2 page Case Study - Posted 3/11/2009

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Accel Lifts Limited

Elevator Firm Improves Data Transmission, Saves Field Workers Time with Smartphones

Lack of mobile data communication was limiting growth at Accel Lifts. Field engineers lost time transporting paper documents and sales staff faced ongoing e-mail backlogs. Manual data duplication overburdened administrators. With Windows Mobile® phones running line-of-business software, communication and data transmission greatly improved. Accel Lift’s engineers save more than 150 hours a year, and sales staff expect to save more than 10 days a year. The company is poised to grow.

Business Needs

Founded in 2000, Accel Lifts supplies, installs, and services elevators throughout Ireland. The thriving company’s growth, however, was hampered by inefficient data communication and paper-based systems. When the company’s service engineers made field visits, they filled out paper forms in triplicate, noting the visits' purpose, time, and other details. The customer signed the worksheet, authorizing payment. Engineers delivered their copies to the office at the end of the week. A staff member then spent hours physically typing all the information from the worksheets into Microsoft® Office Excel® spreadsheet software. Finally, an accountant used the spreadsheet to prepare invoices. Thus, three people were manually duplicating the same data. Aside from being a considerable waste of time, “the system relied on human intervention, so the possibility of human error was quite large,” says David Bourke, Managing Director of Accel Lifts.

This manual process caused a critical administrative bottleneck, as one administrator quickly became overburdened. “Unless we achieved efficiencies in our system, we couldn’t increase our unit portfolio number without increasing overhead by adding additional office staff,” Bourke says.

Also, installation engineers needed to travel to the Dublin office—often far from their job sites—to receive their installation specification folders, or else a construction manager would need to deliver the folders to the job sites. If a drawing was missing or an additional drawing was needed on a job, an engineer would have to return to the office for it, delaying the job’s completion by a day or more.

Plus, when the company's sales personnel returned to the office after days or weeks away, they typically had dozens of backlogged e-mail messages awaiting answers.

Solution

Accel Lifts worked closely with Itomic IT Services, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to develop a better solution. After surveying available elevator service management applications, it chose Elevator Service Manager (ESM) by Principal Focus Computing, and deployed it in 2008. ESM works with the company’s Microsoft SQL Server® data management software to maintain unit and visit details, and was chosen primarily for its ability to integrate electronic signatures captured on a Windows Mobile® phone directly into the database. “That's critical because we needed signed customer verification that our engineer was on the site,” Bourke says. The company was already using Windows® Small Business Server 2003 R2 Standard.

This will … allow us to handle the administration of many more lifts with the same level of personnel. We're now in a position to increase the growth of our business and put more engineers in the field. David Bourke Managing Director, Accel Lifts

The company is currently adding Jetcet Print software by Westtek, a Microsoft Certified Partner, to its Windows Mobile phones to allow field engineers to send documents via Bluetooth wireless technology to printers in the company’s service vans. Engineers will be able to receive drawings, installation folders, or other documents as PDF e-mail attachments, and then print them out wherever their vans are located.

When evaluating the communication needs of its engineers, Accel Lifts saw that the solution could help in other areas. “When we started seeing the advantages of using Windows Mobile phones, we realized they could benefit our sales side too,” says Bourke. The company issued Palm Treo Pro smartphones with Windows Mobile 6.1 to its sales staff so that they could access their e-mail remotely, print documents wirelessly, and have the ability for customers to sign documents electronically on the spot.

Benefits

Using Windows Mobile phones, Accel Lifts employees work more efficiently, have better communication, and save a lot of time. The company is positioned for growth.

Increased Efficiency

Service engineers now automatically receive a route of sites to visit on their Windows Mobile phones in the morning from ESM. They can use their smartphones to call up an elevator's history onsite. "Engineers complete the worksheet, capture the customer's signature on screen, press send, and the data and signature are instantaneously embedded in the ESM system in our office," Bourke says. "I'm absolutely delighted. It's fair to say they'll conservatively save at least 150 engineering hours a year." 

Likewise, the salespeople’s improved efficiency saves them time. “With the ability for clients to sign off on technical details onsite using the smartphones, our salespeople are saved from making return journeys," says Bourke. "This could save more than 10 work days per year, giving them almost two extra work weeks to create additional sales for the company. The ability to print documents in the field via Bluetooth is a fantastic addition."

Improved Communication

With their Windows Mobile phones, field engineers can send and receive e-mail messages easily, and access the ESM solution and related job data wherever they are.
 
Automating the communication of data from the field has improved the accuracy of the company's data and reduced its administrative burden. “It has completely streamlined administration by eliminating the chore of typing the information from a handwritten worksheet," says Bourke.

Poised for Growth

With the administrative bottleneck gone, the company has room to grow. “This solution will no doubt allow us to handle the administration of many more lifts with the same level of personnel," Bourke says. "We're now in a position to increase the growth of our business and put more engineers in the field.”