PDALogic Case Studies

PDALogic is the natural complement to the JobLogic service management software solution. Providing a real-time interface between the JobLogic system and any mobile operative's PDA, the software enables increased mobile workforce management.

To understand how PDALogic will benefit your business, we have provided some case studies to show how our clients are using the service management system.

Read on to find out how The Academy of Plumbing use PDALogic to stay in up to the minute contact with their field service staff, reducing administration and helping to deliver excellent customer service.

Ashley & McDonough: Case Study

 

“PDALogic is more than paying for itself by eliminating paperwork and saving staff hours of work”

Mike Ashley (Managing Director)

Ashley & McDonough (Huyton) Ltd specialises in central heating repairs, installation & maintenance and is one of the leading mechanical services companies in the North West

Originally formed in 1959 by Mr. W. Ashley, Ashley & McDonough is a family company with almost 50 years experience, with a total of 50 employees, 40 of them being fitting and service employees.

In 2007 Ashley & McDonough decided to add the PDALogic Module with bespoke forms, Managing Director Mike Ashley commented

“Gone are telephone calls and trying to pass engineers addresses and instructions over the phone. All job information can now be sent to the engineers PDA and we can monitor the status of each job in real-time. As PDALogic captures both customer and engineer signatures we no longer have to wait for job sheets to be returned, an invoice can be raised within minutes”

Mike remarked on the reasons they decided on the bespoke forms for the PDA’s.

“We have a dedicated gas safety department providing certificates to private and social housing landlords; the problems this caused included the masses of paperwork and hours of work for admin staff. PDALogic provided us with the ability to complete the forms electronically and then send these back to the office to be stored in our database and be sent out by email. PDALogic is more than paying for itself by eliminating paperwork and saving staff hours of work.”

 

The Academy of Plumbing: Case Study

At the start of 2007, Academy took the decision to go mobile and implemented PDALogic. This application enables jobs to be sent directly from the office to engineers' hand-held devices. The engineer updates the office with status changes, job notes and client signatures effectively completing the job in real time. With the addition of the Landlords Gas Safety form for the Academy of Heating engineers PDALogic has transformed a once paper intensive environment into a slick paperless operation. Terry Rayner added "PDALogic has relieved pressure on our office staff to enable them to concentrate on delivering excellent customer service. Our engineers no longer rely on unnecessary trips to the office to collect and deliver paperwork. Our labour resource has been maximized and our turnaround time to invoice has been dramatically reduced."

James Whatmore Sales Director for JobLogic remarked "By taking the decision to implement a mobile solution Academy have laid the foundations for years of continued growth. They have already realised a rapid return on investment. The cost savings achieved by the elimination of wasted engineers' travel time and fuel, together with enhanced cash flow from faster invoicing have given Academy a sustainable competitive advantage in their field."

Deba UK Ltd: Case Study

Deba UK Ltd. was formed by the merger of Test Water Ltd. and Deba Cooling Towers Ltd, an engineering company on the 1st September 2006. Today Deba UK is the only company in the south of England to provide cooling tower engineering and environmental services under one roof. In October 2006 Mike Platt (Managing Director) of Deba UK evaluated the benefits of implementing a Service Management System. The company was growing rapidly and it was realised that a dedicated system was required to manage the influx of service contracts and their associated administration. JobLogic from Tracer Management System Ltd was identified as a perfect fit for the business. The suite of modules allows Deba UK to manage the workflow from creation of new customers and enquiries through to service contracts, reactive maintenance, sales invoicing and purchase ordering. The link to Sage Line 50 provides a seamless bridge between operations and accounts ensuring that data does not have to be re-keyed. Mike Platt explains "JobLogic was the ideal choice as it was priced sensibly to meet our budget but was also powerful enough to cope with the demands of our busy service contract operation."

After meeting the requirements of the back-office, Deba UK turned their attention to making improvements out in the field. Mike Platt commented, 'whilst JobLogic had dramatically improved the administration of the business in our Wokingham Headquarters, our field engineers were still collating paper job sheets and certificates which was both time consuming and costly.' Deba UK Office Manager Jacqui van der Brugge was tasked with organising a trial of PDALogic, the mobile engineer application from Tracer Management Systems Ltd. PDALogic is an off-the-shelf field worker software application designed for hand-held computers or PDAs (personal digital assistants) James Whatmore, Sales Director for Tracer explains, 'Deba UK were ideal candidates for the PDALogic system as their engineers complete multiple jobs each day and are required to collate paperwork for each job including important certification with client signatures.

Tracer and Deba UK collaborated to specify the design of both a Microbiological Sample Report and an Engineers' Work Report. After a successful trial period of four weeks Deba UK decided to implement PDALogic across the engineer workforce. Jacqui van der Brugge commented, 'PDALogic has eliminated paperwork from our service operation. Engineers collate all data on their PDA including timesheets and signatures. Our time to invoice has reduced significantly and we can offer our clients electronic documents on demand.'

Today only two years since formation Deba UK are a leading the way in environmental and engineering services in the South East of England. Their partnership with Tracer Management System has enabled them to confidently grow the business and build a strong customer base secure in the knowledge that they can deliver to meet and exceed client expectations.