Rapidbizapps: Maximizing Wrench Time Through Customizable Field Services Enablement Apps

Satish Penmetsa, CEO

Digital transformation is a trend that those working in office environments have been familiar with for the better part of the decade. However, those working in outdoor field operations are only now beginning to see the benefits of digitization. Say you have a technician operating a piece of equipment at a mining, oil & gas, or construction site. If the equipment breaks down, the operator “calls in” a problem such as a machine-down to dispatch. The supervisor then sends out a technician to investigate the problem, report it to their supervisor, and then find the right tools to fix the problem.

rapidBizApps greatly improves the operator’s and technician’s experience during such events through the development of intuitive and reliable applications designed to maximize wrench time. These apps facilitate data aggregation at the source, eliminating the time-consuming process of gathering post-event data related to routine tasks as well as non-routine incidents. In effect, they transform a slow, reactive environment into a dynamic, proactive one. Time studies show that about 72 percent of the time spent on an issue—from reporting until resolution—accounts to overheads, meaning that actual “wrench time” is only 28 percent. By greatly reducing overheads through driving vastly more efficient workflows, rapidBizApps’ customers have, on average, seen their wrench times skyrocket from the low-to-mid 20’s to over 65 percent.

Leveraging its deep understanding of the pain points of field operations-intensive industries, rapidBizApps has developed a suite of apps that empower companies to efficiently capture accurate data from their field operations in near-real-time. Their flagship app is groundHog, a production control system. groundHog fundamentally change showmine, O&G, and construction companies operate: from scheduling workflows to tracking objectives, to serving as the system of record for production data. What’s more, groundHog stays robust despite the drastic changes in WiFi connectivity commonly observed at such remote locations. Further, operators can report progress and incidents in real time, while supervisors and management are constantly apprised of operational details on a minute-by-minute basis, and can dynamically redeploy resources in response to changing conditions. The end result is reduced downtime, increased productivity, and increased safety – all of which translate into increased compensation for technicians, a win-win-win on all fronts.

rapidInspect, a field maintenance app, enables organizations to deploy technicians and address issues remotely. The app enables the aggregation of machine data, failure reports, and site-specific data, enabling management to deploy resources efficiently. Like groundHog, rapidInspect too remains unaffected by inconsistencies of network connectivity;in both apps, data collected is stored offline until a stable connection is established with the central server.

The company is focused on field-operations-intensive industries including mines, oil refineries, and construction sites by customizing their applications according to the requirements of the clients.“Our software is malleable to the business process; we don’t force our processes upon our clients but adapt to the ones they have,” says Satish Penmetsa, CEO of rapidBizApps. The company conducts structured and meticulously documented “user councils”to understand the challenges faced by their users and efficiently designs applications to suit their ecosystem.

Our software is malleable to the business process; we don’t force our processes upon our clients but adapt to the ones they have 31

Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s largest gold mining company, uses multiple applications offered by rapidBizApps to streamline their mining operations. For one operation at a mining site, the client required quality inspections of water bodies on a regular basis. On the day of an unscheduled inspection, the application notified a technician about the inspection and pointed him to the correct location. The technician then collected the necessary data, completed a set of inspections, and repair tasks, and submitted a report to the management team – all from his phone. By collaborating with rapidBizApps, Barrick has been able to automate the overall functionality of their mines, maximizing the wrench time of individual mine operators and increasing the productivity of their operations. Without proper data aggregation, a mining site can incur additional costs during an audit, depending on the amount of data collected. rapidBizApps’s sophisticated solutions enable Barrick to stay in compliance with rules established by various regulatory bodies, which in turn reduces business risk.

Looking ahead, rapidBizApps plans to adopt augmented reality to assist technicians in performing repairs and inspections, as well as machine learning to maximize the output of mines, construction sites, and fuel refineries. To bolster their data collection aggregation, rapidBizApps is working on integrating telematics systems with IoT sensors to monitor and enhance productivity. “We help our clients in their digital transformation journey by enabling them to derive the best value out of their resources,” concludes Penmetsa.