Richmond, B.C., Nov. 5, 2003 -- MDSI Mobile Data Solutions Inc. will supply its Advantex r7 software, professional services and a suite of third party products to American Water, a private North American supplier of water services.
Initially, MDSI will work with New Jersey-American, a subsidiary of American Water, in its Northeast Region where 200 mobile workers will be equipped with the technology to maintain the 2,900 miles of pipeline in the regional transmission and distribution system.
With Advantex, American Water will optimally schedule and wirelessly dispatch field work to mobile crews, who will use the solution to manage and record their work, and provide real time status updates from the field.
The result will be highly responsive customer service where everyone works with the most current information to ensure that each job is completed by the right person at the right time. Management will also benefit from Advantex's decision support tools, which help identify areas for improvement in field operations.
"Advantex will help us significantly enhance the existing, 24/7 service we provide our customers, while ensuring that our crews respond as quickly and effectively as possible to any network issues that our state-of-the-art monitoring equipment detects," stated Derek Stroud, Vice President of Customer Service for American Water.
"Mobile workforce management is critical in the customer service process, so we picked the company and solution with the best track record. We were particularly impressed by MDSI's large, high quality customer base and their depth of direct experience."
"American Water recognizes the significant benefits that our advanced mobile workforce management solution will deliver to their customers. We are excited to be working with such a world-class company," stated Erik Dysthe, MDSI's President, CEO and Chairman. "American Water's workforce will be armed with powerful, real time technology that will improve operational efficiency and provide the highest level of service to customers."
Advantex will be integrated with the key software components in American Water's transmission and distribution system, including those supplied by SAP and Orcom, and will communicate over Verizon's 1XRTT network with mobile computers in the field.
American Water serves 20 million customers in 28 states, four Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, and South America. The Northeast Region processes and delivers more than 135 million gallons of water on an average day, with peak daily demand running as high as 205 million gallons, and serves homes and businesses in more than 50 municipalities in eight New Jersey counties. In addition, the region supplies water to six municipal water systems and three investor-owned utilities.
About American Water
Established over 100 years ago, American Water provides water, wastewater, and other related services. American Water joined RWE Thames Water in January 2003. Thames Water is the water division of international multi-utility RWE's water division, which is the third largest water and wastewater services company in the world. It serves almost 70 million people in 46 countries across the globe. Additional information can be found on the Internet at www.amwater.com or www.thameswater.com.
About MDSI
MDSI is a provider of mobile workforce management software in the world. MDSI's software improves customer service and relationships and reduces operating costs by allowing companies to manage field resources more effectively.
Headquartered in Richmond, BC, Canada, MDSI was founded in 1993 and has approximately 350 employees. The company has operations and support offices in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. MDSI services approximately 100 customers and has licensed more than 80,000 field service users around the world. www.mdsi-advantex.com
