Pictures of the Future    Fall 2007

On Call Around the Clock

Katharina Wojtowska sets out to pick up her son at a kindergarten in Vienna, Austria, only to discover that her car won’t start. She calls ÖAMTC—the Austrian automobile club. Half an hour later, roadside assistance specialist Andreas Brezina arrives. He discovers that the alternator in Wojtowska’s car isn’t working and proceeds to jump start the vehicle. With the engine now running, Wojtowska can drive to the nearest repair shop. While Brezina inserts Wojtowska’s ÖAMTC membership card in his portable reader she talks about how thrilled she is by the club’s service. "I was really impressed by how quickly ÖAMTC got here," she says.


Sometimes the job can be anything but heavenly for the angels. For example, during many nights in January 2006, a thick layer of ice covered thousands of cars out in the country. "We’re constantly on the go in such situations," Brezina says. In these and other types of emergencies, ÖAMTC needs to plan driver assignments as efficiently as possible and organize other mobile services that utilize ambulances, helicopters, and even an ÖAMTC ambulance jet—a kind of flying intensive care unit.

"It’s not just about assisting our members quickly when they have a breakdown or an accident outside the country," says Peter Koller, head of ÖAMTC’s telephone service. "It’s also about making sure they realize they’re of the utmost importance to us, while at the same time focusing on keeping costs in check." The club is able to do this through a harmonious interplay between motivated employees and IT solutions from Siemens.

Around ten years ago, all calls received at ÖAMTC’s Vienna headquarters were noted down by hand and sent via a conveyor belt to a dispatcher who contacted a driver by radio. The dispatcher thus always had to know where all drivers were at any given time. Not infrequently, there were misunderstandings that either resulted in long waiting times for stranded motorists, or drivers being dispatched to the wrong places. "The software solution from Siemens has enabled us to consistently boost efficiency over the last few years," Koller reports.

Today, the ÖAMTC headquarters is housed in a new building in a residential area on the outskirts of Vienna. The ground floor is home to the stationary roadside assistance and technical testing departments. One floor up is the call center, where staff member take calls and record information on vehicle locations. This data, along with a preliminary diagnosis of whatever problem has been reported, is displayed to dispatchers on digital street maps in an adjoining room. Two other screens show them the current status of assignments, enabling them to find the right driver to handle each call.

Certain routine jobs are automatically assigned by the system to specialized drivers, whereby the dispatcher only needs to confirm the assignment.

Drivers have touchscreen displays in their vehicles that show them their next assignment. If they’re only a few minutes away from the vehicle in question, they can simply touch a point on the screen to connect them automatically with the member’s telephone number via mobile radio.

Since the driver knows exactly where the vehicle is, club members also no longer have to wait right next to their cars for an ÖAMTC specialist to show up. "I can enter the entire operation—including my diagnosis and repair attempts—right into a mobile organizer," says Brezina. "This saves time with documentation and also allows us to move on to the next assignment more quickly. The mobile unit even shows me whether or not a member has paid his or her annual dues."

Constant contact between headquarters and drivers via GPRS and a Siemens modem ensures that everyone involved in the process has the same information. The system also makes it possible to collect and process breakdown statistics more rapidly and accurately, which in turn improves the efficiency of both short-term and long-term personnel planning.

Data with a Smile. Insurance services offered by ÖAMTC are also linked to the comprehensive software solution. That means members don’t have to tell their story over and over again—for example, if their car is taken to a repair shop by ÖAMTC and they then have to call in additional car-rental coverage they have with the club.

Staff in Vienna simply see everything on their screens. Moreover, if the member happens to be in Italy, for example, the system will also automatically display the most important service numbers in the country, which means call center staff don’t need to waste time looking them up.

"One key advantage of the software solution is its flexibility," says Ralf Mahnkopf from Siemens SBT SES, which has provided software support to ÖAMTC from the beginning. ÖAMTC is also constantly coming up with new ideas on how to further improve its processes. In such situations, Koller likes to incorporate new ideas into the system as quickly as possible—and without having to bring in Siemens specialists to reprogram everything.

Easy-to-use masks enable trained information technology specialists at ÖAMTC to change features such as the colors or symbols used to display available service vehicles to dispatchers. "It’s only when things get really complex that we need to call in Siemens for help," says Koller.

Similarly flexible software solutions are increasingly being used in operational control centers all over the world. And to an increasing extent, emergency call center services are coming together into a single, central location.

One country with such a setup is Finland. There, Siemens provided the infrastructure that enables the centralized dispatching of police, fire departments, and ambulance services. "The benefits here aren’t limited to catastrophic situations," says Peter Löffler, research and development coordinator at Siemens Building Technologies. "Operational centers are increasingly becoming decision-making centers where people are subjected to permanent stress. To ensure optimal interaction between software and the people who work with it, it’s best to have modular programs that can quickly and flexibly be adapted to new requirements."

The networking of operational centers and field staff as practiced by ÖAMTC creates additional benefits, as do systems that bring together several operational centers. That’s because the data collected can be used to simulate serious incidents. "These scenarios are becoming more and more precise and can help with staff training, assignments, and resource planning," says Löffler.

In addition, there’s a lot more high-quality information available these days from sensors in temperature monitors and smoke detectors in buildings, for example, as well as from video cameras that autonomously register and report movements (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2007,  Eyes on Everything). "In a few years, we’ll be seeing cameras that can recognize conspicuous patterns—for example, in the way passersby act—and then inform the authorities of a potentially dangerous situation," says Löffler. This could involve criminal activity or something as mundane as traffic jams that police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances need to avoid.

One thing is clear for Löffler and his team, however. Intelligent systems are there only to provide assistance to trained personnel when it’s necessary to make routine decisions. In matters of life and death, on the other hand, human beings will continue to make decisions and take action. That’s how it is at ÖAMTC in Vienna, says Koller, adding that, "Our job ultimately doesn’t involve cars as much as it does people—people who need help quickly."

Katharina Wojtowska has picked up her three-year-old son, whom she has already registered as a junior member of ÖAMTC for free. After all, you’re never too young to get help from an angel.
                                                                                                 Andreas Kleinschmidt