12 minute read
Software & IT
VIDEO LINK
JOB MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE THAT’S DESIGNED FOR YOU
Onsite 7 is the innovative new job management software designed for the trade by the trade. Rhys Hoddinott, CEO of Onsite 7 introduces the software and explains why every installer needs it.
Here’s a worrying fact. According to the World Commerce & Contracting association, 20.7% of contracts in the construction sector result in claim or dispute. This leads to lost employee hours dealing with the claim, higher operating costs and lost sales revenue, not to mention potential reputational damage. For most businesses, a claim is all-too-often your word against theirs. And if there’s no way to prove who’s right and who’s wrong, there’s always the risk that your business will be found liable – even if it shouldn’t be.
And even if a contract isn’t disputed, there’s always the frustration of costly callbacks for remedial works that shouldn’t be your responsibility because the damage occurred after you left. If this sounds like an all too familiar scenario, then installers need to take a closer look at Onsite 7.
With Onsite 7 in your business, you mitigate all these risks. It’s an easy to use, cloud-based solution that allows you to capture all relevant information, documentation, instructions, photographs, videos and contract variations for every stage of every job in one place. Crucially, because everything’s agreed with the customer at each stage, there can be no dispute about what both parties agreed or how a job was left. Quite simply, it’s peace of mind for your business and incredibly easy to use. I started with the scare story, but Onsite 7 is so much more than an insurance policy for your business. It’s also a system that streamlines your business at every level. All the information connected with all your jobs is stored in one place that’s accessible whether you’re in the office, on the road or on site with a customer. That means you’ll never leave vital paperwork back in the office or not have all the information you need to hand. You can use it to manage jobs because you can assign tasks to teams to complete and see at a glance the stage every job has reached. It also acts as a customer relationship management (CRM) system so you can have a single system giving you all the information you need. It makes managing your business much easier, saving you time and money. In fact, it takes less than 14 days to start to drive more efficiency in your business with Onsite 7 on your side.
It isn’t just efficiency either. It’s a system that gives your business a professional polish, enhancing your reputation with your customers and making it easier to build their trust. It’s such a valuable tool because it was developed by people with solid experience as business owners in this sector. We’ve felt the pain points you’ve felt. We’ve heard all the excuses in the book about why a customer shouldn’t pay. We’ve had miscommunications from our teams about whether a job is complete or not. And most importantly of all, we know that a fast-paced business needs software that is quick and straightforward to set up and works the way you want it to. We combine this with strong ethics and values that cascade through our business to ensure we always deliver on expectations. Michael Hollyer, Director of Clearstyle Windows, has brought Onsite 7 into his business. He says: “Having the ability, by customer, and on a job-by-job basis to allocate and review every step of the customer journey was incredible. It is as if the software was designed specifically for my business. Using Onsite 7 I can see the ‘sales stage’, ‘survey stage’ ‘install stage’ and ‘any service calls attended’ against the jobs. This allows me to review previous visits and action visits either assigned to myself or my team members.” For all these reasons and more, Onsite 7 is attracting a great deal of industry attention. It suits businesses of any size and can add value at every level.
Onsite 7 costs just £20 + VAT per month per licence, so it’s an incredibly cost-effective investment. To get started with it in your business today, visit onsite7.co.uk and hit ‘Sign Up’.
MUST DASH!
DASHBOARD OFFERS SUPERB AT-A-GLANCE CONTROL FOR ADMINBASE USERS
Although available as an option for some time on the original Cloud-based version of leading installer management system AdminBase, the web-based version launched last year, introduced to allow customers more convenient secure remote access to their company’s data via laptop, tablet or home computer, includes a very slick Dashboard facility at no additional cost. And just as a car ‘dashboard’ is an essential part of a vehicle, designed to present all key information ‘at-a-glance’ to the driver, so is the AdminBase version.
Peter Wheeler Managing Director SEH BAC Rhonda Ridge
The premise of the AdminBase Dashboard is simple enough: using what has become an intuitive understanding of what the colours red, amber and green indicate when used as a signal, users – who may be the Managing Director of the company through to the admin team - can summon up the Dashboard and gain a highly accurate view of as many distinct operations within their organisation as they choose to set up. Green signifies the overall time allocated to complete a particular action, amber denotes that an action is still pending, and red indicates that it is overdue – as simple as that. With this information presented graphically in the form of pie charts, users can assess the status of active contracts quickly and efficiently. This summarised view is then supported with more detailed contract information listed for each chart, highlighting both individual contract values and the collective values of contracts sitting at each stage of the process – from initial enquiry right through to installation and remedial work.
“The whole point of AdminBase is to give installers what they need to ensure they have full control of their business,” said Ab Initio Managing Director Rhonda Ridge. “Dashboard is a simple, but highly effective tool that does just that. Rather than wasting time and effort manually keeping on top of how each part of a contract is progressing, the Dashboard does all the hard work for you, reducing the risk of bottlenecks and improving efficiency.” A strong advocate of AdminBase and especially the Dashboard feature, is Peter Wheeler, Managing Director of Ipswich based installer SEH BAC, which celebrates 50 years in business and operates 13 Show Centres in an area that includes Suffolk, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex.
Peter says: “The Dashboard and checklist notifications within AdminBase allow us to track a customer’s order through our processes, providing each of our administrators with alerts to allow them to review progress. And as each stage is completed, at the click of a mouse button the system sends the customer an email or text update direct to their mobile device, to keep them informed of the progress of their order.
