About American Electric Power

American Electric Power (AEP) is a vertically integrated, utility company providing electricity generation, transmission and distribution services. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, it serves over 5 million customers across 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest genera-tors of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.

AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, including 38 states, eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas.

The Business Challenge

Throughout their 11 state service territory, AEP has 400+ engineering design technicians and engineers supported by Trimble GPS / GNSS Windows Mobile 5, 6, and 6.5.3 devices. The Trimble GPS devices provide survey and non survey data collection in the field. The

software used includes CommonTime mSuite for device management and VPN tunneling, and GeoSpatial Innovation Inc’s (GSI) AssetManager Suite a third-party app written utilizing the Trimble SDK Pathfinder Toolkit for data input and collection.

AEP does not have an IT Helpdesk per se, but their field engineers and technicians periodically require support for the engineering and data collection applications. Naturally field engineers are remote and with a good portion of AEP’s service areas in rural locations, mobile internet connectivity is often limited to 2G. As a result, AEP required a support tool flexible enough to provide remote assistance to users of mobile devices, but also over limited bandwidth.

The main problem that AEP solves with users in the field pertains to GPS connectivity and performance. For this purpose, AEP uses real-time correction from internet based sources to provide the sub-decimeter level accu-racy. Sometimes these settings are not set up properly by the users and they need help while in the field. Often, users in remote areas have to drive long distances to get to the job site and the ability to fix their issue while in the field is vital to productivity and cost savings, as well as customer satisfaction. The ability to view devices run-ning applications, to edit the registry and to push files to the devices is also important to AEP for timely issue resolution.

American Electric Power (AEP) - Case Study

American Electric Power: Energized with SOTI MobiAssist!

Industry Application Area:Electricity generation, transmission and distribution services.

Mobile Devices:Trimble GPS / GNSS Windows Mobile 5, 6, and 6.5.3 devices

Summary: American Electric Power (AEP)AEP is a vertically integrated, utility company providing electricity generation, transmission and distribution services.

ChallengesPrior to MobiAssist, AEP would talk to the users in the field over the phone to try and help them with any issues. This was especially challenging with complex configurations.

MobiAssist Solution SOTI’s IT Helpdesk solution, MobiAssist, came to the rescue of AEP with its 24/7 remote control and advanced diagnostics functionality. MobiAssist has tremendously helped AEP in supporting users who have limited internet bandwidth via cellular data.

Result AEP has saved innumerable hours for users in the field by being able to fix issues while they are still at the work location. This ability to resolve issues while the users are in the field has been the key to improving performance and productivity.

“With SOTI MobiAssist, AEP’s greatest advantage has been the ability to resolve issues while users are in the field, which is key to decreasing downtime, improving perfor-mance and productivity.”

Matt Shellenberger, Senior Engineer,

American Electric Power

The Solution

AEP discovered SOTI in 2003 through an online search, which led them to adopt SOTI Pocket Controller. Pocket Controller has allowed AEP to effectively support a large volume of mobile devices while the user is in the office.

After also considering the Trimble Assistant solu-tion, AEP picked MobiAssist owing to its similarity and their familiarity with Pocket Controller that they had been using for years.

AEP first started testing MobiAssist in 2010 by downloading the evaluation copy as soon as it was beta released. The web page interface was very easy to understand and configure from an administrator standpoint. Despite AEP’s acquaintance with Pocket Controller, the SOTI MobiAssist Team set up an informal 15-minute training, which further quickened the learning process and ensured a faster implementation of the solution.

Prior to MobiAssist, AEP would talk to the users in the field over the cell phone to try and assist them with any issues. This proved to be challenging especially with complex configurations. SOTI’s IT Helpdesk solution, MobiAssist, came to the rescue of AEP with its 24/7 remote control and advanced diagnostics functionality. MobiAssist has tremendously helped AEP in supporting users who have limited internet bandwidth via cellular data.

The Result

AEP is very satisfied with MobiAssist. In full colour mode, the images on their new Trimble GeoXH 6000 devices are very clear on the MobiAssist Console. AEP has also used the recording feature extensively to add the recordings into training videos, and then edit the video and voice of the action recorded from the device. In terms of ROI, AEP has declared that they have saved innumerable hours for users in the field by being able to fix issues while they are still at the work location.

“With SOTI MobiAssist, our greatest saving so far has been on the Smart Meter (AMI) router installa-tion project. We gave 13 Trimble Nomad devices to construction crews to record the location of and data regarding installation of the AMI routers. The construction crews are not our usual AEP technical users, so they require more support. This work is being done in Texas where driving times are greater owing to the geography; so the ability to resolve the issue while the users are in the field is key to improving performance and productivity,” concluded Matt Shellenberger, Senior Engineer, American Electric Power.

Solution Benefits:• 24/7 Remote Support• Diagnostics, Reporting, Management & Training Tools• Decrease in Helpdesk staff• Increase in productivity of Helpdesk personnel• Reduction in time needed to solve complex issues• Recording feature to prepare training videos

About SOTI Inc.SOTI Inc. develops industry-leading Mobile Device Management and IT Help Desk solutions that solve the unique challenges involved in managing, securing, supporting, and tracking remote mobile devices and desktop computers.

Today, over 80,000 customers around the world in retail, manufacturing, health care, government, logistics and other industries rely on SOTI products to reduce the total cost of owner-ship associated with their mobile devices.

Tel: + 1 905 624 9828 (International)

Tel: 1 888 624 9828 (Toll Free in North America)

sales@soti.netwww.soti.net