RouteSmart shines in providing quality virtual training during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create a profound impact on the way we live, the way we work and, especially, the way we learn.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create a profound impact on the way we live, the way we work and, especially, the way we learn. Remote work and virtual learning have become commonplace and for nearly all of us, our way of life centers on adapting to this new environment.

Despite the changes, our team remains diligent in providing the very best technical training for our partners through virtual learning. As a result, our clients can get up to speed with RouteSmart solutions quickly to start improving their daily route planning and operations.   

“Our goal in client implementation is to bring our clients up to speed as quickly as possible, so they can begin to reap the benefits of our powerful solutions. However, we also recognize and appreciate the need for adaptability and flexibility in the learning process.” – Tom Huppmann, Director of Client Services Team

NiSource

NiSource, an Indiana-based utility company, recently completed its online training of RouteSmart for ArcGIS®. The company, which serves nearly four million customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia under the Columbia Gas and NIPSCO brands, has become a long-time customer of ours but needed new-user training following some personnel changes.

NiSource Project Manager Adam Custer described RouteSmart Implementation Consultant Dave Oxenford as “super friendly, gregarious, and knowledgeable.”

“I thought Dave did a great job explaining the technical aspects of the software,” Custer said. “He broke it down in a way that was easy to understand. We really appreciated RouteSmart being flexible in our schedules and going above and beyond with our needs.”

“We thought the training was great. Having it held virtually definitely made it more flexible for us. We could discreetly deal with calls from field employees during training and complete daily tasks with four-hour online training sessions. The training did a great job explaining the technical aspects of the software while making it easy to understand. We really appreciated RouteSmart being flexible in our schedules and going above and beyond with our needs.” – Adam Custer, NiSource Project Manager

Texas Disposal Systems

The flexibility virtual learning allows proved key for Texas Disposal Systems, which completed its training of the RouteSmart for ArcGIS platform in December.

The Austin-based waste collection company serves more than 50 counties and employs more than 800 people throughout central Texas. Its 250 trucks collect more than 3,000 tons of waste on 156 daily routes.

“We benefitted greatly from remote learning. It’s just been more convenient for us because we’re in a big transitionary period for our department. It was very convenient because it was completely on our own time, and we are all just working through it at our own pace, which is really nice.” – Sarah Frisbie, Texas Disposal Systems Routing Analyst

Kimble Recycling and Waste Disposal

Ohio-based Kimble Recycling and Waste Disposal completed virtual training with us in July 2020. The team at Kimble, working with Senior Implementation Consultant Robert Sullivan, preferred the four-hour training days as opposed to the full, eight-hour days. It allowed the routing team to learn the new system while allowing enough time to accomplish its day-to-day work.

“Since we did this virtually, it allowed us to structure our time better, so we didn’t impact our operations,” said Senior Cost Analyst Amanda Simmons. “It was a huge win, I think, doing it virtually. Initially we didn’t know what it would look like, but Rob was awesome. He really made it easy.”

“We knew that if we wanted to get better at creating efficient routes, we really needed a different software — one that works, that’s quick and efficient so our routing team can put together stuff better than they had in the past.” – Amanda Simmons, Senior Cost Analyst

Kimble, a family-owned and -operated business that serves more than 250,000 residential and commercial customers, came to us after searching for a solution that would help them create the most efficient routes. Previous routing services they used proved slow, would often crash and had limited capabilities, Simmons said.

Pictured from left to right: Anna Reichman, Ed Williams, Clint Hornik, Josh Carpenter and Travis Murray. Clint is our Routing Optimization & Efficiency Supervisor, and the rest of the team are our Routing Optimization & Efficiency Specialists.

Our RouteSmart solution has greatly helped Kimble create the most efficient routes and spurred increased productivity for its drivers. Using RouteSmart also allows the routing team at Kimble to communicate route changes to its drivers in a timely manner.

“We’ve seen an improvement in our bottom line since implementing RouteSmart,” Simmons said. “Even though our IT costs went up this year due to the investment, we’ve seen more than enough savings to compensate.”

We are thrilled to help our clients successfully implement our trusted solutions remotely at a time when waste management firms need it most. The need to operate in the most efficient way possible hasn’t taken a break during COVID-19, and neither have we, as we continue to successfully train new users and work to help our clients decrease time, miles and operating costs.

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