Results
- Platform flexibility deployed in various use cases
- Automated, stakeholder-targeted reporting
- Robust data integrations with systems of record
- Workplace culture shift toward technician collaboration
- Accelerated adoption through fluid UX
Based in Morrisville, NC, ACT Power Services is an independent operations and maintenance provider for the energy industry spanning a footprint of 26 US States. With a world-class team, state-of-the-art technology, best-in-class operating practices and a no-frills approach to service, ACT ensures every facility is operated in a manner that maximizes production, preserves compliance, and ensures the safety of workers and the public.
As a third-party operations and maintenance (O&M) provider for solar cell service covering more than half of the United States, ACT needs to keep track of a lot of data in the field to ensure that customer assets operate optimally with as little downtime as possible. This imperative requires a solution that is scalable, easy to build and deploy, and ready to share critical information across all levels of operations – but especially so in the field. The Morrisville, NC-based renewable energy firm turned to TrueContext to capture and manage the massive amounts of data necessary to run a successful O&M business. Capitalizing on the platform’s adaptability and user-friendliness, the company expanded its deployment to over 100 forms across more than 100 technicians.
Challenges
Maintaining any large facility such as a manufacturing site or solar plant demands massive amounts of data to be accurately recorded on an ongoing basis. Being responsible for the operations and maintenance of solar farms producing 6 gigawatts of power a year pushed ACT to rethink how they approached recordkeeping across customer facilities in 26 US states. Not only that, staying competitive meant that they also needed to be able to make sense of it all by connecting the dots across a vast ocean of data points. Furthermore, they needed a way to implement this on the ground while keeping the tool as easy to use for technicians as possible. For Chris Stevens, Director of Process and System Integration, managing these key areas is fundamental to any maintenance organization.
At the time, ACT was using a Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) and Work Order Management System (WOMS) to keep track of all data pertinent to their operations as a nationwide service provider. While designed to be powerful for their specific purposes, such systems are often not equipped for the data capture demands that are now part of the day-to-day in modern field service.
“Ease of use of a product is almost directly correlated to the quality of the product and how often it’s going to be used effectively,” Chris said. “If you have something that doesn’t work very well, at scale, the end game is that the product is not going to work right,” he added. This was the primary challenge they faced as they tried to collect the necessary amount of data that would help them streamline operations, such as proactively managing asset failures and ensuring uptime for their customers, and ensure safety and compliance with regulators.
Solution
As they started looking for possible solutions, Chris realized that they were already using TrueContext in the organization. “I’d learned that we were already using then ProntoForms in a very small capacity. As soon as I started learning what the product could do, I thought, ‘This solves problems for us – a lot of problems.’ We can interact with it. We can have a lot of ownership. We can tailor it to what we need. And when we need great support, we always get it from the TrueContext team,” he noted.
“Delegating process development software completely on someone else is not compatible with us. Having a hybrid model, where we get to collaborate with TrueContext on the specific solutions we need, has been really good for us. TrueContext has turned out to be a really good partner that’s open to working with us to give us exactly what we need.” Chris added.
ACT worked with the TrueContext team to develop a solution that will not only integrate with their existing standalone CMMS but also extend its capabilities to help the company accomplish its goals. This tech stack has given Chris and his team enough customized ability without reliance on the CMMS alone. In their case, TrueContext has broadened ACT’s technology capabilities to encompass work order management, asset recording, and maintenance logging – with real-time tracking.
“When you have, say, 1,000 acres of silicon, the ability to track what any individual worker is doing or encountering in the field and then rapidly disseminate that information is a great advantage of using TrueContext.”
CHRIS STEVENS
DIRECTOR OF PROCESS AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION
“When you have, say, 1,000 acres of silicon, the ability to track what any individual worker is doing or encountering in the field and then rapidly disseminate that information is a great advantage of using TrueContext. That technician is empowered to let everybody know that this is what’s happening and the team can quickly follow up and document with rich data,” Chris explained.
ACT deployed TrueContext for corrective and preventive maintenance workflows, using forms to discover and document action items and follow up immediately. The workflows were put in place not just to collect data, but also guide technicians on the steps to follow with every maintenance procedure. Those same workflows trigger specific work orders to address immediate and potential issues down the road.
For dissolved gas analysis, a critical technique used to determine the health of transformers, the team also engineered an entire system that relies on TrueContext, shortening the amount of time required throughout the process, from sample collection to analysis to remediation. “It has created an almost predictive method that has increased our ability to respond in a shorter time frame with a high degree of accuracy – keeping an asset online longer,” Chris said.
Outcomes
ACT has also scaled TrueContext across various other use cases beyond the original challenge of data capture and management. Reporting automation – the ability to generate reports automatically and customized to the stakeholder – is one feature that has become particularly important for the company. “It’s the ability to package reports nicely and disseminate them as needed, with the ability to tailor those reports internally. We can turn information into various deliverables and automate using data destinations such as email,” Chris said. The platform also allows his team to gather feedback from stakeholders on those reports, which are then iterated and refined rapidly. “Client A would require one set of information, and Client B would like another. We could satisfy both with a singular piece of software,” he added.
The company started using TrueContext for job hazard analyses (JHAs), which ACT, as a power plant, needed due to strict safety and compliance regulations, similar to those in hydro, wind, or coal. The software continues to play a vital role across ACT operations, with Chris having introduced it to more people in the organization who have since found numerous ways to solve problems with the platform. “It’s really cool to see how many areas it can plug into. People frankly get excited about the capabilities,” he explained. It’s now in deployment for check-ins, preventive maintenance, photovoltaic (PV) inspections, battery inspections, fleet management, approvals – even an aerial drone program that was co-developed with TrueContext. “It’s in just about every department – engineering, remote and field operations, administrative,” Chris noted.
“It’s really cool to see how many areas it can plug into. People frankly get excited about the capabilities. It’s in just about every department – engineering, remote and field operations, administrative.”
CHRIS STEVENS
DIRECTOR OF PROCESS AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION
The platform’s data output capabilities have also made integration simple and straightforward for the ACT team, allowing them to generate information in formats compatible with their systems of record, such as CMMS and Microsoft SharePoint. The out-of-the-box integrations have aided in streamlining the process for other projects, as compared to needing to build specific connectors that take months of development.
Chris credits ease of use as the defining feature that has made all of their success with TrueContext possible. “One of the things that has really helped us grow our use of the software to this scale is the user adoption. If you have used one TrueContext form, you can use them all. If you can text, you can use TrueContext. It’s that easy,” he added. As a result, ACT has forms deployed in every one of the 26 US states in which it operates, with each of its over 100 technicians using TrueContext on a daily basis.
