Company Overview
A leading utility provider in the Pacific Northwest is delivering safe, reliable power to nearly 950,000 customers. Behind that promise is a complex network of field crews, contractors, and operational workflows—all of which must stay tightly coordinated as the business grows and shifts.
To keep pace with the changing demands of field operations, the company’s vegetation management arm turned to Quickbase to build a scalable, secure platform that could evolve with their business.
| Before Quickbase | With Quickbase |
|---|---|
| Lack of data visibility, no dashboards or reports | Dynamic visibility across floating crews and changing assignments |
| Lack of ability to provide system access to contractors | Self-managed access and role-based control with regular audits |
| Inability to make changes to application to meet growing business needs | Monthly sandbox releases with documentation and user communication |
| No visibility into who still had system access(Cut entire row) | Quarterly user access reviews across 600+ contractors |
| Disconnected invoicing and field data collection | Centralized vendor submissions with real-time updates |
| Paper jobs packets needed to be printed daily and distributed for work assignments | Real-time job assignments with dashboards accessed on a multitude of devises |
The Challenge
Vegetation Management’s legacy systems could no longer keep pace with the speed and complexity of modern utility operations. As crew numbers grew, the system failed to scale with the expanding scope of work—leaving processes manual, data unreliable, and forecasting nearly impossible.
The Solution
They reimagined their operations platform using Quickbase—focusing on scalability, flexibility, and security from the ground up.
- Dynamic crew visibility: They moved away from rigid role assignments and built a master table that determines which crews a foreman can see, allowing managers to float across regions with ease.
- Streamlined access control: They now run quarterly audits across hundreds of users to ensure only current, authorized personnel have access.
- Centralized invoicing: Field vendors can now submit costs and photos through Quickbase, feeding directly into their invoicing system for faster approvals.
- Application lifecycle governance: Instead of making instant changes, they run all updates through a monthly sandbox process—testing new features, updating documentation, and sending release notes.
The Impact of Quickbase
Initially, the company's IT team had approached the department with a potential solution that cost roughly $400k, solved for 50% of their challenges, and was a 12-18 month timeline for deployment. Implementation of Quickbase saved them the $400k, provided a solution for all of the challenges, and only took 3-6 months total to be deployed. Quickbase didn’t just solve their immediate operational challenges—it gave them a foundation they could grow on.
- Scalable operations — Crew makeup and territory coverage can now evolve fluidly
- Stronger security posture — Regular audits and access controls protect sensitive data
- Better field experience — Forms are clear, documented, and easy to use
- Smarter enhancements — All app changes are vetted, tested, and rolled out with intention
