Matt McBryde, Brad Couper and Gerard Lyons of simPRO Software attending the ASIAL 2012 Awards for Excellence

Winner: Integrated Security Solution (Projects Above $250K) - SAAB Security, Southern Queensland Correctional Centre

Highly Commended: Integrated Security Solution (Projects Above $250K) – Chubb Fire & Security, Mark Berry

Highly Commended: Integrated Security Solution (Projects Above $250K) - Kangan Institute, Gene Coutinho

Congratulations on behalf of all of the team at simPRO Software!

Ignite were requested to assist in streamlining their workflow as it related to their operations and integrate the existing simPRO Software they were using into the process improvement.

Stage One: Analysis – Current process and results 

In the early stages, we spent time ascertaining what the key challenges were and establishing the current results they were experiencing in the various areas they were struggling with. simPRO reporting was a key part of gaining the relevant data to measure the current results. It also helped us understand where the key blockages were. Once we had this information, a Key Performance Indicator chart was established with the prior year’s performance included. Areas that were listed included:

• Financial information
• Plumbers personal productivity in percentage terms which demonstrated the amount of chargeable time against the actual time worked.
• Job cards waiting to be invoiced
• Error rates/complaints
• Job numbers
• Average dollar sale
• Quotes submitted to those won
• Sales levels in the various categories they were working in

Once this information had been entered, an average was taken of the previous period with improvement goals established.

A key part of this stage was to use a business mapping process to understand the current work flow in the organisation. Every process from the initial customer contact to the customers resulting satisfaction (or lack thereof) was documented with corresponding time frames attributed. It was found that an estimated 143 minutes were being taken to internally process a job from start to finish. Current job roles and the corresponding key tasks were also documented.

Stage Two: Process Redesign 

The second stage of our work was to redesign the company’s internal process in alignment to the customers’ expectations and experience. simPRO was again, an integral part of this redesign and a detailed business process map was used in the redesign phase. We sought to eliminate all double handling and any wasted effort and time in the process. Some of the redesign areas included:

• Five major process stages reduced to four
• The redefining of employee roles
• Taking out all unnecessary steps in the process and combining steps where possible. An example of this was having reception logging the job directly into simPRO rather than writing on a piece of paper and placing in a tray for someone else to collect thus creating time delays and lack of control over jobs
• One person to schedule all jobs (rather than different people being involved)

The time taken to complete stages one and two was approximately six weeks. Having all the available data in simPRO amounted to a huge time saving in this phase.

Stage Three: Implementation 

Once the business process mapping redesign had been completed, we then identified the key areas that needed to be acted upon first. The team at simPRO were involved in regular communication during this phase, assisting us in getting the process and data required for the implementation of the new processes to gain the maximum results we were after. The first six months were reasonably challenging for the whole firm as the changes took place. Some of the key changes included:

• The purchase and integration of the electronic simPRO pens for all plumbers
• Re-allocation of roles were implemented with a dedicated job scheduling position introduced (this was one of the major implementation challenges)
• Additional training was completed with simPRO to assist in the reorganisation.

Stage Four: Monitoring and recording progress 

As things progressed through the implementation phase, recording the changes and monitoring the new process was essential. The initial Key Performance Chart from phase one was utilised to provide ongoing recording of results in the major change areas. Keeping up to date, relevant data (again sourced from simPRO assisted in the understanding of what changes were working and what required further development. Customer surveys were also reviewed to ascertain the impact that the internal company changes were having on the customers satisfaction levels.

Stage Five: Manage new processes 

As the implementation and monitoring phases progressed, we continued to manage this by incremental improvements to the changes we had made. Other areas of management and analysis in this phase were:

• Analysis of sales in the various revenue categories
• Job profitability
• Quote to sale ratios and tweaking the quotation process

The major results to date are as follows:

• An estimated saving of 83 minutes per job which equated to 51 hours per week of additional time available by current employees
• Major process bottlenecks removed
• All staff know EXACTLY what their responsibilities are with procedures and flow charts to follow
• Profitability increase for the 2012 year of 134% against last year’s average
• Labour expenses reduced by 9%
• Cost of sales reduced by 6%
• Job cards waiting to be invoiced reduced by 29%
• Defined job roles in conjunction with the redesigned process map in conjunction with the simPRO system
• 17% decrease in aged receivables
• 55% decrease in cost of defects
• 7% increase in average dollar sale

It is also worthwhile to note that Stimson Plumbing, in 2010, won the Gold Category for business process for their Regional Business Excellence Awards and in the recent 2011 awards won Gold for the Information process category (which relates to the KPI work accomplished) and Silver in Business Process Management. Out of all submissions, they won the Silver award overall.

