Securely connecting Centrica field engineers to what they need with TOUGHBOOK

Taking productivity to new heights

Centrica is a global energy and services company with a 200-year history. A brand of Centrica, British Gas has services which range from energy and power distribution, to maintaining the 1,500 gas lamps that still exist in London today. The company has worked closely with Panasonic for 20 years to keep its technology on the leading edge and maintain top-notch customer service.

That's why Centrica migrated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Pro and upgraded their British Gas field engineers to TOUGHBOOK G1 devices.

With the cloud-based productivity apps of Microsoft 365 at their fingertips, field engineers can now easily access product information, process quotes, and use Microsoft Teams to collaborate with remote peers and troubleshoot any issues.Microsoft Teams also speeds up communication across the organisation.

“If you're running a business that's quick, fast changing, dynamic, you want to get information out to your teams quickly and efficiently, while saving money and your impact on the environment, then Microsoft Teams is absolutely the platform.”

Ian Stone, Senior Field Development Partner at British Gas.

Customer satisfaction at the touch of a button

The TOUGHBOOK G1 replaces the stacks of product leaflets that engineers used to carry in their trucks. Instead, they can now use their TOUGHBOOK device to show customers a product solution from the online library, process a quote on the spot, and send it to the customer's home computer.

If approved, the engineer can even install the product immediately, saving a trip. “Before, you were up to your knees in paperwork. Leaflets for this, leaflets for that. Now, it's the touch of a button. You can access it within seconds. You can even show the customer pictures or videos,” says David Coward, Service Repair Engineer at British Gas.

Streamlined, simple and secure

Centrica also plans to use Windows 10 Autopilot to make device deployment more efficient. Panasonic will be able to ship TOUGHBOOK G1 devices to any engineer who needs one, without having to preload any software. When the engineer turns on the device, it will automatically connect to the cloud and download the necessary apps. “Windows 10 Autopilot is going to be really exciting as it's going to streamline the way that we can deploy new devices to our field workers,” says Joanne Rose, Head of Mobile User Computing at Centrica.

Another advantage of Microsoft 365 is enhanced security. “Our collaboration tools and the new tools that Microsoft 365 has brought in are all cloud-based, and that means we're not storing customer data on engineers' devices,” says Rose. This not only makes customer data more accessible to field engineers, but also enhances its security.

“Our latest digital transformation has been global, and we've transformed the working lives of our 29,000 employees right across Centrica.”

Joanne Rose,Head of Mobile User Computing at Centrica.