Case Studies | Concorde Informatics

Many organisations take for granted their increasing dependence on computer systems in the way they run their business. They do not realise just how important their computer systems have become until they are suddenly faced with being without them.

A case in point is Elm Tree Garage in Nottingham who had recently installed AutoClaims when disaster struck. Elm Tree Garage has a long history as an independent body shop, dating back to the early 1960s. They initially got involved with body shop repairs through being a Police recovery garage for 28 years, but with changes in the way this was managed the business evolved to cater for new circumstances.

Based in 6,000 sq ft facilities in New Basford, Elm Tree now concentrate on body shop contracting for banks, leasing and rental companies. In addition they also boast a thriving mechanical side to the business with light commercial repairs and MOT testing a growing area of their work.

Need for upgrade

Elm Tree had been utilising the integrated Garage Master System for their estimating, management and accounting for many years. But changes to the way that MOTs were to be administered meant that they needed to consider upgrading the package for it to retain its effectiveness. However, the upgrade option was not as straightforward as first thought. Mike Lane, director of Elm Tree Garage explained:

"When we looked closely at the costs and processes involved in upgrading the Garage Master system we realised it was not as cost-effective as implementing a totally new solution.

So we took the opportunity to review the major alternatives that were available before deciding on new system. We had specific criteria that needed to be met, in particular we wanted a totally integrated solution that would enable information to be entered once and then flow through the organisation."

Easy to use solution

Having looked at different packages Elm Tree decided to implement the AutoClaims solutions from Concorde Informatics. This market leading solution offers complete integration and links seamlessly with major third party software applications in the vehicle repair industry such as Audetex Enterprise.

With such a wide choice of solutions available, why did Elm Tree choose the Concorde solution? Mike Lane explains:

"There were a number of significant factors that made AutoClaims stand out, but I think the most significant for us was ease of use. It is built on a flexible operating system and provides an easy to use Windows style user interface. This was important for our estimators as its intuitive screens and easy to follow processes meant that we did not have to spend significant amounts of time retraining staff.

In addition the total solution was very competitively priced and provided real value for money – something every business has to take into account! But what was also important was the level of support offered by Concorde – something that was to prove of critical, as we were shortly to find out."

Recovering from a break-in

The new solution was installed by Concorde consultants at the end of April 2006 and the plan for the first few months was to run it in parallel with the Garage Master system until all existing jobs could be seamlessly transferred over. However, like most plans what should happen can greatly deviate from expectations.

The initial installation was carried out smoothly enough but after a few weeks, just as the Elm Tree staff were beginning to get used to the new system the business was the victim of a break in.

Mike Lane outlined what happened:

"They caused damage to nearly all of our computers, but worst of all they stole the server containing our estimating system. Normally this would not be too much of a problem as we would recover by going to our backup. But with all the disruption of the changeover and heavy work loads these had not been happening as we thought."

Faced with such a loss, Lane contacted Concorde who acted quickly to install a new system and go through the setup with Elm Tree staff. This ensured that the business was able to quickly recover from the theft and disruption was kept to a minimum.

Mike was delighted with the outcome:

"The service and support provided by Concorde after the break-in has been spot-on. Their speed of service ensured that we were not greatly inconvenienced in what could have been a potentially catastrophic situation.

Since then their on-going support has been excellent. For example during May there were quite a number of problems with regard to the Thatcham updates, but their staff have helped us to sort things out.

Although we have only had the system installed for a few months we are beginning to see real benefits in terms of efficiency improvements and management information availability. One of our major customers is also delighted with our choice because it means that we will be able to easily integrate with their systems in the future."

Although it is always easy to be wise with hindsight, Elm Tree's decision to take a wider view when purchasing their new system certainly paid off. By choosing a company with many years experience of designing and implementing solutions for the body shop industry, Elm Tree were able to utilise this expertise to get up and running quickly after their break-in.