Why we implemented simPRO during a crisis

You may think a global crisis is not the ideal time to make any changes to your business be it big or small. With companies in lockdown and customers in isolation, it has been difficult for many trade businesses to carry out their normal work. With time on their hands to explore processes and create efficiency this has been the perfect time to make a change and implement job management software.

“Now is the opportune moment to embrace technology that will help your business grow, you can look at how you are operating and consider is there a better way? simPRO helps you do that,” Peter Farnell, Director, RT Collective Ltd & Knight Security Systems Ltd

We sought out some of our new customers, who joined after the lockdown began, to find out why they decided to take control of their internal processes and workflows and get their business ready for when their team could go back to work.

Current systems are not sufficient

When business is quiet and your staff are at home, some business owners might begin to realize their current systems are not sufficient. Communication between teams is patchy, documents might have been lost or left in the office and important invoices are not going out on time.

When we spoke to some of simPRO’s new customers, they had realized that how they were doing business was simply a habit because ‘this is how we have always done it.’ But, with lockdown in place it was now affecting their business.

“We realized our reliance on paper based processes was holding us back and wanted to integrate better with our customer’s systems and provide real time updates. Our field team was taking more time than needed filling out paperwork on site - the process needed to change!” Kam Jivram, Systems Manager, UK Gas Services Ltd

For companies like UK Gas Services, implementing a cloud based platform has allowed them to put all their data in one place and analyze how they structure their business to make it more efficient. Getting live job updates meant they could look at changing where and how their office staff worked post lockdown, and it allowed more of their team to work from home, improving work-life balance, reducing commuting times and ultimately saving office space.

Using time more effectively during lockdown

Time is a luxury to many businesses, however, lockdown has provided business owners with the opportunity to take stock of where their business is and where they want to grow when restrictions are relaxed.

Having staff working from home allowed these businesses to concentrate more on the implementation of simPRO without the distraction of their usual busy day to day duties. Utilizing online training methods meant more people within the business could become experts on the system instead of relying on a couple of team members.

What did our customers want to achieve?

Our customers were very clear as to what they wanted to achieve from implementing simPRO during lockdown:

• Improved efficiency
• Better visibility of costs and projects
• Reduced admin time
• Consolidation of all operational processes and data
• Ability to work from anywhere

Noticing they were wasting crucial time using outdated processes such as spreadsheets, whiteboards and paper, customers such as UK Gas Services Ltd realized there was a better way of doing things. “We found it was taking a team member a week to pull together key business reports for the senior management team. With simPRO, this will reduce dramatically as all our data will be in one place. We are aiming to reduce our admin paperwork by 80% and reduce the amount of paperwork our engineers need to carry for each job to zero. simPRO is going to dramatically change our business,” Kam explained.

Improving efficiency within their business has been a key reason why simPRO customers chose now to implement software. “The efficiencies simPRO will provide to our whole team will facilitate improved invoicing and thereby strengthen our cash flow. The more adept you are in serving your customers during lockdown the more likely they are to come back time and time again,” Peter elaborated.

Find out how simPRO can help you get your processes and workflows working for you and your business post lockdown. Contact us.