WorkSafeBC
B.C. Workplace Safety Watchdog Boosts Mobile Productivity
WorkSafeBC (the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C.) is a provincial agency dedicated to promoting workplace health and safety for workers and employers across British Columbia. WorkSafeBC consults with and educates employers and workers, and monitors compliance with the province’s Occupational Health and Safety regulations. To fulfil that mandate and ensure regulations are followed, prevention officers conduct routine workplace inspections. However, the technology that supported the officers in the field was aging and inefficient – inspectors filled out documents that required uploading into WorkSafeBC systems at their regional offices. Documents also had to be manually inspected to ensure database filing accuracy. This process limited the number of work sites an officer could visit, and reduced the effectiveness of WorkSafeBC’s inspections. After adopting wireless connectivity, WorkSafeBC has built a Microsoft®-based platform called WorkSafe Mobility using Visual Studio® 2005 development system and SQL Server™ 2005. As a result, officers will be able to enter data into Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 PCs while on the road, boosting overall efficiency and productivity, and help WorkSafeBC reduce operating costs.
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Company Overview
WorkSafeBC (the Workers' Compensation Board of B.C.) is a provincial agency dedicated to promoting workplace health and safety for workers and employers across British Columbia. WorkSafeBC consults with and educates employers and workers, and monitors compliance with the province’s Occupational Health and Safety regulations. To fulfill that mandate and ensure regulations are followed, prevention officers conduct routine workplace inspections.
WorkSafeBC reviewed the technology that supported inspection document workflow, and found opportunities for improved performance. Officers used a 10-year-old PowerBuilder-based application to process site inspection documents, accessed by laptop computers in specially designed vans outfitted with a desk. Officers also lacked remote connectivity. Documents were stored locally in an Access database and later uploaded at the office into a corporate DB2 database. Staff then sifted through reports to ensure they were properly filed so they could easily be retrieved using specific search criteria.
Business Challenge
“In response, we put together a business case that showed us that, with a new application and wireless connectivity, we could claw back an hour from the document workflow time – effectively boosting efficiency by 25 per cent on every inspection document done,” says Marc Nielsen, system business analyst, WorkSafeBC.
WorkSafeBC decided to act on its business case and modernize its software platform. Given that WorkSafeBC had committed to Microsoft®-based technology for its server platform across the organization, it chose to implement Microsoft software to help it enhance its inspection and reporting process. WorkSafeBC opted to build a new application using Visual Studio® 2005 development system, and store data on the client using SQL Server™ 2005 Express. The new system would allow inspection officers to enter data into SQL 2005 databases on each machine, and later upload the data to a central WorkSafeBC DB2 database.
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Solution
The first step was to provide inspection officers with wireless connectivity and Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 units. This will boost mobile productivity and allow officers to upload information directly to WorkSafeBC databases.
WorkSafeBC also needed to develop an application that could take full advantage of the new wireless connectivity it had provided for its inspection officers. To do that it built a platform known as WorkSafe Mobility in Visual Basic 2005 using Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2, which will enable it to enter workplace safety data in real-time.
WorkSafeBC also created a Web service and XML-enabled document template – the Employer Fact Sheet - that inspectors can quickly access to see details on companies they inspect. The document covers all data relevant to WorkSafeBC – including claims history, consultation and education records, and assessments-related information.
“In Beta 2, I found Visual Studio 2005 had some features our developers really loved,” says Marc Boissonneault, senior application architect, WorkSafeBC.
One of the key features is enhanced Snippets functionality, which ships with Visual Studio 2005. Based on XML, the Snippets feature supports replaceable parameters, helping developers to more easily insert and import, enabling them to better collaborate on code.
“We also found that organizing our projects under SourceSafe enables us to work far better than we could under Visual Studio 2003,” says Boissonneault.
Developers were also impressed by the generics support in Visual Basic 2005. Generics are programming operation elements that can be tailored to data types specified by developers
WorkSafeBC implemented individual databases on each officer’s Tablet PC using SQL Server 2005 Express. SQL Express is designed as an easy-to-use database with features that simplify, automate, and reduce the complexity of database support and administration. The tool can be used to install and manage SQL databases on local and remote computers.
“One of the new features available with the new SQL Server database that really caught our eye was the XQuery capability, which enabled us to store documents like our Employer Fact Sheet in an XML format and use XQuery to get data out of them,” says Nielsen.
SQL Server 2005 also provides a User Instance feature that enables the database to run under the identity of the logged-on users. Coupled with the Windows Encrypting File System (EFS), WorkSafeBC can encrypt the entire database without interfering with worker productivity. “Before SQL Server 2005, that would have been a lot more difficult to do. And it’s extremely important, because our officers are working in the field with very sensitive information that they collect on companies,” says Boissonneault.
