It called in Impact Applications, the mobile software specialist, to equip its BMS Property Care division, and has achieved a ‘30% improvement in administrative efficiency, management and, most importantly, customer response’. BMS Property Care has also doubled its turnover ‘with the addition of limited administration staff’.

BMS Property Care has 85 mobile workers that provide maintenance for approximately 14,000 residential homes and manage six major clients within the public sector. Owing to an increasing volume of call handling both in and out of hours, in line with the company’s expansion, BMS found its existing OMS could not support the continued growth.

Wayne Davies, operations manager at BMS Property Care, said: ‘Our existing business systems were reaching saturation point, and were starting to hamper the effectiveness and efficiency of the business. We recognised that by automating the previously manual process of getting the information held on job sheets into the back office system, significant savings could be made, and the foundation would be laid for ongoing business growth.’

He continues: ‘However, the solution needed to be simple to use and deploy, and fit in with our field operatives’ existing daily routines. It was also very important that the technology fully integrated with our accounting software Sage Line 50. The idea of a hosted solution appealed to us because updates and other technical functions could be outsourced to an organisation who has expertise in that area, and allowing us to focus on our core business.’
 
It considered three solutions before choosing impactRESPONSE, a ‘zero-client’, web-based solution from Impact Applications. Every field operative is equipped with a PDA which is constantly connected to the back-office via the internet. All functions including stock management, purchase order creation, customer signature capture, and gas and electrical certification can be carried out using the mobile device.

Davies said: ‘Ultimately the use of real-time technology is proving of great advantage to the company by driving down costs and allowing for company expansion.’

One of its clients, Urban Heart, has incorporated impactRESPONSE’s customer extranet feature which allows it online access to monitor and review the status of all jobs. Davies said: ‘It is possible for our clients such as Urban Heart to access information on their accounts via the internet, again saving wasted time and money that would have otherwise meant a phone call to our office. As a result, we are anticipating an improvement in our administrative efficiency, giving us an initial £10,000 overall saving.’