Vista's View of Masternaut

30 Apr 2008

Masternaut gives Vista a clear View of mobile engineers and helps reduce operational costs

Masternaut Three X is supplying advanced satellite tracking services to leading independent retail and hospitality IT services company Vista Retail Support Ltd (Vista). The web-based real-time service gives Vista a clear UK-wide view of its 90-strong fleet of service vehicles and mobile engineers. The service has also helped to reduce insurance costs as well as encouraging careful driving.

Vista builds, installs, supports and maintains IT systems for a range of customers in the retail and hospitality markets including Lloyds Pharmacy, Primark, Londis, Spar, Peacock, ASDA, Fenwicks and Dobbies. The company operates via 3 geographical areas. These are assigned to specific teams of home-based engineers that look after smaller regions within each area. With this scale of operation real-time visibility of the engineers is crucial.

Masternaut tracks Vista’s engineers the moment they set off in their vehicles (the company uses a mixture of fuel-efficient estate cars and small vans). This allows managers and controllers to verify the start and end of each job and also helps them to locate engineers should a customer enquire of their whereabouts.

"Masternaut helps us plan daily job schedules for our engineers. Our controllers plan these in line with each engineer’s location and best routes from their homes and to each customer’s site. We are able to monitor their progress throughout the day and can keep our customers informed," says Brian Norman, Operations Director, Vista Retail Support Ltd.

"Another benefit is that we can quickly respond to calls for spare parts. Using the service we can soon see who else is in the vicinity carrying the required part and send them to assist their colleague," continues Brian Norman.

Brian Norman says that Masternaut is providing many additional benefits, including lone-worker security and it is improving driving habits by monitoring driving speeds and styles. For example, Vista sets speed limits for each vehicle in Masternaut. If these limits are broken an email message is sent to the Area Manager who then can address it with the engineer.

"We have seen an improvement in Driving styles and a reduction in accidents and consequently our claims have reduced, which has helped lowered our insurance costs," he says.

"We appreciate the service because it provides cost savings through reduced insurance premiums, improved productivity through better route and job planning, and accountability. The real time data and management reports take away any guess work," concludes Brian Norman.