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Case Study · Field Service Lightning · Energy & Utilities

Emergency Response: 4 Hours to 48 Minutes —
Field Service Transformation for a Canadian Energy Utility

Client: NorthGrid Energy (Canada) Industry: Energy & Utilities Region: Ontario & Manitoba, Canada Services: Field Service Implementation & Integration Delivered By: Gagstek
80%
Faster Emergency
Response Time
67%
Reduction in
Dispatch Time
Zero
Paper-Based
Work Orders
CAD 4.2M
Annual Operational
Cost Savings

Background

A Utility Company Running on Paper in a Digital World

NorthGrid Energy distributes electricity to over 740,000 residential and commercial customers across Ontario and Manitoba, operating a field workforce of 620 technicians responsible for maintenance, outage response, meter installation, and safety inspections across a combined service territory of 180,000 square kilometres. At those distances and in those winters, operational efficiency isn't just a business metric — it's a safety imperative.

Yet NorthGrid's field operations were almost entirely paper-driven. Work orders were printed and handed to technicians at depot, job updates were radioed back to dispatch, and post-job documentation was completed manually and physically returned for data entry. Emergency fault calls averaged 4 hours from report to technician on-site — a figure that had attracted regulatory scrutiny from the Ontario Energy Board. NorthGrid engaged Gagstek to implement Salesforce Field Service Lightning and modernise every layer of their field operations, from intelligent scheduling through to mobile-first job completion and real-time GIS asset integration.

Operational Scale

The Numbers Behind the Challenge

620
Field Technicians Across 2 Provinces
180K km²
Service Territory Coverage
3,400+
Work Orders Per Week at Peak
740K
Residential & Commercial Customers
28
Depot Locations Across Both Provinces
4 hrs
Average Emergency Response — Before

Key Business Challenges

Paper, Radio, and Manual Everything

NorthGrid's operational fragmentation had compounded over decades of legacy systems and organic growth. By the time Gagstek's discovery team arrived, the business was running on six separate tools with no shared data layer.

  • All work orders were paper-based — printed at depot, carried in trucks, manually completed in the field, and physically returned for data entry; a process taking 2–3 days per job to close in the system
  • Emergency dispatch relied on radio and phone coordination between dispatchers and the nearest available technician — no real-time location visibility, no skill-matching, no optimised routing
  • NorthGrid's GIS asset database (containing 2.4 million network components) was entirely disconnected from work management — technicians arrived on-site without asset history, previous fault records, or schematic access
  • No mobile capability for field technicians — job updates, part usage, safety sign-offs, and completion photos were all handled on paper and reconciled back at depot
  • Planned preventative maintenance scheduling was managed in spreadsheets updated weekly — meaning schedule conflicts, double-bookings, and unmet maintenance windows were routine
  • Regulatory compliance reporting to the OEB required manual extraction and reconciliation from three systems, consuming 40+ hours of staff time per reporting cycle

Gagstek's Solution

A Connected Field Operation, End to End

Gagstek structured the implementation in four phases over 18 weeks, prioritising emergency dispatch capability in Phase 1 given its regulatory urgency, then progressively rolling out mobile, GIS integration, and predictive maintenance across the subsequent phases.

Intelligent Emergency Dispatch
Einstein Work Order Routing deployed for emergency fault calls — automatically identifying the nearest qualified technician based on real-time GPS location, skill certification, and vehicle parts inventory, then dispatching via push notification to the FSL mobile app.
FSL Mobile App for 620 Technicians
Full Salesforce Field Service mobile deployment — technicians receive job assignments, access asset history, complete safety checklists, log parts, capture photos, and obtain digital customer sign-off entirely on device, with offline capability for remote areas with no signal.
GIS Asset Integration
Bidirectional integration between Salesforce FSL and NorthGrid's Esri GIS platform — 2.4 million network assets linked to work orders, giving technicians single-tap access to equipment specs, fault history, last inspection date, and network schematics from the job screen.
Automated Preventative Maintenance Scheduling
Rule-based PM scheduling engine replacing manual spreadsheets — maintenance windows auto-generated from asset inspection intervals, dynamically assigned to technicians based on territory, certification, and workload capacity across all 28 depots.
Van Stock & Parts Management
Real-time vehicle inventory tracking integrated with the parts warehouse — parts consumed on each job automatically decrement stock, triggering restocking alerts at depot thresholds and reducing first-time fix failures due to missing parts by 44%.
OEB Regulatory Reporting Automation
Custom FSL dashboards and automated report packs built to Ontario Energy Board specification — eliminating the 40-hour manual reconciliation cycle and replacing it with a one-click export generated directly from live operational data.

