A plumbing company was using a work order system that was an expensive monthly subscription with little customization to their business.
The company needed a desktop solution that included a dispatch board to assign work orders to technicians, and a mobile application for technicians to record their work.
Work orders needed to be created quickly, assigned to technicians who had the right skill set, dispatched on time, and kept up to date in real time.
Pictures and videos needed to be attached without causing a lag in the system.
A custom FileMaker database was designed to follow the workflows the plumbing company needed for their specific work orders, estimates, and invoices.
A Dispatch Board was created to assign work to technicians and alert the dispatcher when jobs were not started on time, were running over their estimated time, or had issues.
The board is kept up to date in real time from status changes made to the mobile application that was designed for technicians in the field.
ROI:
FileMaker has cut down on their verbal communication because they know where their technicians are and what they are doing at all times. It was also about a year ROI since they had an expensive subscription to an off the shelf application. It has also given them a lot more flexibility in how they want data to be tracked than their previous system and includes integration with Square and Xero that has helped speed up their AR.
This app reduced time spent on phone calls between the office and the technicians to find out progress updates. It also allowed the office to communicate with their customers proactively if a project was behind schedule rather than retroactively dealing with a complaint. The invoice system was also integrated with their accounting system in Xero to reduce the work on the AR team of inputting data in two different systems.
