Billions lost every year to energy theft. Do you have mobile tools to address this?
Energy theft is more common than most people realise. It’s an international problem with billions of dollars being stolen from utilities every year.
South Africa is no exception and our own utilities are also experiencing massive losses, and not just on the energy side, all utility services are affected. The reality is that these losses will ultimately be passed on in the form of higher rates, so any form of revenue loss experienced is going to affect every utility customer. There are a number of associations taking proactive steps to highlight the issues around revenue protection and theft, but at the end of the day, it’s the utility itself that has the most influence on how well it protects its revenue streams.
Sometimes it’s the simple ideas that can have the biggest effect. Give every employee in the utility a real-time mobile tool to capture and report on suspicions of energy theft, and see the effect this can have on reducing revenue loss. With this in mind, Touchwork has developed Utiviti - a suite of mobile productivity tools for utilities that are specifically geared towards maximising fieldworker productivity and at the same time finding ways of reducing revenue loss.
Utiviti uses ordinary cellphones as data collection devices in the field - so utilities don’t have to go out and purchase additional hardware, you can make use of cellphones already in the hands of your own or outsourced staff. Utiviti Theft Detector enables you to create a survey that everyone can access using their cellphones, to fill in details relating to the suspicion of theft. This could include photographic, audio or video supporting evidence. Once captured, automated alerts and workflow tools will ensure the relevant people in the organisation become aware of, and investigate any suspicion of theft recorded.
Simple and cost effective tools can go a long way to addressing revenue loss associated with unauthorised use of utility services, and if used correctly throughout the organisation, can result in significant savings to the organisation concerned.
For more information on Utiviti Theft Detector or any of the other Utiviti Mobile Solutions, go to our website www.touchwork.com or www.utiviti.com
