Case Studies

CASE STUDY – TRADES

D Tolson are a family run and owned civil engineering company offering machine laid tarmacadam services in Cumbria, South Scotland and North Lancashire. Established in 1970 and with over 40 years of experience in the surfacing trade, they have the expertise to provide high quality machine laid tarmacadam to the domestic, commercial and industrial sectors. From public road surfacing to private driveways, they have the facilities to carry out large and small surfacing contracts.

 

Typically, the industry involves hands on manual work in environments that are both dirty and dusty but also means the team moving in and out of vehicles and plant machinery which can often mean problems with handsets. Secondly with many contracts requiring Health & Safety documentation of work completion as well as on site photography for job progress reporting, daily and weekly, digital devices are key. Finally, jobs are increasingly sent via email as opposed to the typical toolbox talk methodology of previous years. The usual “heard wearing” handsets are usually much more functional than featureful and as such there is not usually a good option. Finally, the team needed some training on how to use any new technology to make it effective.

 

We sourced some smartphones that were both hardwearing and not too expensive, so we were able to keep the costs down as well as raise the functionality and features of the hardware available. We coupled this with some onsite training and ongoing support to ensure that the features were not only available but also accessible and understandable.

 

Three months after the implementation of the new hardware, results are impressive and clearly moving in the right direction. All members of the team can access emails on the go now meaning less paperwork having to be collected from the office and/or returned. The smartphone features allow access to relevant apps to maintain detailed logs of the hourly, daily and weekly progress to ensure clients and suppliers are firmly in the loop.

 

If you need hardwearing telephony devices that will allow team members in manual labour roles to keep in touch with the office without increasing costs too much and safe in the knowledge that support is always on hand then drop us a line.

CASE STUDY – MANUFACTURING

Established in 1979, Euroglaze are a family business that has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Just two years after being formed, Alan Nettleton founder of Euroglaze, called the REHAU sales office and the relationship began. Today, Euroglaze are REHAU’s longest running customer in the United Kingdom for the Manufacture of PVCu Doors & Manufacture of PVCu Windows. Since that time, much has changed however the relationship between Euroglaze and REHAU has gone from strength to strength. Euroglaze is celebrating its 40th anniversary and is Rehau’s longest serving trade fabricator setting something of a record in the UK.

 

The current Managing Director, Martin Nettleton took over the reins of the business in 1999 after spending seven years with global electronics giant Canon. Martin has instigated many positive changes at Euroglaze and has helped to bring the business to the forefront of lean manufacturing techniques, adopting many practices more commonly seen in modern motor manufacturing.

 

The business owners needed a way to reduce the costs of their mobile phone fleet whilst keeping the service levels and support high. We supplied a SIM only solution to the client, allowing them to make use of their existing suite of phone hardware and greatly reduce the cost implications.

 

Costs were reduced by over 50% in the first year of custom and the same levels of service afforded to all clients is made available. As well as the direct communication channel with the network supplier we have added another layer of support at the same cost.

 

If you feel you have phones you do not need replacing but would like to reduce your costs without losing the support levels drop us a line, we may be able to help.

CASE STUDY – CARE & CHARITY

The ADHD Foundation Neurodiversity Charity is an integrated health and education service offering a unique lifespan strength-based service, for the 1 in 5 people who live with ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia and Tourette’s syndrome. They work in partnership with agencies across all public services and business sectors, to create a paradigm shift in health, education and employment. Working with Government, their partner agencies and service users, ADHD Foundation aim to influence policy and provision for the benefit of all; reduce dependency, empower and enable the neurodiverse population to achieve their potential and improve life opportunities.

 

When we were referred to ADHD, we found a dated mobile phone account with many redundant lines and very outdated tariffs which were leading to expensive bills for old hardware. Something we often see in this sector is that the charitable status often means sometimes they are not seen as an attractive option for suppliers to engage with. The old cheaper technology was also not able to work with the updated versions of the lone worker software they are required to use for protection of staff and service users who are vulnerable. The tablets also only worked with Wifi data and not cellular.

 

Once we completed a forensic analysis of the current suite of hardware, users and billing we analysed the software requirements and liaised with the supplier to establish both the minimum requirement and any future plans for development of the App and software. We removed all unused lines, increased data allowances on SIMs and sourced some refurbished Apple hardware to enable all users to have uninterrupted access to the management software but without increased costs to allow the charity to invest as much funds as possible in good and not into bills.

 

Very quickly after implementing the new hardware the teams reported that their increased ability to use the App on the road (and not need to search out Wifi passwords) meant ease of use and time saving was fast. Billing wise results were seen inside 60 days as the new billing arrangements took effect and reduced costs by 40%

 

If your current setup doesn’t support your workforce and you need some help to enable rather than disable your team then drop us a line, we would be happy to show you what you have and how it can be improved.

CASE STUDY – RETAIL

Dixon and Franks have been a prominent retailer on the village high street of Honley, West Yorkshire for nearly 40 years. With other stores in Halifax and Brighouse they offer a full range of flooring to suit all requirements and budgets. As their largest store Honley also offers furniture, soft furnishings, homeware, gifts, and an interior design service. They also have Café Loom which is a popular local meeting place.

 

They were receiving up to eight invoices a month from various suppliers for their mobile, office phone and internet services to the three sites. They were coming from five different suppliers, some monthly and some quarterly. It was a headache for their finance director who found it time consuming accounting and trying to be clear as to what their overall costs were. He felt he was paying more than he needed to but just was not sure where the savings could be made. Additionally, there was an operational need to improve the phone system so calls could be routed more easily to the appropriate site and department.

 

We supplied fibre internet to all three sites, a cloud hosted phone system with inclusive calls which allowed them to move calls around the business better and mobile sims. Admin time was reduced with one point of contact and two invoices per month making it clear to see their costs. These costs were reduced by over 35% and the customer had a single, local point of contact for any support and billing queries. They also added the ability to handle their calls better and changing call routing remotely to adapt to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

If your telecoms are overly complicated with multiple points of contact for support and billing, we can provide a solution that makes life easier, reduces costs and provides increased functionality.

CASE STUDY – LOGISTICS

A&F Haulage is a family business with a collective vision to grow into one of the UK’s leading asphalt & aggregate carriers. From humble beginnings with only 1 truck based in Greater Manchester, as demand in their services has grown so has their ability to service client’s needs. The original single vehicle operation has grown into a current fleet in excess of 100 specialized vehicles. The team has also grown to over 125 and are all driver MPQC qualified.

 

The business involves the logistics behind delivery and collection of aggregates and other construction-based materials so in essence its dirty dusty work with repeated entry and exit to vehicles as well as multi drop and collection over the space of a day. Paperwork being lost, defaced and sometimes not completed properly does sometimes lead to missed invoices, disputes on invoices and worse still unhappy clients.

 

We sourced some hardwearing tablets and also cases which we paired with some hardwearing cases and an inexpensive SIM only option for data SIM cards to keep the costs tight due to the size of their fleet. Three months after the implementation of the new hardware results are impressive and clearly moving in the right direction. All members of the team can access emails on the go now meaning less paperwork having to be collected from the office and/or returned, the smartphone features allow access to relevant apps to maintain detailed logs of the hourly, daily and weekly progress to ensure clients and suppliers are firmly in the loop.

 

If you need hardwearing telephony devices that will allow team members in manual labour roles to keep in touch with the office without increasing costs too much and safe in the knowledge that support is always on hand then drop us a line.