Case study

• Case study for Field Service Pirtek
• Case study for Field Sales Iglotex
• Case study for Field Support Help the Aged

“And with over 90 Centres in the UK and Ireland supported by 400 mobile service workshops, you are never more than a phone call or mouse click away from a reliable, responsive source of fluid transfer solutions. Anytime. Anywhere. ETA One Hour. That is the Pirtek promise…”

Pirtek required a solution to provide an efficient link between the Mobile Sales and Service Technicians (MSST's) and the office staff at the local Centres.

A manual process has been used by Pirtek for many years to pass job information between the local Centres and the MSST's, however this paper based system means a duplication of paperwork between the MSST's and accounting staff, and could potentially lead to an increased amount of manual errors in invoice creation. The system also requires MSST's to fill in manual forms on site which can sometimes be difficult due to the environment they are working in.

As Pirtek has grown and there is an increasing demand on Pirtek to supply services throughout the UK, and to stay ahead of the competition the need to introduce technology to streamline this process and fulfil demand has become apparent.

The PDA Solution from Ideal Host provides them:

Eliminates confusion over site locations, job specifications, pricing structures etc

Saves time spent calculating complex jobs and recording new work orders

Electronic reporting reduces administration time and costs

Automatic transmission of complete job information to the Centre’s accounting system means greater accuracy and consistency of pricing

Work orders can be faxed or emailed to customers for checking to eliminate filing time and provide a value-added service

All staff have latest information on special terms and pricing details to improve consistency and reduce billing queries

Greater accuracy results in fewer invoice queries

If there is a query, proof of sale can be immediately provided

Invoices can be raised immediately a job is competed

Satellite navigation to reduce travel time and cost, and aid in navigation to remote or difficult locations

Telephony – pre-select service for lower landline cost

Mobile sales prospecting improved by immediate access to customer database

Automatic ordering to maintain optimum stock with no staff interaction

"The biggest single benefit is that we have done away with the paper work orders. Anyone who wants to know about a job, before, during or after can find out the situation. It's great when a Head Office calls to ask about progress on a job they have given and you are able to tell them that the MSST is already on site!"

"We are now billing for the actual time the MSST spends on site; we have definitely seen an increase in our labour efficiency since we joined the PITS programme"

"For instance, we can see how many jobs have oil pads but no oil supplied. Since I explained to the MSST's about the risks of not topping up and machines running low on oil we have seen a drastic increase in oil sales and a much closer correlation between oil spill pad and oil sales."

"Everybody within our organisation likes it. The Centre Managers obtain order numbers more quickly and it's much easier to keep the customer informed on progress."

"Just before Christmas, the site manager said 'your new computer system is bloody marvellous' because it allows him to allocate jobs to the correct cost centres."

• Provide timely relevant information to staff in the field

• Enable field staff to update the central system

• Enable field staff to initiate transactions

• Eliminate copying and pasting data or taking down phone messages

• Reduce mobile communication costs

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