When David Schremp started working for Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, the year was 1991 and everything was analogue. The past 33 years, he has been promoted from finance manager to his current position as general manager; and he has observed technology help fulfill his three priorities.
“The three measures I always look to achieve are: efficiency, cost saving, and convenience for our members,” Schremp explained. “Technology allows us to obtain these measures with more ease.”
Schremp laughed and said when he started working for the company, there was only one computer in the building.
“I got the second computer the company bought, just because I knew a little about using one,” Schremp explained. “At the time, we had one of those large satellite dishes outside for communication purposes.”
Schremp went on to explain technology has advanced to the point where it greatly improves operations for both customers and staff as well.
“We have an app that our customers are able to access, and they can use it to contact us in multiple ways,” Schremp explained. “Customers can also use the app to see information we put out for them to know, they can see where there might be any outages.”
Schremp detailed how new technology even allows the company to reasonably predict where an outage might occur before it happens.
“It sends us information that lets us know if a customer has lost power and what might be happening with other locations in the same area,” Schremp noted. “So we can anticipate problems before they happen.”
Schremp said the technicians in the field are connected technologically with the main office, as each truck is equipped with GPS and an iPad.
“We’re able to know where our workers are, so we can dispatch them to an area if they’re close by,” Schremp said. “And with the iPads, they can receive all the technical information to let them know exactly what they’re going to encounter.”
Schremp said he believes anything that can improve interaction between members and staff is extremely valuable.
“It’s amazing how operations have changed,” he remarked. “I think the best change has been improved efficiency. I don’t just like technology for the sake of technology, but I remember when we didn’t have cell phones for this job. We were thrilled when we got pagers. Sending and receiving faxes was a neat experience. We didn’t anticipate just how quickly everything would change for the better.”
Schremp acknowledged there are risks when being reliant on technology, but explained there are redundancies in place with their current systems.
“We also have fiber lines from multiple companies running to our building, so we can stay connected if the cloud goes down, or something like that,” he stated. “We can’t afford to take the concerns lightly, because there are certain levels of vulnerability when you have to rely on other companies to do what you need to do.
“But being able to improve our level of service and communication is such a boost for the company. There are things on the horizon that I’m excited about, and it’s just nice to be able to reflect on how far we’ve come in such a short time.”