Software & IT

THE KEYS TO QUICKER QUOTING

In a buoyant market the key to making hay while the sun shines is a fast and efficient quoting process. But what does it take to be efficient? And just how fast is fast? We challenged founder and CEO of Tommy Trinder, Chris Brunsdon, to quote a houseful of windows on Framepoint®. And we put the stopwatch on…

With demand in the window and door industry reaching record levels in recent months, managing the quoting backlog has been a significant challenge, with many installers working evenings and weekends just to keep up. In the process of developing the Framepoint® app, founder Chris Brunsdon and the team at Tommy Trinder have had conversations with hundreds of windows installers about the trials and tribulations of getting quotes out of the door quickly. The learning, says Chris, is clear; “Being efficient is not just about banging out the quote,” says Chris. “It’s the total time it takes to generate every document you need to complete the sale and pass the products into manufacture that matters. That’s the time that you need to measure and speed up if you're looking to unlock real time savings.” “First and foremost, installers need a super quick and easy way to enter product information. Next up, it needs to be really fast to send jobs off for pricing if needs be. The ensuing paperwork flow needs to happen without the need for re-keying information and should include the quote itself, a contract for the homeowner to sign, paperwork for surveyors, and finally clean purchase orders ready to send off for manufacture.”

Increasingly, says Chris, homeowners are also expecting a visualisation as part of the quote showing how their new windows and doors will look in situ; “When you consider the ease with which consumers are able to model other significant purchases like cars or kitchens, it feels inevitable that offering the client a visual of windows and doors will become the norm. This is another element that can add time to the quoting process.” So, up against the clock, how long did it take Chris to generate this end-to-end document suite using Framepoint®? The Answer: 18 minutes – 2 seconds. “Call it 20 minutes,” says Chris. “That’s to generate every document required to complete a typical sale, including sending off pricing requests, doing the quote plus an accompanying makeover, printing off a contract ready for the homeowner to sign, generating a full set of documents for surveyors, and finally processing the order and sending to manufacturer.”

An added complication when it comes to getting quotes out quickly, says Chris, is that Installers are frequently faced with having to juggle multiple suppliers on one project; “An aluminium bi-fold, some sash windows and a handful of casements, for instance. All sourced from different manufacturers, each with a unique pricing regime. The process of splitting orders and sending some or all parts off for pricing is very time hungry. Framepoint® helps with this; allowing installers to easily combine products in multiple materials, from multiple suppliers in one professionally presented document.” The document suite created by Chris Brunsdon as part of this time challenge, which includes both PVC and aluminium products, can be downloaded from: https://www.tommytrinder.com/lp-time-challeng

EVONET HELPS RAMAGE WINDOWS INCREASE OUTPUT EFFICIENTLY

When lead times on PVC-U frames were at their peak in 2020, one of the responses from fabricators who were buying in even a portion of their output was to increase their own manufacturing volumes.

For Newcastle upon Tyne based Ramage Trade Windows, which doubled its output from 130 to 270 windows per week during the pandemic, that process was made considerably easier thanks to its investment in Business Micros EvoNET software.

Ramage Trade Windows had previously bought in around half of its volumes but when it started to suffer significant supply shortages, took the decision to invest in new machinery and new software so that it could reduce its reliance on other fabricators and deliver increased certainty to its trade, retail and new build customers.

The company, which supplies Eurocell windows throughout the north east of England, had been a Business Micros Evolution software user for many years. While it was only manufacturing a hundred or so windows per week, it was easy to manage things like production batching and despatch manually, but when volumes started to increase, the Ramage team wanted to ensure that they stayed as efficient as possible. In fact, the integration of EvoNET into the business has helped to make Ramage more efficient than ever and given the team much more control of their operation. Director Andrew Ramage Jnr explained: “The payback on the software was almost instant. A year after it was installed, we are producing double the number of frames, but with no increase in the amount of time we spend on admin. “We now have barcode scanning stations throughout the factory which gives us total visibility of what is being produced and we can see the status of every job via the inbuilt dashboard. We can batch production using EvoNET to optimise material and labour efficiency and generate reports instantly on everything from output per fabricator to quantities of remakes.” Ramage Trade Windows has included the EvoAssist module within its EvoNET set up so that it can automatically send order confirmations and invoices to customers via text or email.

Andrew Ramage Jr added: “We have streamlined our entire operation while also reducing our reliance on outside suppliers. The addition of EvoNET means we can confidently grow our volumes still further and know that we won’t have to compromise on efficiency or customer service. “We’ve been really grateful for Business Micros’ support throughout the entire project. The team have always been available to help – whether that’s in person or online and have more than justified our decision to choose the number one software supplier in the market.” More info at: https://ramagewindows.com/ and https://www.businessmicros.co.uk/evonet/

PUT YOUR BUSINESS IN CONTROL WITH ONSITE 7 JOB MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

As the industry boom continues, it’s never been more important for installers to operate as efficiently as possible. Rhys Hoddinott, CEO at Onsite 7, says: “Job management software is an effective tool in helping installers stay in control of their businesses. We know from customer feedback that Onsite 7 is smart working for busy companies managing multiple jobs with multiple teams and back-end processes.”

The Onsite 7 system includes a team calendar where installers can schedule their jobs. It helps ensure a smoothrunning schedule and helps them manage their teams’ time efficiently, preventing clashes and gaps in workflows. Installers can allocate actions to a particular team member and track progress so there’s less risk of something being forgotten. Installers can also check every stage of each job from sales and survey to install and service. It provides an at-a-glance way to see where a job has got to and whether action is needed.

The information contained in Onsite 7 helps installers get valuable insight into their business too. There is end-to-end supply chain accountability to help installers keep track of their orders. There are reports, including job costing and profit reports and the software integrates with Xero and QuickBooks accountancy packages to help speed up financial admin processes. Onsite 7 customer Karl Symmonds, Director of Truplas, sums up the difference it makes when he says: “With multiple software systems, paper-based practices and time consuming tasks we were certainly in the market for that ‘one software package’ to help streamline our activities and also provide us with a link to site activities. Key admin staff and management can now login into the Onsite 7 console from any location to review customers, jobs, active jobs, completed jobs… it is very much a software for all… and so easy to use.” Onsite 7 costs £20 + VAT per month per licence, which means it offers exceptional value for money for installers of any size, large or small. Tel: 0800 0029748 – www.onsite7.co.uk