Situation

• Tucker Wireline Services provides a wide range of services to companies in the oil and gas industry
• During each project, crew members would record time spent and supplies used on a paper ticket
• Completing the ticket required consulting a paper-based pricebook, which had to be amended regularly as prices changed
• Once signed by the customer, the completed ticket was either faxed or mailed to the company's accounting department
• Information from each ticket then had to be entered into the company's database, a time-consuming and error-prone process
• Before being mailed to clients, invoices had to be checked against paper-tickets and discounts applied
• Payment cycles could be as long as 105 days

Approach

• In mid-2004, TELUS, Spira Data Corporation and Tucker Wireline began working together to create a wireless field ticketing solution
• In 2005, Tucker Wireline became the first company to deploy the solutions
• Field crews now have 1X wireless enabled laptop computers, loaded with a full range of customized digital tickets and company data, including pricing for all aspects of a project
• Completed tickets are signed digitally by the customer, then transmitted immediately to head office
• TELUS supplies secure wireless connectivity between field crews and the head office
• The innovative Spira 4 ticketing application integrates the data with back office operations
• TELUS hosts the entire solution, allowing Tucker Wireline to focus on their core business

Business Benefits

• Drop down menus make digital tickets easy to complete in the field and eliminate pricing and data entry errors
• There is no need to re-enter data at head office, further reducing the possibility of errors
• There is also no need to check invoices against paper tickets
• Completed tickets are transmitted over a secure TELUS 1X wireless connection, eliminating delays
• Electronic invoices can be submitted within hours of a job being completed
• Payment is received significantly faster
• The solution also provides a full range of customizable reports, giving Tucker Wireline more information about its field operations than has ever been available previously

Solution

Tucker Wireline Services is an oil and gas services company offering a wide range of open hole, cased hole and specialty services to oil and gas companies in Canada, the US and South America.

Like other oilfield services companies, Tucker Wireline used a system of paper tickets to track and bill for work done.  Crew members would complete a ticket, consult a price book, calculate the total price of the job and have it signed by the customer.  The ticket would then be faxed or mailed to head office, or kept in the truck until the crew's next visit.  This could mean delays of up to 15 days.  Reporting was also extremely limited.  With only about 20% of all field data being captured, Tucker Wireline could not rely on the system for accurate information about its field crews and the work they did.

At head office, data from each ticket was entered into the company's database before invoices could be generated, creating more delays and another opportunity for errors.  Before being mailed to the customer, the invoice would have to be double-checked against the paper ticket, at which point any relevant discounts would be applied.  In total, time from job completion to payment could be as long as 105 days.

In mid-2004, Tucker Wireline decided to work closely with TELUS and Spira Data Corp. in developing an innovative new wireless ticketing solution.  Now, field crews complete their tickets on laptop computers enabled with 1X wireless connectivity.  A series of intuitive drop-down menus makes it easy, with no need to consult a price book.  The system is also easily updated and all discounts can be applied immediately and accurately.  The completed ticket is signed digitally by the client and then transmitted securely to head office over the secure connection on the TELUS 1X network.  If a truck is outside the coverage area, the system simply saves the ticket until a connection can be established and transmits then.

It's a complete end -to-end solution.  The innovative Spira 4 ticketing application is fully integrated with Tucker Wireline's existing back office solutions - and TELUS provides connectivity and hosts the entire solution at a secure TELUS Internet Data Centre.  It all means Tucker Wireline can focus on supporting its customers, while TELUS ensures the system is always up and running.

Another major benefit of the solution is that it gives Tucker Wireline access to accurate, real time, fully customizable reports from the field.  With far more data being captured accurately, the company has new insights into the needs of its customers and the way its field crews operate.

"The development of an electronic field invoice has increased our efficiency with improved work performed to pay dates, reduced hand errors, led to easier integration with customer systems, and made life easier for our field supervisors," said Dave Jellett, Vice President of Technical Services at Tucker Wireline Services.  "This is really helping to meet our needs and we think that others will benefit from this solution, too."