FortisAlberta prioritizes worker safety on Power Platform, boosting productivity and earning key tech award

Keeping workers safe onsite

With 350 front-line employees working on power lines across the province, injury prevention is an enormous priority for FortisAlberta. Thus, before any work commences at a site, an injury prevention plan (IPP) must be created to identify the risks and hazards staff need to be aware of and the actions they must take to stay safe. This plan must remain dynamic throughout the lifecycle of the project site, as any change to the job could introduce new risks, requiring new plans of action.

“Injury prevention planning is one of our 10 fundamentals of safety,” says Dan Thayer, FortisAlberta’s Corporate Safety and Environmental Manager. “It’s critical that injury prevention plans are completed before every job and updated anytime there is a change to the job, or a new person enters the site.”

Paper process short circuits

Before adopting a digital approach, FortisAlberta used a paper-based system to complete and manage IPPs. Supervisors had to fill out paper forms and send them by email to the Safety department within 30 days of project initiation. Recordings of meetings were captured on handheld audio recorders and cross-referenced with the paper forms during random periodic checks or following an incident. To share the IPPs, employees took photos or made photocopies of the completed forms and sent them for site auditing. This made it challenging to pull information together in time to be reviewed at team safety meetings

The paper-based process created several challenges. Handwritten IPPs were not always legible, which made it difficult to record accurate information. The check boxes on the IPP form did not accurately reflect the job’s scope of work, its roles and responsibilities, or its hazards and barriers. The paper forms required double entry, necessitating additional administrative work. And it could take as long as two weeks before forms got to the head office, if they didn’t get lost along the way.

There were also problems with the method used for recording meetings. Company-issued digital voice recorders produced low-quality recordings, which were often difficult to understand. Employees sometimes used their personal phones or devices to record the meetings, which introduced a security risk. Additionally, FortisAlberta personnel encountered issues with dead batteries or digital recorders getting lost in shipping, which meant paper forms would be the only IPP record available.

Flipping the switch on Power Platform

It was clear that moving from a paper-based process to a digital solution would alleviate several pain points. With FortisAlberta’s IT leadership deeply invested in Microsoft’s technology and product stack, Power Platform seemed like the perfect place to start.

To prove the technology could meet the requirements for this use case, FortisAlberta teamed up with digital partner Fidelity Factory, a Microsoft Gold Partner with deep experience using the Power Platform to empower business transformation for its clients. 

Fidelity Factory leveraged the rapid development capabilities of Power Apps to create a quick proof of concept. Its successful introduction led to an end-to-end solution being built in just two months. The completed solution was deployed in the fall of 2018 to a pilot user base of 220 daily users. The following spring, it was introduced to the FortisAlberta’s medium- and high-risk employees, as well as their managers and directors—all of whom adopted the digital IPP solution immediately. 

The new process starts before work begins at a site. Site supervisors create an IPP, identifying important information, as well as work hazards and mitigations, using a custom-built .NET application. At the work site, a Power Apps canvas app enables the supervisor to view and edit the relevant IPP for their site. The app, which runs on the supervisor’s personal mobile device, allows them to record audio so that their review of the IPP can be stored as an audio record. They can also use the app to record safety meetings and easily associate the recordings with the relevant IPPs for easy review.

Moreover, the IPP mobile app works both online and offline, allowing users to work uninterrupted regardless of connectivity at their location. The visually appealing and user-friendly interface—enabled by Power Apps—facilitates quick and easy reviews of IPPs. And linking audio recordings to an IPP is simple and straightforward.

Harnessing Power BI

To add a layer of insight to the IPP solution, FortisAlberta and Fidelity Factory connected the app to Power BI. From their Power BI reports, FortisAlberta staff can track how many IPPs are created daily, giving them an instant view of short- and long-term usage trends. With the Power BI-generated “word cloud” visualization, staff can also identify the activities and tasks most frequently selected in the app or captured in recordings so that they can address hazards associated with specific workplace operations.

In addition, a weekly tracker provides quick figures of how many plans, tasks, and recordings have been made over the past seven days, showcasing adoption and engagement.

Looking behind the screens

FortisAlberta’s IPP canvas app is a mobile-friendly front end that leverages out-of-the-box connectors in Power Apps to connect to multiple Microsoft data and cloud services. The SQL Connector manages pushes and pulls to and from the system’s Microsoft Azure SQL database, which stores all the IPP data. The Azure App Service Connector connects to Azure App Service, where an Audio File REST API used for processing audio recordings is hosted. Finally, the Azure Blob Storage Connector enables the retrieval of processed audio recordings from the blob storage.

Data in the Azure SQL database and audio files in Azure Blob Storage are then available for FortisAlberta’s back-end teams to access via a .NET application built by the company’s pro developers. This completes the cycle of information—headquarters’ initial assessments of the hazards and risks entered via the .NET application are instantly available online in the Azure SQL database; the information is immediately accessible to the front line via the Power Apps mobile canvas application; and audio reviews of the IPP are reported back, in real time, to the back-end staff.

Finally, data are then presented back to staff in easy-to-understand visualizations using Power BI. The additional insights from this data can then be fed back into subsequent IPPs, allowing for continuous improvement.

Reaping the rewards

The new IPP system has delivered huge benefits to FortisAlberta. By formalizing IPP data entry, the company can ensure all IPPs are completed to the same high standard. The streamlined process of creating and executing IPP and safety meetings has enabled quick and easy access to all the data associated with each site and project. The digitization of paper-based forms has eliminated the prospect of forms getting lost or damaged or requiring manual checks to ensure completion. IPP status, as well as updates from the field, is immediately available online, giving headquarters a real-time view of all projects in progress. 

FortisAlberta’s IPP solution has also empowered the company to do more with its data, with Power BI delivering rich data for reporting and analytics through compelling visualizations.

Moreover, FortisAlberta is enjoying a surge in productivity now that employees are no longer spending their time making double entries, tracking down missing paperwork, managing audio recordings, or working on other inefficient paper-based tasks. Because IPPs can now be completed with clarity, accuracy, and efficiency—from anywhere with ease—FortisAlberta is poised to exceed its Safe Work Planning and Occupational Health and Safety legislative requirements.

Powering forward

FortisAlberta’s Power Platform solution has stood the test of time. The digital IPP system has now been in production for more than three years and is deployed to more than 500 field staff members, including line workers, project coordinators, and field supervisors. On average, the app is used to process 120 IPPs every day.

Besides being an invaluable tool for the company and its staff, the digital IPP solution is also making life easier for government inspectors who audit the work sites. When an Occupation Health and Safety officer recently visited a job site to audit the injury prevention plan, a FortisAlberta field supervisor used the app to demonstrate the site’s IPP process and compliance. Impressed by what he saw, the officer commented, “I wish all sites were like this. You guys have everything in place.”

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