Case Study: Columbia Gas speeds emergency response with ARCOS automated callout and proximity tools

Automatically Knowing Who’s Closest To The Customer

Columbia Gas, part of NiSource’s gas distribution operations, needed a faster and smarter way to handle after-hours emergency callouts. Before 2011, dispatchers manually worked through lists based on seniority and overtime, often spending several minutes and multiple calls to find an available technician, with little visibility into who was actually closest to the customer in need. ARCOS provided the automation platform used to address this challenge.

Using the ARCOS Callout and Scheduling Suite, Columbia Gas automated its dispatch and callout process and added proximity-based features like Closest to the Trouble (CTT) and Bull’s-eye. The solution cut response times immediately, saved dispatchers two to four hours per night, and improved acceptance rates by 18 percent; Columbia Gas also reported responses that were two to four minutes faster within the first month of using Bull’s-eye.

Columbia Gas