Mobile Solutions and Surveying - Case Studies and Downloads

Zurich Guarantees Success with PowerSurvey PLUS

The Building Guarantees division of Zurich Insurance is the second largest provider of new home warranties in the UK, having brought real competition to this market for the first time. Reliance on IT in order to improve communications and keep costs to a minimum is a prime requirement, and division manager Martin Horsler needed to take computing power right to the workforce. To do this, he chose to equip his team of 35 site inspectors with handheld computers.

After extensive evaluation Zurich chose PowerSurvey PLUS software, running on Psion Workabout handheld computers, to link the inspectors in the field back to the corporate Lotus Notes system. This enables a two-way flow of information via dial-up links from the inspectors’ homes.
With PowerSurvey PLUS, the IT team at Zurich were able to design and build a highly complex bespoke interactive data capture system and link it in with the corporate mainframe, all without having to learn anything about the proprietary protocols inherent in handheld survey systems.

Each inspector is responsible for monitoring many sites, and must inspect and approve every house periodically at several key stages of construction. Close control of the notification process, inspection schedule and resultant flow of data is therefore essential to ensure that contractors’ work is not delayed whilst waiting for inspections, and that information logged can immediately be acted upon.

A daily transfer via modem updates each inspector’s visit schedule on the handheld, and allows completed inspections to be uploaded to the central system for certification and billing. Citizen portable printers, communicating with the hand held computers by cordless infrared links, allow a printed report to be left on site noting standards achieved and problems to be rectified.

Martin Horsler comments: "The capture of data in this way allows us to develop an e-commerce strategy that adds value for our customers. We have found PowerSurvey PLUS to be a flexible tool that non-IT people can learn after only a short training programme. This means that the business teams who do the work are able to develop the project and therefore have real ownership of it with all the benefits that brings in managing the operational change"