant gain. Is not necessary anymore to print service orders, before each team come out with their printed day services. Now these services are included in the "OS Mobile", generating savings for the company and providing sustainability. When it comes to run-time services, previously it was not possible to obtain this information. With the application, it was possible to collect this information immediately, as soon as the team finalizes an order. As the run-time is linked directly with productivity, monitoring the same brings positive effects on productivity of executing a service. With the whole process of order of order of service being mapped and monitored through the trading system and mobile application, we can bring another two good results that are monitoring the teams on the field and the implementation of services, as well as the presentation through thermal Geo-referenced map completed services. With the Geo-referenced on a map, we can perform the service management of the orders of services, routes and service prioritization. In this way, it enables the tracking and positioning of the teams. In Figure 3, we have the thermal map that generates the result of the orders of service performed in a given period, in one or more business units. In this way, we can have subsidies to carry out a more reasoned decision making, since we are working on information from actual data. We can take this information to assist in various activities, among them in project to expand and/or improve the water and sewerage network. Another benefit found by the company is the increase in the indicator of customer satisfaction, because now he has attended services with greater speed. The monitoring system facilitated the programming team to keep up-to-date as the location of the operational teams, this factor of paramount importance, as it allows a better control of productivity and allows the team that is closer, in the event of an emergency.
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
Fig. 3 Thermal Map
The solution is today deployed in five of thirteen “business units” which divide the State of Ceará (UN-MTL, UN-MTO, UN-BME, UN-MTS, UN-MTN). The figure 4 shows how the company divides the state of Ceará (in Brazil). The company expected that until April 2015 the solution is deployed to the entire State, and with it, still expected an increase in the company's revenue, with the reduction of losses and increase of productivity.
Fig. 4 Ceará State Division for Business Units
International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’15
CONCLUSION The rise of technology and its intensive use, brought agility to the processes of large and small companies, causing a need to automate their processes. This automation aims to reduce the obstacles faced in implementing these processes, reducing the need for human intervention and generating greater flexibility in receiving answers. We all know that companies providing any services that require the deployment of teams (eg, technical product support, warranty service, delivery, transport, etc.), need accurate means for the management of these teams and these services provided. This is achieved by monitoring, measurement and control. This paper presented a problem of a provider of public services company detected in the management of services and external teams of orders, and the thought solution to the problem. The whole process has been described in detail so that companies and research groups to use this idea as an initial step in pursuit of excellence in service delivery and improving corporate indicators in the customer view society and results. This work shows the use of mobile applications as a viable solution, as long as the short term to address this problem. Through quantitative numbers can still view the increased staff productivity and reduce costs with late fees and impressions (which generates an environmental impact). As future work, it is suggested comparative studies with other existing solutions and lifting qualitative data to demonstrate process efficiency in a larger scope. It also suggests the application process and application in other business sectors. REFERENCES [1] A. DELGADO et. Al., “Business Process Service Oriented Methodology (BPSOM) With Service Generation In Soaml”. In: Advanced Information Systems Engineering (pp. 672-680). Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. [2] A. Herden; P. P. M Farias; P. R. M. Andrade; A. B. Albuquerque, “Agile PDD –One Aproach to Software Development Using BPMN”, in 11th International Conference Applied Computing, Porto, Portugal, 2014. [3] B. Patricia et. al., “Process-Service Interactions using a SOA BPM based Methodology”. In: 30th International Conference of the Chilean Computer Science Society (SCCC), Curico, Chile, 2011. [4] E. Ramollari; D. Dranidis; A. J. H. Simons, “A Survey of Service Oriented Development Methodologies”. In: 2nd European Young Researchers Workshop on Service Oriented Computing, Oadby, England, 2007. [5] G. Chowdhury, “How digital information services can reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, Online Information Review, Vol. 36 Iss 4, 2012, pp. 489 – 506. [6] P. R. M. Andrade; A. B. Albuquerque; O. F. Frota; R. V. Silveira; F. A. Silva, “Cross Platform App: A Comparative Study”, in International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, Vol. 7, 2015, pp. 33-40. [7] R. Sathiendrakumar, “Greenhouse emission reduction and sustainable development”, International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 30 Iss 12, 2003, pp. 1233-1248. [8] T. Munehira, “A Study on a Generic Development Process for the BPM+SOA Design and Implementation”.In:World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2011 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paulo Roberto Martins de Andrade, Msc, University of Fortaleza, Graduate Program in Applied Informatics. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. E-mail:
[email protected]. Otávio Fernandes Frota, José Fernandes da Silva Filho, Mirko Antonio Nunes Morais are in Ceará Water and Sewage Company (CAGECE) and support this work.
