From 2 hours to 1 hour to mobilize 200 people in an emergency situation
COMPANY NAME
Groupe EEA
INDUSTRY
Construction
SOLUTIONS
Challenge
Groupe EEA is a construction company specializing in the installation of power lines in Quebec. With a team of 300 employees, they offer installation, repair, and emergency response services for electrical distribution systems, including rapid deployments for distributors in Canada and the United States.
When an electrical distributor calls with an emergency, every minute counts. The team had to survey 150 to 200 employees to find out who could be on site immediately. Their system: an Excel file with a Twilio script to send text messages. Sending was automated, but all responses had to be processed manually—one by one.
Then came the headache of roster management: putting teams together quickly while avoiding mistakes (such as assigning the same person to two teams). For assignments in the United States, they also had to produce customs documents—dozens of minutes of copy-and-paste work for each deployment.
The result: nearly 1 hour and 40 minutes to get a clear picture of availability, with the risk of errors and no data on historical participation rates.
Solution
Phase 1 — Emergency process analysis: We mapped out every step, from the initial call to customs clearance. The challenge wasn't just to automate text messaging—it was to rethink the entire workflow to eliminate all non-essential manual intervention.
Phase 2 — Building the Airtable tool: We built a centralized system that manages text messaging via Twilio AND automatically collects responses. Each response instantly feeds into the availability overview. The system prevents roster errors (it's impossible to assign someone to two teams) and automatically compiles participation statistics per employee.
Phase 3 — Document automation + HR integration: Once the roster is confirmed, U.S. customs documents are generated with a single click. The tool is connected to their Folks HR system to keep employee data synchronized without double entry.
Stack : Airtable (central system) + Twilio (SMS sending/receiving) + Folks HR (employee data synchronization)
Duration : 2-3 months of implementation. Results visible from the first emergency call.
Results
50% reduction in mobilization time — From 2 hours to 1 hour to survey 200 people and get all the answers
0 roster errors — No more risk of assigning a person to two teams simultaneously
Customs documents in one click — Instead of tens of minutes of manual copy-pasting
Conclusion
By automating their process, EEA Group is able to streamline their work and reduce their admin head over.They are now able to answer their client emergency calls and to reduce errors caused by manual work.
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