FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KorTerra, Inc. Adds Great Plains Locating Services, Inc. to Customer List
Minneapolis, MN – May 11th, 2004 – KorTerra, Inc. is proud to introduce Great Plains Locating Service, Inc. (GPLS) as a new customer. GPLS provides damage prevention services to utility companies, contractors, property owners and dozens of private firms such as hospitals and colleges. GPLS is headquartered out of Omaha, Nebraska, maintains a network of three regional offices and has more than 400 employees in 10 Midwest states. Great Plains is a damage prevention service provider and has grown their locating services in the Midwest and Central Plains states. Their Midwest growth is largely due to their Multi-Party Damage Prevention philosophy. True damage prevention requires good communication between all parties involved in the ‘life of a ticket’; the excavator, the utility, the state one call center and the locating firm. Ticket management is a key element in successfully communicating and implementing their multi-party damage prevention program.
GPLS has utilized an in-house ticket management since it’s inception in 1993. Last year, GPLS began to consider upgrading their system and created an internal design document listing the features and functionalities that a new system would need. After reviewing KorTerra's software, they realized that the KorTerra system closely matched the requirements outlined in their design document. GPLS made its final decision to pursue a relationship with KorTerra after meeting KorTerra's development and support team and KorTerra’s President, Chris Stendal.
“We researched building a new in-house software solution, but changed our minds when we learned of the KorTerra™ system. KorTerra's focus on the Utility industry has created a group of software developers and customer support specialists that truly understand damage prevention”, said Tony Hrbek, Director of Technology and One Call Services for GPLS, “GPLS's success over the past 10 years has been based on two key factors...Quality People and Quality Service. We feel that KorTerra displays both of these qualities and will make a great partner with GPLS in its efforts to provide the best multi-party damage prevention services in the industry.”
KorTerra Dispatch will allow GPLS to receive and automatically dispatch locate requests from the 10 One Call Centers they work with to their mobile workers in the field. . KorTerra's highly-integrated mobile field application will allow GPLS to further enhance delivery of work orders to the field and automate collection of billing information. Through balancing workloads electronically locators are focused on locating without the distraction of a physical meet for exchanging paper tickets. This will increase productivity and because it occurs electronically in the system, will improve ticket tracking and auditing. . In addition, the KorTerra system provides GPLS with the capability of implementing a wireless solution and provides real-time notification to the field.
The KorTerra system will also offer enhanced reporting capabilities, web access for customers and employees and greater efficiency in the ticket management process. KorTerra offers over 30 pre-programmed reports which will provide Great Plains with the tools to make informed management decisions. KorTerra reports give information to help manage staff, manage operations and help to identify trends and potential problem areas. Along with the pre-programmed reporting, Great Plains will take advantage of ad-hoc reporting that will allow them to create their own special reports.
“We are pleased to have Great Plains as a customer and look forward to a successful implementation and roll-out”, said Chris Stendal, President, “The KorTerra solution will help streamline Great Plain’s operations, provide them with valuable information at their fingertips and help eliminate costs associated with a paper ticket locating environment”.
About KorTerra, Inc.
Since 1990, KorTerra, Inc. has developed mobile computing and workforce
management solutions for the utility industry. They have worked with
major utilities, contract locators and municipalities to develop a
variety of Utility Workforce Management systems. The software
effectively manages on-time response, management reporting, positive
response, and keeps track of locating team performance in a real-time,
mobile and paperless environment. KorTerra also provides ASP services;
capabilities that allow KorTerra to host the software on their servers
with customer access to the application via the Internet. KorTerra
software interfaces with every One Call Center and is used by Utilities,
Municipalities and Contract Locators across North America. Today, over
20,000,000 tickets are managed by the KorTerra application annually. To
learn more about KorTerra and see what their customers are saying about
the KorTerra product suite, go to
www.korterra.com, or contact via telephone at 952.368.1911.
###
For additional information contact:
Press Contact(s):
Chris Stendal, President
KorTerra, Inc.
18882 Lake Drive East
Chanhassen, MN 55317
Tel: 952.368.1911
Fax: 952.697.3141
Email: sales@korterra.com