In the words of Jody Monaghan, General Manager of Stimson’s, ‘the combination of our desire for excellence and quality delivery of service to our clients, having simPRO as our central software system in conjunction with Ignites’ consulting work has taken our business to another level’. 

To find out more about the simPRO software system please call the simPRO team on 1300 139467

To find out how Ignite Business Consulting can make your business more efficient, call Ray Hodge on 0403341105 or email him at email hidden; JavaScript is required

Written By Ray Hodge – Ignite Business Consulting

Kate’s aim is to run a paper-free business in order to eliminate the costs and handling involved with manual data entry. By using simPRO and entering data only once, she feels confident they are now on track for this goal.

With over 100 service jobs in a week, the business needed a robust tracking system to ensure all the jobs get done on time and their clients’ expectations are met and exceeded.

They manage this through the scheduling system in simPRO enterprise – the fully featured Business Management System – and are able to re-prioritise the day and notify their technicians with ease.

See more about how Kate has used simPRO to change her business, gain time and take control in both her work and her life in the video below.

Issue #2 on sale now nationally. The revolution in V8 news!

V8 Action Illustrated is fast cementing itself as Australia’s premier motorsport magazine.

Gilbert Magazine Group is proud to announce that issue two will hit news stands throughout the country this month featuring profile pieces with names such as Tim Slade, Steve Johnson and James Moffat. The publication also casts an insightful eye on the lifestyle of James Courtney away from the race track as well as an in-depth feature with Nissan great Fred Gibson.

For the V8 loving bloke, Grid Candy is the cherry on top with Spanish playmate Lauren Vickers adding extra heat to an already full tilt issue. Get to your nearest newsagent to pick up the next heart pumping instalment of V8 Action!

Walsh started the final race today from position 3 but was shuffled back by a wild and woolly start with cars 4 wide into turn 1. The Safety Car was out quickly after an accident between Percat & Zukanovic at the final turn. Once racing resumed Ash had a good battle with Tim Blanchard finally losing a position at Kolb Conner on lap 8. The balance of the race was run without incident however Walsh’s Falcon was not lapping as quickly as he had hoped. A closing David Russell finally pushed Ash back to position 7 with only 3 laps to run. The simPRO Falcon crossed the line to record a fine overall result for the weekend and place Walsh in a strong sixth place in the Championship just one point behind Scott Pye.

“A good qualifying result really set us up for the weekend. I was a bit disappointed with today’s result but we can take a lot of positives form the weekend.” Ash said. Focusing on race 3, Ash said “I think we probably over pressured the tyres a bit as they were a lot slower. It didn’t feel great but I am really pleased for the whole MSR Team. Another Top 10 and a lot of points is a great reward for everyone.” Ash concluded.

The good form started in Qualifying when Walsh vaulted up to P1 on the time sheets with only 5 minutes to go. With a red flag near the end of the session, Walsh had used the best of his tyres and along with other front runners waited nervously in the pits with his MSR crew. Only Scott Pye in the T888 Commodore went quicker and Ash lined up on the front row of the grid for Race 1.

The weather was rolling in as the cars sat in Pit Lane and wet weather tyres were bolted on as the rain returned to the track. Capitalizing on his front row position, Walsh held second on Lap 1 just as the Safety Car was called.

At the restart, Walsh continued to gap the battle group behind him but a fast closing Scott McLaughlin was catching Ash as the laps rolled on.