To help ensure that officers also take full advantage of their wireless connection, the new applications and mini-databases run on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 PCs. “The tablets are a lot more portable and user-friendly in the field, and we can remove the need to use a desk in the officers’ vehicles,” says Nielsen.
Business Benefits
By taking advantage of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on Tablet PCs, WorkSafeBC has developed a mission critical system that improves the efficiency of field officers and provides enhanced security for sensitive data.
"The new application is more closely attuned to how an officer works in the field and provides the officer with information on the unique issues and characteristics of the workplace prior to entering,” says Betty Pirs, executive director, Prevention Services, WorkSafeBC. “This enables officers to focus their inspection in the areas that will provide the most benefit to the employers and workers at the worksite and have the greatest impact on workplace safety. The new application also removes many of the administrative ‘headaches’ officers experience with the old system improving both productivity and officer morale.”
Visual Studio has helped developers reduce the time required to develop applications, while SQL Server improves data processing. The Microsoft-based solution has also helped WorkSafeBC better fulfill its core mandate - promoting workplace health and safety in B.C.
“We’ve been very successful in delivering a variety of innovative solutions using the Microsoft-based development environment, from e-business applications to this wireless mobility solution. We were particularly interested in using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on our WorkSafe Mobility project as it will not just be a point solution for our Prevention officers but also a foundation for all of our mobile solutions over the next few years. As such we wanted to use the latest tools that would give us the best productivity and functionality available.” says Brian Cooper, CIO, WorkSafeBC.
Improved customer service
Accessing Microsoft-based applications on their Tablet PCs, officers will be able to enter a work site fully knowledgeable on that organization’s status and previous interactions with WorkSafeBC. This will improve job efficiency and productivity, as well as client service. Given that officers can have a detailed view of a company’s history available at their fingertips – including what hazards or dangers might exist onsite - the application also offers enhanced levels of workplace safety. The solution is set to go live in the Spring of 2006.
“Our officers are better prepared for potential safety hazards that may await them during an inspection, and that is what this business is all about. Overall, the new Microsoft platform has helped our inspectors to become far more effective,” says Nielsen.
The prevention officers involved in the project have also been very positive about the change. “We’re untethering them from their desktops and getting them information about companies right away. It’s also a very intuitive user interface. These are areas where we have lots of positive feedback,” says Cooper.
Reduced operating costs
Officers will be able to take advantage of enhanced mobile access, to access the data they need, when they need it. The ability to process data via their Tablet PCs without the need for manual intervention at their regional offices will result in real productivity improvements that will help WorkSafeBC achieve a full return on investment.
“We project that by using the Microsoft-based solution we can improve our productivity by the equivalent of at least 13 full-time employees. We aren’t reducing staff – rather, we’re helping our existing staff to do far more inspections. This will bring us back to the productivity levels we need,” says Nielsen.
As well, WorkSafeBC will be able to realize significant savings over the next five years in vehicle modification costs, as vans will no longer have to be outfitted with desks.
More stable and secure platform
Having used previous versions of Visual Studio and SQL Server, WorkSafeBC already knew the benefits of the Microsoft-based platform. However, it found the 2005 beta versions of the tools came with the enhanced functionality and stability it needed. This has helped developers be more effective and productive, helping them build a stable platform and providing a foundation for future growth.
“We’re very impressed with the increased stability of Visual Studio 2005. The developers who are working with it right now have told us they will never go back, and that will probably accelerate our transition to the full new version,” says Boissonneault.
Combined, SQL Server 2005 and EFS also provided WorkSafeBC with the ability to protect sensitive data stored on field inspector’s tablet PCs. The enhanced security makes it possible for WorkSafeBC to allow field inspector’s to safely travel with critical data stored on their PCs.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System is a line of integrated and manageable server software designed to reduce the complexity and cost of IT. Windows Server System enables you to spend less time and budget on managing your systems so that you can focus your resources on other priorities for you and your business.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to:www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is the world’s most popular development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows-based solutions and Web applications and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office, Visual Studio 2005 helps organizations deliver a variety of solutions more productively than ever before. Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development life cycle. With Visual Studio 2005, businesses can deliver modern service-oriented solutions more efficiently.
For more information on Visual Studio 2005, go to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/
Acquire Visual Studio: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/howtobuy/
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com
For more information about WorkSafeBC (the Workers’ Compensation Board of B.C.) products and services, call Phone: (604) 231-8888 or visit the Web site at: www.worksafebc.com
