Volvo Construction Equipment was established in Great Britain in 1967. A division of the Volvo Group, it provides a wide range of equipment to the mining and construction industries, including wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, excavators, utility equipment and pavers. The business operates eight customer support centres throughout Great Britain, supplemented by strategically located home-based engineers. Its headquarters are located in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. 

Challenge 

Field engineers travel the length and breadth of the country to respond to customer queries, including the servicing and updating of equipment. Engineers depend on access to internet-based tools hosted on Volvo’s network, yet call-outs can often take place in remote or inaccessible areas of the UK with weak mobile signal.

 

Previously, engineers looked to a single-network USB dongle that could be plugged into laptops to gain network access. The limited geographical coverage meant that this had proved hugely unpredictable, with engineers often unable to find a strong enough signal from the network provider.

 

Without access to the internet, engineers were often forced to return to the nearest depot – which could be up to 60 miles away – or in some circumstances, seek out a café or petrol station offering free Wi-Fi.

 

Richard Shelford, IT operations manager at Volvo Construction Equipment, said: ‘‘Engineers would often arrive at a job and carry out the initial diagnosis only to find that the network signal was too weak. From a customer-service perspective this was really tricky, as they would be forced to abandon a job and drive off to seek Wi-Fi access somewhere else.” 

Solution 

Volvo Construction Equipment contacted M2M Intelligence to ask whether the company could suggest a more efficient approach. M2M provided a Multinet roaming 3G SIM which enabled field engineers to create a local hotspot with a Wi-Fi router in their van. The M2M-i Multinet SIM enables the router to connect with any available UK network so Volvo engineers are no longer reliant on a single provider’s ability to supply a constant signal in all areas of the country. These hotspots allow staff to connect and use the online diagnostics virtually wherever they are working. 

 

A trial across eight vehicles was tested by senior engineers, with extensive experience of the industry. The trial was a success and the solution was quickly rolled out across the Volvo Field Service team.

 

Results 

M2M’s Multinet roaming SIMs ensures that field engineers are always connected. This has seen a significant uplift on productivity as engineers are now able to increase the average number of campaign updates completed each day.

 

The solution has also driven significant cost-savings for Volvo – both in terms of vehicle expense and staff time. Field engineers no longer have to drive back to the depot or a local café to gain Wi-Fi access – and are operating more efficiently as a result. 

 

Rather than facing obstacles around limited network signal or the associated stresses of having to find a nearby location with access, field engineers can now focus on the task in hand. This means delivering a speedier service to customers and getting equipment and projects back up and running as soon as possible. 

 

The business has also seen an improvement in internal communications. Staff can use internet-enabled video conferencing more frequently to communicate with product specialists and between different sites. This is allowing field engineers to tap into company resources – and quickly. 

 

Richard Shelford comments: “Almost immediately after trialling M2M’s solution, we knew we had to have it. Our engineers were previously carrying out approximately two campaign updates per day. Using M2M’s solution, they can double that – so to say it’s had a big impact on productivity would be an understatement.”