“This happens throughout the process, also including remedial works and right through to the account being paid and all works completed. We also use the Dashboard and automated notifications features within AdminBase for all aspects of processing conservatory orders for example, which also assists us in dealing with planning applications and permissions. All warranty work, such as it is, is also managed through AdminBase. The dashboard lead times are set to your requirements and you can write your own scripts to personalise them to your business; set up is also very user friendly,” added Peter. Take up of the web-based version of AdminBase has been especially strong during the past year, as installers have sought efficiencies within their businesses to cope with the additional pressures imposed by the pandemic in addition to strong sales volumes: “AdminBase, and especially the Dashboard feature, has allowed installers to manage their businesses more efficiently, especially the additional imperative of protecting customers and staff, and sales volumes that have been as much as 150% of budget for some installers,” said Rhonda. The Dashboard update also includes the AdminBase data export service, Export Data Designer, and can integrate sales leads from an installer customer’s own website, directly into the AdminBase system.
For more information go to: https://www.abinitiosoftware.co.uk
NEW GOOGLE MAPS FEATURE FOR ADMINBASE ALLOWS AT-A-GLANCE JOB PLANNING
AdminBase is now available with the world’s favourite mapping application Google Maps, in the latest development of the industry leading installer management system.
Available as an automatic upgrade at no additional charge, the Google Maps facility will now allow users to check details of the geographical locations for scheduled site functions at-aglance, to give immediate visual information on the locations for sales, survey, installation and service personnel. To learn where and when sales people will be at any one time for example, administrators can easily view appointments by each salesperson or for the whole company, especially useful when planning additional sales calls or checking the activities of any salesperson, or for the company overall. The location and identity of each representative is shown in clear detail on the map including the time of their appointment. When new prospects call asking to see a representative, the administrator can summon up the sales map and immediately determine when a rep is in the area to call upon the prospect. Another sales function is to extend a novel and unique existing feature that already exists within AdminBase, that records the types and location of products installed. Whenever a prospect expresses an interest in viewing a specific type of product and installation, demonstration calls can easily be planned for the prospect to visit the site closest and most convenient for them.
Similarly, Survey, Fitting and Service calls can be planned easily by entering the address and, at the click of a mouse button, all other existing scheduled calls in the area, at a specific time and day, can be viewed. The new address can then be entered into the schedule when agreed, with the appointment automatically confirmed to the customer and added to the relevant AdminBase diary. The addition of Google maps will revolutionise planning for all site functions, says Rhonda Ridge, Managing Director of Ab Initio Systems and the originator of AdminBase: “In 2020 Google Maps was used by 1 billion people every month and for most of us using the app, it is intuitive. Adding this facility to AdminBase to allow users the ability to look at the map to see where all their site-based people are at any one time, is likely to become one of the most used features of AdminBase,” says Rhonda. “Google Maps will be added automatically to web-based versions of AdminBase, through a free update,” she added.
FIT SHOW & BUSINESS PILOT TEAM UP TO INCREASE INSTALLER PROFITABILITY
FIT Show has teamed up with Business Pilot,the cloud-based ERP / CRM system for fitting and installation companies, to develop a series of guides to help installers increase profitability.
The ‘WorkSmart’ series will focus on the data that installation businesses should be extracting to help them streamline operations, making them more profitable. ‘WorkSmart’ will run monthly in the lead up to FIT Show’s new 26 - 28 September 2021 dates, when the UK’s number one event for the glass and glazing industry will return to the NEC.
The first in the series, ‘WorkSmart - Are you profitable?’, uses exclusive data and insight from the Business Pilot team to challenge installation companies into looking beyond the order book and analysing if they are actually more profitable, or just busy. Speaking about the campaign with Business Pilot, FIT Show event director, Nickie West said: “A key theme for FIT Show 2021 will be helping our audience to do better business and, ultimately, improve their bottom line. We recognise that to deliver true value, above and beyond the three physical days of the event, we have to look at new ways to deliver content to our audience.
“We are always looking at new and innovative ways to work with our exhibitors to extract the information that will add the most value to our audience. Whilst visitors will be able to see Business Pilot at FIT Show in September, we wanted to work with them to develop the cobranded ‘WorkSmart’ series to start adding value before visitors walk through the halls. We’re excited to announce the launch of this series.”
Elton Boocock, Managing Director, Business Pilot, said: “We have seen how radically things can change in the last 12-months and it’s really important that as businesses, we remain agile, adapt to
those challenges. The WorkSmart series is about understanding how the commercial landscape has shifted and how installers can adapt to those changes, ultimately making their businesses stronger and more profitable. We’re delighted to be able to partner with the FIT Show, which is itself a case in point of an organisation which is adapting to change, and we look forward to catching up with the industry in person in September.”
The only completely integrated CRM system from lead to installa�on or supply to service call and everything inbetween
DIGITAL SCHEDULING
Interac�ve
Replace T cards or white boards
Automa�cally search for free slots
Cater for staff that mul� task
Drill down from diary to every aspect of the contract
DASHBOARDS
Define the stages each contract type should go through Automa�cally no�fy customers and personnel of ac�ons taken via SMS or email
Iden�fy where ac�ons are overdue via traffic light system of due dates
View your pipeline as a whole and see where contracts are held up in the process
Manage departmental efficiency
MAPPING
View sales appointments on a map by Salesperson or whole company
View survey, fi�ng and other trades appointments on a map View service calls booked for a day on a map
Select products installed and then view addresses on a map to arrange viewings of work done
Get in Touch Today!
Visit Adminbase at:
www.abini�osoftware.co.uk
AdminBase CRM
Basic
from
£100* Pro
from
£105* AdminBase Apps
Sales
from
