Leading Turkish Utility Company Digitalises Operations With Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Tablets

Turkish electricity company Dicle Elektrik adopts fully-rugged TOUGHBOOK tablets to improve processes for its field workers in the most challenging conditions.

Dicle Elektrik, the Turkish electricity provider, has equipped its field service workers with approximately 1,500 TOUGHBOOK M1 devices to increase its service quality and improve processes.

Dicle Elektrik supplies electricity throughout the Southeastern part of Turkey, the ancient lands of Mesopotamia, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Siirt, Şırnak and Batman. It serves more than 1.8 million subscribers in this area, which covers more than 60,000 km^².

Dicle Elektrik teamed up with Panasonic to automate operations and manage its field operations more effectively. The TOUGHBOOK M1 tablets are also used in important areas such as power theft control and maintenance repair.

Dicle Elektrik aims to increase customer satisfaction
With Dicle Elektrik teams conducting field operations in six cities and across difficult terrain, efficiency and accuracy in timely data entry and transparency of transactions are critical to the field operations. With the TOUGHBOOK M1, Dicle Elektrik field workers can instantly store field data on their systems, organise documents with data obtained in the field and store them securely in digital archives. While field teams perform the tasks assigned to them online, they can also receive assistance from the central support teams through improved connectivity. The field teams can also perform inventory and asset management via the mobile application. Additionally, the GPS feature on the tablets provides instant tracking of the teams' positions and the map showing the network infrastructure provides more information for the field teams about their tasks.

Consistent performance all day
Dicle Elektrik chose the TOUGHBOOK M1 tablet for its resistance to drop from heights of up to 180cm, ability to operate at temperatures ranging from -29 to +60 degrees, and protection against dust and water at IP65. With a screen that is easily readable in direct sunlight and operational when wearing gloves, versatile operation and critical connectivity options, the TOUGHBOOK M1 does not compromise on performance even in the most demanding conditions. Thanks to its high capacity batteries with long-life and hot swap features, field teams with a wide region to serve and a busy work pace can easily continue their work without interruption all day long.

Dicle Elektrik’s Head of Technology and Human Resources, Kürşad Karaman, said: “With the aim of providing high quality and uninterrupted energy, we have partnered with Panasonic to ensure that all field operations are fully digital and mobile. We completed our project in four stages with our team and started to use TOUGHBOOK M1 devices and mobile applications developed for field management. With the completion of the digital transformation of our field operations, all work orders are now managed through a central structure.”