“The conditions were changing throughout the race so I wanted to keep my nose clean and run at the front, so I am really happy.” Ash said. “We had good car speed and Scott was hassling me at the end so I was trying to push on, not make any mistakes and keep him there. It is a great result for the boys and the whole team” Walsh added.

The second race was the ‘top 10 reverse’ grid seeing Walsh line up in P9. A start line incident once again had the Safety Car on track for the early running with Walsh able to improve his position to P7 by race end.

“I was around a lot of the guys who were pretty quick, but it was important to get good points from this race to set us up for the final tomorrow” Ash said.

Ash Walsh will start the #87 simPRO Falcon from position 3 in the final race on Sunday.

The Matt Stone Racing team arrived in Perth with a good result in Round 1 and a very promising test day recently at Queensland Raceway. In the Friday morning session, Ash Wash was quickly into the top 10 and improved as the track began to dry out. “On the drying track in the first session the car was very good. A few people ran new tyres but we were sticking to our plan so overall P7 was a good start” Ash commented after practice.

The second session was very wet and times were some six seconds slower than the morning practice. Walsh struggled a little but again put it down to tyres in the appalling conditions. “I’m not going to take much from the second session. We don’t know what conditions it’s going to throw up tomorrow but wet or dry I think we are in good shape.” Ash concluded.

Qualifying and 2 x 18 lap Races take place at Barbagallo Raceway tomorrow for the Dunlop Series.

Like most people, you’re probably taking credit card payments over the phone and processing them by an EFTPOS machine or via a web based software package such as PayWay. If you’re processing credit card payments in the field, you’re either using pen forms or mobile EFTPOS terminals.

If you have a website, you can eliminate all of these and you, your field staff and your customers can process payments via your website.

Now, whenever a customer wants to pay on completion of the job, or rings to pay by card, simply go to your website, enter the invoice number and put their details in. To encourage them to do this themselves, simply place a note on your invoice saying they can pay online at your website. See example at klelectrics.com.au.

Here’s how it works…

• Mediaglue will add a new field to your website labeled “Pay your account online” (or similar)
• Customers enter their invoice number and submit
• Your website queries your simPRO data to find the matched amount outstanding on the invoice and presents it on-screen
• Clients enter their card details to pay
• The card information to pushed to a payment gateway to verify the details and payment
• The payment gateway then sends the payment through to your credit card merchant account
• Payment received!

Once the funds are transferred and the transaction complete, your website then sends a signal to simPRO to confirm that the payment has been made. simPRO then marks the received amount as paid and communicates that payment to your accounting package.

Most users require the entire invoiced account to be paid, however, depending on your preferences; you may allow the customer to pay part of the account. If you wish to add a credit card surcharge, you may do so however the option to allow customers to pay part of the account is not available with this option.

Transaction Fees

Both eWAY and your merchant account will charge fees on the transaction; both are relatively minor when the savings and convenience are considered.

Technical Information

For this process to be enabled, you need to open a payment gateway account with eWAY and to have a merchant account with one of the following banks:

• ANZ
• Bank SA
• Bank West
• CBA
• NAB
• St George
• Westpac
• Citibank

You will also need an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate on your web server.

For more information on this, or other ways to integrate your website with simPRO, call James Yuille at Mediaglue on 1300 884 757 or visit Mediaglue.com.au.

The deal sees Walsh debut a full helmet design for Mobile Test ‘n’ Cal. The deal is for 2012 and sees a return by the company to Walsh’s V8 Supercar campaign.

“We worked with Mobile Test ‘n’ Cal in 2011, but this is a great opportunity to really give them some good brand exposure” Walsh said as the team set up at Barbagallo. “The helmet design is very cool so I’m sure it will add to our overall presentation.” Walsh added.

Round 2 of the 2012 Dunlop Series for V8 Supercars has a 25 strong entry with three races this weekend at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth.

Having companies under the one umbrella, they required a business system that would cater for businesses with varying needs, while reducing their time in administration tasks by keeping everything in the one database.

Advance Group are also using simTRAC Vehicle Tracking for their vehicles, which has been a massive selling point for them in their government tenders, allowing the government departments to complete regular audits of the projects being done.