Member Article

Lloyd Catering Equipment set to increase productivity by 25% with service management software from Advanced

Leading catering equipment supplier, Lloyd Catering Equipment (LCE), is anticipating a 25% increase in productivity by implementing a service management software solution from Advanced Field Service (Advanced). This solution – Service Director - will streamline service scheduling processes, generate in-depth management reports and will co-ordinate LCE’s team of UK engineers. The solution is planned to go-live in May 2014.

Established in 1956, LCE has been specialising in meeting the equipment needs of the food service industry for more than 50 years. The company supplies and services equipment on behalf of a broad range of clients including a major pub chain, hotels, restaurants, schools, colleges, care homes and hospitals.

Glen Banks, Finance Director, Lloyd Catering Equipment, comments, “Equipment servicing is an important and rapidly growing part of the business. Having outgrown our incumbent management solution, we began looking for a more sophisticated alternative. We assessed various software solutions and chose Advanced’s Service Director because it helps optimise service delivery and will grow with us as the company continues to expand.”

Service Director will automatically log service requests emailed by LCE’s clients, recording key information such as equipment type, the nature of the problem, part details, the deadline for resolving the issue and client location. Head office staff will be able to allocate the job to the engineer nearest to a client via their mobile phones. Once a call-out has been completed, engineers can send information, such as the length of time spent on-site and what work was completed, back to the office where it is automatically logged and recorded in Service Director.

Banks says, “Advanced’s software will automate time-consuming manual processes related to managing call-outs and because we will have complete visibility of where our engineers are located and what they are doing, we can make far better use of their time. This is key to improving productivity.

“Our accounts team will have detailed information about every job at their fingertips and, as they will no longer have to collate this information manually, they will be able to produce sales invoices quickly and easily. From a management point of view, we will have access to detailed costing information which is essential for in-depth analysis and strategic decision making.”

Service Director is a comprehensive, field service management solution for companies that provide on-site field service activities. The solution is flexible, scalable and modular and can be customised to meet an organisation’s exact requirements.

The solution is widely used by companies like LCE which have engineers in the field who work to tight schedules in order to meet client requirements. Service Director provides the very highest levels of operational and management control for all types of service organisation, enabling them to provide enhanced levels of customer service to their clients.

Advanced Field Service is a division of Advanced Computer Software Group plc, a leading supplier of software and IT services to the health, care and business services sectors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Advanced Computer Software Group .