Copy IT Digital Solutions Ltd
Formed in 2001, Copy IT Digital Solutions Ltd is one of
the largest and longest established independent photocopier
dealerships servicing East Anglia. They have a Head Office in
Norwich and offices in Cambridge and Ipswich. Customers include
Greene King, Port of Felixstowe and May Gurney.
As a leading player within the photocopier industry, Copy IT
faces many challenges. With technology changing constantly, the
focus is always on keeping costs down, providing excellent customer
service, and at the same time differentiating themselves from their
competitors. As a business, they sell and service photocopiers,
printers and fax machines. They have 11 Service Technicians with
jobs being allocated appropriately according to skill sets and
locations.
Selecting a new system
Back in June 2005, Copy IT was running a Microsoft Access-based
solution for their accounts, stock and service. They were
experiencing issues with speed and reporting and were also unhappy
with the support service they were receiving from their
reseller.
These problems led them to re-evaluate their finance and service
system requirements. They looked at a number of solutions. Access
made the shortlist and were finally selected as the chosen
solution. Stephen explains why: "The key factor for us in choosing
Access was their fully integrated service
management solution. The Access team have a strong product with
many reference sites and we could see that they were a company we
could work well with. We wanted a user-friendly system that we
could trust and that would grow with our business. Access as a
reseller were very professional and were committed to adjusting the
system to meet our precise needs."
Copy IT's key requirements
"It has revolutionised the way we work. I am confident
that it will continue to provide impressive returns on investment
for us." Stephen Tate
Company Secretary & Accountant
Two of their main requirements were meter billing and stock. Put
simply, meter billing allows them to record the number of copies
made by a machine and they then charge their customers accordingly.
They also needed a good diary function as well as integrated
accounts.
Call centre and scheduling
Using the call scheduling module, jobs/calls are allocated to
the 11 technicians, who can then look at their list of calls via a
daily and weekly calendar view. Using different colour indicators,
Copy IT can quickly differentiate between different types of jobs
and scheduled activities.
In the back office, the call centre module allows the team to
record calls, toner requests, support calls, manage the allocation
and despatch of calls, as well as manage the closure of any
calls.
Stores
Technician van stock data enables Copy IT to monitor all parts
usage within the system and ensure that technicians' stocks are
replenished efficiently. This is achieved by setting minimum and
maximum re-order levels against each location, in both vans and
stores. Service
Manager then analyses the stock position of each van, checks
the current physical level in stores and any outstanding orders due
in. The same process assesses all outstanding service calls that
require that part to create a suggested re-order list. This means
that the creation of purchase orders to maintain stock levels is
completely automated, as default suppliers are set up against parts
along with pricing information.
Once stock is available in stores, Service Manager will then
produce a list of replenishment transfers from central stores for
each van - effectively a pick list for the van. This will confirm
the replenishment level for the van along with calls which are
waiting for the parts in question. The stock movements are then
processed by the software.
Stephen Tate comments on the impact that Service Manager has had
on the stock side of the business. "It has revolutionised the way
we work. Stock re-ordering within the
system has certainly been the biggest improvement we've seen.
Previously re-ordering stock was a time-consuming process and we
had to manually calculate stock to re-order. The system now works
this out immediately, and has simplified the whole stocking
process, removing the need to hold excessive levels of stock in the
warehouse. Service Manager really is a business critical solution
for us and I am confident that it will continue to provide
impressive returns on investment for us."
Meter billing
Service Manager facilitates meter billing calculations,
where Copy IT charge their customers based upon the number of
clicks for each copier (usage charging). Some of the more
sophisticated copiers have multiple counters, i.e. per tray. This
means that charges can vary by print type. It also facilitates the
setting of a different billing account by trays, as opposed to the
machine itself. This is required where Copy IT raise self-billing
invoices back to the manufacturer they are providing the service on
behalf of. This previously required manual intervention -
automating this speeds up the process and eliminates billing
errors.
The system supports a wide number of billing methods, including
advance billing based upon an agreed usage. The system also
calculates any excesses which should be added to the following
invoice in the next advance. Invoices are calculated automatically
and passed directly into the invoicing module (Sales order
processing) in Dimensions ready to be
printed or emailed to the customer. Default wording appears
automatically within the invoice, so this process is seamless from
service to accounts.
The project implementation
Access held a number of meetings and a project plan
was developed. The main issues for Copy IT, says Stephen, were
"getting all of our data tidied up before we moved over to
Dimensions. We also needed to ensure that all staff were fully
trained in the use of the system. Access spent a number of days
with our users making sure they were comfortable and familiar with
the software for use on a day-to-day basis. The Support department
has been very good. We've had very few issues so haven't had to
bombard them with problems. After the first invoice run, we were up
and running."
Future developments
The next stage of the system development is to trial the PDA
links with Service manager and then subsequently, to look at GoldMine for
CRM. Stephen comments: "We are now getting more and more
information out of the system for reporting purposes. What we want
to achieve next is to understand the true profitability of all our
machines. Once we do this, we will be able to see if there are
problems with any machines and take action to ensure customer
service and profitability is optimised."
Summary
"The whole project was achieved on time and within budget", says
Stephen. "In fact, a lot of the time we were ahead of schedule. We
felt comfortable with Access' approach very early on and were
confident that they could achieve what we wanted."
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