London, 18 October 2006—SPL WorldGroup today introduced its mobile resource scheduling and optimisation application—the SPL Enterprise RealTime Scheduling (SPL ERTS) solution at the Service Management Europe Conference in Birmingham.

The enterprise scheduling application, designed for companies with large field-service workforces and specialized logistical requirements, was previously marketed in the UK under the name Sidewinder.  It is part of the commercial UK and Australian operations that SPL acquired in May of this year from Sidewinder Holdings Ltd.

SPL ERTS, an intelligent platform which a company can tightly integrate with its core business processes, uses the latest "on the ground" information to automatically re-schedule and re-route field resources as circumstances change—all in real-time.  This translates into maximum productivity for the mobile workforce at the lowest-possible cost.  Using SPL ERTS, companies now can not only reduce their costs of delivering service but also offer increasingly sophisticated levels of service that help them attract and retain customers.

"Mobile personnel and equipment represent the greatest cost of providing service," said Bob Eddy, Vice President, SPL ERTS product business unit, "so scheduling and optimisation capabilities are essential elements of mobile workforce applications.  Business organisations with service-delivery and logistics operations are looking for tools such as SPL ERTS to enable them to better leverage the skills within their mobile workforces, reduce delays and unnecessary travel and ultimately to respond to customer requests with prompt, complete service."

Scott Miller, SPL’s Executive Vice President & General Manager for EMEA added, "Many companies already have invested significantly in the front-end processing operations for customer service requests—their call centres.  Now they want to focus on enhancing the efficiency of their field-based resources, enabling their mobile workforce to respond quickly to situations in which customer requirements are constantly changing.  SPL ERTS is designed to give businesses real-time control over their field resources and operations and thereby help them maximize the return on their overall service-delivery investments."