Customer Success
Scaling complex telecoms operations with intelligent workforce scheduling
Watch the Field First Platform Demo“Our managers no longer need to spend their weekends preparing for the week ahead.
Jason Chandler Senior Operations Director, Kelly Group
15 minutes
to complete scheduling calculations
1,000 +
field engineers supported nationwide
12 Task Types
Managed Through One Scheduling Platform
1.8 Million
Broadband Installations Per Year
Who Are They
Since its beginnings in cable installation in 1985, the organisation has expanded into telecommunications, rail, civils, utilities, fleet, traffic management and energy services.
Today, Kelly employs more than 3,500 people and supports nationwide service delivery through a workforce of over 1,000 field engineers, completing more than 1.8 million broadband installation jobs annually across the UK.
As the business expanded into new sectors and increasingly complex workstreams, it became clear that operational processes needed to evolve to support future growth.
”"When we looked at Totalmobile to support us, there was a feeling in my operational team that they could embrace any scenario we put to them."
Hugo SweeneyIT Director
Challenge
“We needed to look for something that would allow us to route this work on the day, without having to manually keep moving the work around.”
Kelly’s existing scheduling approach relied on a bespoke routing tool that had served the organisation well for several years. However, as workloads became more complex, the limitations of manual intervention and clustered scheduling became increasingly apparent.
The organisation needed to manage multiple service lines and increasingly varied work types while maintaining operational efficiency across a large mobile workforce. Existing processes made it difficult to dynamically balance workloads, optimise engineer schedules throughout the day and support the business’s long-term growth ambitions.
The team wanted a solution that could:
- Automate workforce scheduling.
- Support increasingly complex task types.
- Improve operational scalability.
- Reduce manual effort and human error.
- Improve engineer utilisation.
- Support future growth across multiple sectors and client contracts.
The Solution
“My team can now access information in real time, which we’ve never been able to do before.”
Following a review of the workforce scheduling market, Kelly Group selected Totalmobile’s Dynamic Scheduling and Mobile Working capabilities to support its growing operational requirements.
”"It doesn't matter if we get 10 jobs or 10,000 jobs, the system will do it for us."
Hugo SweeneyIT Director
As Kelly expands across telecommunications, utilities and emerging infrastructure markets, workforce agility has become increasingly important. Dynamic Scheduling provides the operational flexibility needed to manage varied workloads while maintaining service quality, productivity and customer satisfaction.
The ability to automate scheduling at scale means the business can onboard new contracts, introduce additional work types and support future growth without significantly increasing scheduling overheads.
”"We want to be scalable. We don't want to be reliant too much on people. We want the system to do everything for us."
Hugo SweeneyIT Director
Results
Through Totalmobile's solution, Kelly Group achieved:
15 minutes
to complete scheduling calculations
1,000 +
field engineers supported nationwide
12 Task Types
Managed Through One Scheduling Platform
1.8 Million
Broadband Installations Per Year
Transforming Work-Life Balance
One of the most significant benefits of Dynamic Scheduling has been its impact on the work-life balance of Kelly Group’s engineers.
By evenly scheduling jobs across the team, all engineers now finish work at the same time. Jason Chandler noted,
”“Thanks to Totalmobile, all of our engineers now finish work at the same time because the jobs have been scheduled evenly across the team. Work-life balance is important to us, and Totalmobile Dynamic Scheduling is helping us make it a reality.”
Jason ChandlerSenior Operations Director
Reducing Carbon Emissions
In the telecommunications sector, field engineers often travel extensively to provide services, which can result in substantial carbon emissions. However, with Totalmobile’s intelligent scheduling, Kelly Group has minimised unnecessary travel.
By creating efficient schedules that maximise job completions and minimise travel, Dynamic Scheduling ensures that engineers spend more time delivering services and less time on the road. This not only increases productivity but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint of their operations.
This commitment to environmental sustainability aligns with Kelly Group’s broader corporate responsibility goals. By reducing travel time and thus lowering carbon emissions, Kelly Group is not only improving its service delivery but also contributing to a more sustainable future.
- Reduced scheduling effort from a manual process to a highly automated workflow.
- Improved workload balancing across engineering teams.
- Increased task completion rates and reduced operational errors.
- Improved engineer utilisation and workforce productivity.
- Enabled Kelly to support more complex contracts and service offerings.
”“I would definitely recommend Totalmobile. The engagement and the collaboration between the two teams have been really good and there’s been real passion from Totalmobile to get involved and deliver what we needed.”
Jason ChandlerSenior Operations Director
