Case Studies | Concorde Informatics

Background

John Isolda has been involved in the vehicle repair industry for over 20 years. His current business, Isolda Repairs is located in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and has experienced rapid growth since its inception in 2004.

Currently located in a modern 12,000 sq ft facility with all the latest bodyshop technology, the business now employs some 17 staff. John has utilised his extensive knowledge and experience of the industry to specialise in providing accident damage repairs to corporate fleets. As a result they now boast many prestigious and well-known customers such as Tesco and the Avis fleet of vehicles based at Stansted airport. In addition, they also carry out a large volume of repair work for the specialist insurers Saga.

The business is continuing to prosper and plans are in place to add an additional aluminium bay to the facility during 2006. This will enable them to improve the services they offer to customers.

Problem

Rapid growth, such as that experienced by Isolda Repairs, can also bring problems. In particular, managing the business on a day to day basis can be very difficult and time-consuming if the right information is not readily to hand to aid in the decision making processes.

The company had recognised the value of IT in being able to help in this area and had invested in a 5 user Windows Server 2003 network that was running Sage accounting software and the ARCS estimating application. While helping to reduce the administration burden it did not solve the whole problem. John Isolda explains:

"The 2 systems were not integrated so we constantly had to rekey information between them. This was not only time-consuming but also presented many opportunities for making errors.

In addition these 2 systems left huge holes with regard to the information I needed to manage and grow the business. One major area of concern was that I was unable to track what all my employees were doing at any one time. As staff costs account for a major part of the expenses, the inability to get accurate management information on their utilisation meant that I was unable to obtain their most efficient utilisation."

Against this backdrop and the fact that the business had recently experienced a growth in the number of vehicles handled from 80 to 100 a month, John decided to invest in an integrated, computerised management system.

Solution

John initially evaluated 4 systems, but chose to implement the AutoManagement system from Concorde Informatics based in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Concorde is one of the UK's leading developers and suppliers of IT solutions to the vehicle repair industry. With over 10 years experience of bodyshop software, their AutoManagement and AutoClaims products are recognised market leaders.

Concorde's products are modular in design and fully compatible with major third-party software applications in the vehicle repair industry such as Audetex Enterprise. They are built on a flexible operating system and provide an easy to use Windows style user interface. This fact was particularly important in Isolda Repairs case as the AutoManagement system proved to be the most intuitive and easiest to use of the 4 systems they evaluated.


After selecting AutoManagement, the system went live late in 2005 and Concorde staff brought their considerable experience and expertise of the automotive industry to bear in ensuring a fast and trouble-free implementation. In particular, their knowledge of processes and procedures within the bodyshop environment was an important factor in getting users trained and the business up and running quickly.

Benefits

All employees now use the system for input and getting up to date answers on current and pending work. This has removed a major headache from John Isolda, who previously had been continuously interrupted by his staff asking for updates and status reports on every job.

John commented:

"The integrated nature of the AutoManagement system means that once data has been input the job can be tracked at every stage. This has had a significant impact on the management and utilisation of staff. Now we can schedule which jobs need to be completed and by which date, and the staff will print out the daily work sheets and see instantly all their jobs for the day.

This has not only helped to increase utilisation it has also improved staff morale by giving them an element of self-management in their jobs."

Another area where the system has provided benefits is in parts ordering and management. It is now possible to quickly and easily track the status of ordered parts for every job. This has helped to save administrative time chasing down orders and having to reschedule jobs when parts are not available.

But perhaps the key benefit for John Isolda has been the level of control for the business that the system now provides.

"I can now instantly see on one screen the status of every job, current and pending, within the business. This gives me a real handle on how we are performing and has certainly made managing the day to day operations a lot easier.The system has proved to be a great asset to the company. I don't know how we coped before!"

For more information on AutoManagement - call 01484 405405 and ask for sales.