FuseMetrix Poles Apart From Other Systems for User-friendliness

FuseMetrix eliminated the need for start-up Electrasmart to employ two new members of office staff during winter and one in summer as it grew from a local company to a business covering an area from Skegness to Canterbury to Dorchester.Electrasmart is an owner-managed business that successfully scaled up to accommodate large contracts.

FuseMetrix played a pivotal role in increasing efficient business management as Electrasmart grew from a start-up which provided electricians from its Milton Keynes office into a 24/7 service provider covering a busy area covering from Skegness to Canterbury to Dorchester.
 

Customer benefits at a glance

• Eliminated the need to employ two new members of office staff in winter and one in summer
• Flat running costs for predictable ROI (return on investment)
• Dramatically reduced the likelihood of human error
• Improved efficiency by linking information to relevant records
• Extremely easy to use, regardless of experience in using technology
• Minimal training requirements
• Has been totally reliable
• “Five-star” user support service quality and responsiveness
• Contained everything needed to run a business within a one system
• Interfaced with the insurance company’s system, providing all stakeholders with real-time information on jobs and staff
• Efficiency enhanced by a mobile app so engineers can update information directly from the field
• Enabled senior management to improve efficiency by implementing new software functions/modules at a manageable rate
• Infinitely scalable
• Initial outlay costs for the entire business system were recovered in approximately 18 months

 

The challenge

Electrasmart used to be a small company. Its handful of electricians were managed using a diary to cover jobs in a small geographical area. As it established a track record for reliably providing a first-class service, it won a contract with an insurance company so large that Electrasmart’s management systems had to be upgraded.
 
Managing the business from a diary meant the appointments and movements of Electrasmart’s field-based engineers would have to be manually cross-referenced with the insurance company’s system and updated from the office. With a workload ranging from 300 to 650 jobs per week, this was unsustainable and prone to human error.
 
Solar and Microsoft Office were used for all other business functions. None of the systems could be integrated, so data wasn’t automatically linked, and pools of important information had to be manually extracted and analysed.
 

The solution

Hands-on company co-owner Kirstie Dobbs described her search for a new system:
 
“The software solutions recommended by others and other alternatives weren’t user-friendly enough. I felt sheer relief when I saw the FuseMetrix demonstration. It looked so easy to use that adopting it was a no-brainer.
 
“It contains everything we need, such as emailing, HR and finance, plus much more – all in one system that links up information to other relevant records within it. You can see the links because they’re a different colour.
 
“FuseMetrix is poles apart from other systems for user-friendliness.” 
 
Electrasmart opted for a soft launch, and started to use the FuseMetrix email and finance modules first while the support team integrated FuseMetrix with the insurance company’s own software. The interface between the insurer and FuseMetrix underwent and passed a rigorous testing regime.
 

The results

Each job is automatically distributed to Electrasmart from the insurance company’s system.
 
“We can view all jobs, allocate them, en-route them and complete other relevant job notes within FuseMetrix, which is linked to the insurance company’s software, so we don’t need to enter information more than once. The insurance company needs to be able to see all this information at all times.
 
“The FuseMetrix team developed an app to enable engineers to update the system directly from the field. This gave the insurance company a real-time view of jobs in progress, those that had been completed, and told them when an engineer was en route,” commented Kirstie.
 
Having mastered the FuseMetrix modules essential to business management and service delivery, Kirstie is now starting to evaluate and adopt new functions, one by one, at a manageable rate.
 
“We aim to use all of it. I’m always thinking ahead and choosing the next module to introduce to the company. I think we’re going to use it for stock control and purchasing next,” enthused Kirstie.
 
Now Electrasmart has 19 members of staff, all using FuseMetrix in the office and out in the field. The company continues to recruit staff and grow. Kirstie is the only person in the company who received training directly from FuseMetrix: it’s simple to use, so she trains new recruits as they come on board, regardless of their experience of using technology.
 
“Staff pick it up really quickly after clicking on a screen a few times – they like it and nobody has said anything bad about FuseMetrix in the two years we’ve been using it. I like the fact that the system protects our business information so if somebody makes a mistake, they can’t do any damage.
 
“FuseMetrix hasn’t given us any problems. It comes with a five-star user support service – and I can’t think of anything negative to say about it. It’s more reliable than the most popular packages in the insurance industry,” added Kirstie.
 
The initial outlay for FuseMetrix generated an ROI within two years. From year three onwards it has will deliver an ROI well within each year and has enabled Kirstie to manage the workload with fewer employees.
 
“If we didn’t use FuseMetrix I’d need two extra members of office staff in winter and one in the summer,” concluded Kirstie.


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