“Our communication from our business here at the corporate office, to out there in the field is now instant. Previously it may have taken three to four hours to get to that employee to make corrections to any field ticket.”
GOFORMZ CASE STUDY
AT-A-GLANCE
Needed a solution that would allow Icenhower field teams to complete job site tickets and digitally route them in a timely manner. Paper tickets often took a long time to get to the office, causing delays in invoicing and customer payments.
Implemented GoFormz to digitize field tickets and automatically route completed tickets to the back-office for immediate processing and invoicing.
THE FULL STORY
Icenhower Oil and Gas Inc. was founded in 1994 in Bossier City, Louisiana. As an oilfield construction and pipeline company, Icenhower operates 60 service crews and 10 pipeline installation crews within seven states.
Icenhower Oil and Gas operates a large number of oilfield and pipeline construction jobsites, with remote service crews tending to each project. Due to the distance between job sites and Icenhower offices, paper-based tickets completed in the field were often delivered late. “One of the issues we were having with the paper copies — our crews were out there in the field, they do their tickets, they get them signed and they would drop them off… if and when they came by the office. That may have been a two or three week lag,” David Martin, VP of Human Resources and Safety at Icenhower, explained of such delays. These lags in ticket processing had a ripple effect, delaying the completion of invoices, which in turn delayed the collection of customer payments.
“We’re a cash-flow business. As soon as we get a day’s work completed, we turn it into an invoice and try to get paid as soon as possible. It takes about 60 days to get paid… that’s if there are no errors on the invoice itself. ”Recognizing Icenhower’s need for a more modern, efficient solution, David began looking for a platform that would allow his team to complete tickets and send them to the back-office via email. Taking a colleague’s advice, David sought out GoFormz and began a trial.
During Icenhower’s trial of GoFormz, David digitized a variety of field tickets and tested them with local teams. Those who tested the field tickets were incredibly responsive, helping David to “enhance [the forms] to what they believed would give them the best efficiency.” Pleased with the performance of their now digital field tickets, Icenhower moved forward with GoFormz as their data capture solution of choice.
Digitizing field tickets resulted in a variety of opportunities for Icenhower personnel to work more efficiently and accurately. By completing tickets on mobile devices, field teams could now “get their tickets done out there in the field, get them signed and send them on the same day.” An additional positive side effect was that the information captured by the field tickets became more accurate, timely and legible. This information included the name of the well site and supervisor, drop-down lists of employees and equipment, a description of work performed and an auto-generated ticket number. Additionally, Icenhower implemented Automated Calculations to calculate the total costs of work performed. These digital features, especially the drop-down menus, made it far easier for field crews to complete and submit their forms with fewer errors and delays. Completed tickets were then digitally signed by a company representative, instantaneously routed to the user’s email, and then transferred to a supervisor or payroll.
“They can complete a ticket within five to ten minutes… you don't have to worry about someone’s handwriting… everything is very legible and very easy to understand.”
Once Icenhower’s payroll team receives a field ticket, it is processed and used to update that employee’s hourly pay. David explained the impact of Icenhower’s optimized ticketing, adding that “from an efficiency and economy standpoint that has also helped out with budgetary problems or issues, because we do pay our employees off the tickets on a weekly basis.” Additionally, the increased accuracy and timeliness of completed field tickets helped to “render theft obsolete”, by eliminating opportunities for exaggerated work hours. “Our company is now very accustomed to the GoFormz lifestyle, to ensure that communication from our corporate office out there to the field is being met.”
Due to Icenhower’s improved ticketing and payroll efficiencies, they experienced a significant reduction in time spent filling out, delivering and processing field data. “It really reduced the amount of time that the guys did the work, performed the ticket and sent them in,” David explained of their improved workflow. “We went from three week dry spells to a one day turnaround.” This was incredibly meaningful to their business, allowing Icenhower to pay their teams more rapidly and accurately.
“This platform allows our guys to perform the ticket, get it signed and turned in that day. That cuts down on that timeline of getting our funds from the company. And if there are issues that may arrive… having this platform allows us to answer those questions expediently.”