In the spring of 2021, DELPRO chose to replace Excel with the Power platform, developing a Power app to manage its facility management business. The benefits for DELPRO are numerous: saved time, increased performance precision, improved customer service and higher employee satisfaction.
The Facility Management department at DELPRO delivers maintenance and service of buildings and outdoor areas at transformer substations owned by different Danish energy utilities in Jutland and on Funen.
The framework agreements with the utility companies vary in size: one of DELPRO’s largest customers owns almost 700 transformer substations maintained by DELPRO’s gardener team.
Annika Hofmann Schelde er divisionskoordinator i DELPRO Power Systems.
“Before implementing our new Power platform app, the gardeners had to record their service visits in a giant Excel spreadsheet. They experienced computer and connectivity problems, and it was difficult to locate and download the correct file, fill in the information and then upload a new version of the file to the right place,” says Annika.
“Now, gardeners document their service visits right away via the app on their mobile phones. They may take a few photos of the work they’ve done and save them in the app. That’s their documentation done,” states Annika with satisfaction in her voice.
“Our gardeners are really pleased with the new Power app solution because it saves them a lot of time and frustration. The solution is easy to use and several of them started using the app from day one, without needing any introduction from us.”
Personally, Annika is also very pleased with the new solution, which is built on the Power platform and based on Power Apps and Power Flows.
“Monthly reporting used to be a comprehensive and manual task – and I always lacked information, so I had to call the gardeners and interrupt them in their work. It was very frustrating for them and me,” says Annika.
“The new Power app really saves us a lot of time on follow-up, and it has made my work a lot easier. What used to take a day and a half now takes me 20 minutes,” says Annika.
The new solution, which is based on the Power platform, makes remote working easy and quick, but it also facilitates preparation and timely delivery of monthly reports to the customers. The solution also offers new possibilities of providing additional services to the customers, says Annika and provides an example.
“If a customer requests more thorough and detailed information about service visits, it’s easy to extract the information and provide the additional service.”
“The Power platform is incredibly flexible to work with, and it’s quick and easy to make changes. If, for example, a customer informs me of changes to the tasks under the service agreement, I can update directly in the app, and the changes become instantly visible to the gardener,” explains Annika.
“I’m impressed with the flexibility of our Power platform solution and how everything is live and up-to-date,” says Annika.
Annika explains how the success among the gardeners has begun to spread to other DELPRO departments.
“The gardeners’ job satisfaction has increased immensely with the introduction of the Power app. And we’ll definitely be looking into how we can use these experiences in other business areas.”
“When we started, I feared that I would be spending a lot of time explaining the purpose of the solution over and over again, but cooperating with Automize has been so easy!” says Annika.
“Automize quickly grasped what we were looking for. It didn’t take long before Automize could take the lead on the project and take it all the way to the finish line,” explains Annika.
She elaborates: “Automize is very adept at knowing when to involve us. It has saved me a lot of time, because I didn’t have to be a project manager or contribute to the project all the time.”
Cost-wise the business case is easily established, Annika says.
“We invested our own time inputting data into the solution, and we hired Automize to develop the solution. That part has been fairly limited. The current cost of using the solution is usually the largest item. But in this case, the cost is zero. We didn’t incur additional licensing expenses for the Power platform, because the Power licenses are already included in our existing Microsoft licenses.”
Annika is very pleased with the cooperation with Automize.
“Automize comes without surprises. We agree on things in advance, and those agreements are observed. I don’t have to worry whether or not I should follow up on something or if delivery deadlines are met. That leaves me with peace of mind – and a cooperation with Automize that builds on credibility,” concludes Annika.
DELPRO’s gardener team, consisting of employees trained to work around high-voltage installations, performs routine and ad-hoc tasks at the transformer substations. They cut grass, prune bushes, repair loose flagstones or perform light building maintenance work.
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“I‘m impressed with the flexibility of our Power platform solution and how everything is live and up-to-date – we no longer keep an outdated status of our service business.” |
“If a customer requests more thorough and detailed information about service visits, it’s easy to extract the information and provide the additional service.”
“What used to take a day and a half now takes me 20 minutes.”
“We‘ll definitely be looking into how we can use these experiences in other business areas.”
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