Delivery Approach

Phased Rollout Across 28 Depots

With 620 technicians and 28 depot locations across two provinces, a big-bang go-live was never an option. Gagstek designed a phased rollout that delivered regulatory-critical capability first, then systematically expanded across the workforce and territory.

1
Phase 1 · Weeks 1–4
Emergency Dispatch & Core FSL Configuration
Einstein routing configured for Severity 1 and Severity 2 fault calls. Real-time GPS tracking enabled for all vehicles. Emergency response time dropped from 4 hours to 48 minutes within the first week of live operation.
2
Phase 2 · Weeks 5–9
Mobile App Deployment — Ontario Pilot (150 Technicians)
FSL mobile app rolled out to Ontario's Central Region — 150 technicians trained and live on mobile work orders, digital checklists, and photo capture. Paper work orders eliminated in the pilot zone. Offline mode validated across low-signal rural territories.
3
Phase 3 · Weeks 10–14
GIS Integration & Full Province Mobile Rollout
Esri GIS integration completed and activated. Remaining 470 technicians onboarded across Ontario and Manitoba. PM scheduling engine deployed. Van stock integration activated at all 28 depots. Paper work orders fully eliminated across the entire organisation.
4
Phase 4 · Weeks 15–18
Regulatory Reporting, Analytics & Hypercare
OEB reporting automation delivered and validated with NorthGrid's regulatory team. FSL Analytics dashboards deployed for operations management. Four-week Gagstek hypercare period with on-site support at key depots before full handover.

Business Impact

A Safer, Faster, and Significantly Cheaper Operation

48 min
Emergency fault response time fell from 4 hours to 48 minutes — an 80% improvement driven by Einstein routing, real-time GPS dispatch, and skill-matched technician assignment, directly resolving NorthGrid's OEB regulatory concern within the first month of go-live.
67%
Standard dispatch time reduced by 67% — from an average of 2.3 hours to 46 minutes for planned work orders, as automated scheduling replaced manual coordinator decision-making across all 28 depots simultaneously.
Zero
Paper work orders eliminated entirely across all 620 technicians and 28 depot locations — closing the 2–3 day job closure lag and giving operations management a real-time view of field progress for the first time in the company's history.
44%
First-time fix rate improved by 44% as GIS asset integration gave technicians access to full equipment history and schematics before arriving on site, and van stock tracking ensured the right parts were loaded before departure.
40 hrs
Regulatory reporting cycle eliminated — the 40-hour per-cycle manual extraction process replaced by a one-click OEB report export, freeing an entire reporting team for higher-value compliance and planning work.
CAD 4.2M
CAD 4.2 million in annual operational savings identified across reduced overtime (faster jobs), eliminated data-entry headcount, lower fuel costs from optimised routing, and reduced repeat dispatch from improved first-time fix rates.
For a regulated utility, the stakes of slow field response extend beyond customer satisfaction into public safety, regulatory standing, and licence conditions. Gagstek's Field Service Lightning implementation gave NorthGrid Energy the digital foundation to meet those obligations reliably — while delivering a financial return that paid back the project cost inside the first eight months of operation.

Client Testimonial

What the Client Said

"We were under real pressure from the OEB on response times, and we knew our paper-based processes were the root cause — but the scale of the challenge felt enormous. 620 technicians, 28 depots, two provinces. Gagstek didn't flinch. They phased the rollout intelligently, got our emergency response metric into compliance within the first month, and had every technician on mobile within 14 weeks. The GIS integration was the piece that surprised our field teams most — they couldn't believe they could pull up full asset history and network schematics from their phone on a pole in Northern Manitoba. That capability alone changed how our people work."

R
Director of Field Operations
NorthGrid Energy, Ontario Canada