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Western Water relies on some 150,000 assets spread across 252 asset types to provide water, recycled water and sewerage services to some 47,000 commercial customers and 185,000 households. It has seen big gains through implementation of a new asset management strategy.

We reported recently on WhaTech about a New Zealand power company that is looking at using drones - unmanned aerial vehicles to give them their correct title - to quickly gather information on problems with its electricity distribution network - such as a car crashing into a power pole.

Managing occupational health and safety issues for a field workforce will always be challenging because they're working on somebody else's premises not yours so you can't control their work environment. Dalkia Energy Solutions, a company that manages and maintains heating, ventilation and cooling systems at thousands of site around Australia, has come up with a novel solution that has dramatically improved its safety record.

The quality of customer service has become an increasingly important priority for businesses struggling to differentiate themselves in an ever-more competitive market landscape. And for companies that operate field workforces the interactions between its field personnel represent a very significant contribution to what constitutes customer service, and customers' perceptions of the company.

They're best known for the remotely controlled elimination of suspected terrorists by the US Government but pilotless aircraft -- aka drones -- have many less lethal purposes. Their potential for remote asset monitoring was just one of many useful topics covered at last week's field service management conference in Sydney.