Siemens Traffic Controls, which looks after the majority of the UK's traffic signal infrastructure, has chosen Pinnacle Computer Systems to provide a mobile data communications service for its 350 field engineers, and is using Cognito to supply the managed mobile data network capability behind it.

The company's field-based maintenance engineers will be equipped with XDA handheld mobile terminals. Initially the system is being rolled out to 120 maintenance engineers.

Because Cognito's managed service operates in real time, call centre staff know exactly when an engineer has started or completed a task such as receiving details of a job or moving on to the next.

According to Mick Murphy, service operations manager for Siemens Traffic Controls: "An engineer would typically accept and clear a job using a mobile phone, but call volumes weren't always easy to forecast and this could have an impact on the level of service provided."

 

The company felt that the new system would be particularly useful following the introduction of the new legislation outlawing the use of mobile phones on the move.