Customer

Eqstra (Clarklift & Toyota Forklift)

Background Information

Eqstra is the largest supplier of forklifts in South Africa. Their core business is the sale, rental and aftermarket support of forklift equipment. As such they have a large number of Technicians on the field to service and maintain the forklifts. A team of Controllers are tasked with managing the Technicians on a daily basis. The work done is then invoiced to the client accordingly. Numerous forms are therefore used to document and detail the work done by the Technicians so it can be invoiced accordingly.

Problem

The challenge was that the period of time taken from the time the job was done to invoicing the client was too large as the process was manual.

Solution

Upon investigation, it was found that automating the process and digitizing the forms would assist in reducing the time taken to invoice the client. Hence Xcallibre’s Digital Pen and Paper solution was employed. The forms were standardized across the regions. Technicians were equipped with the digital pen and digitized forms to perform their daily work. The Controllers are now able to view the forms real time by use of a website designed for Eqstra. User activity reports were developed to assist the Controllers and Supervisors in the management of their Technical staff. The solution also provides alerts in the form of emails sent to relevant staff in the process to action critical tasks based on certain fields on the form being ticked and allows for uploading of GPS coordinates and photographs.

“The Digipen functionality enabled the business to streamline processes, improve communication between technician and back office staff and improve customer service levels, without major disruption. The automated filing and ease of retrieving job Cards is a major value ad. No more missing documentation- no more write offs. The environmental benefits are not to be ignored. The objective is to save 520 thousand pages (500 reams of paper in a 12 month period). Further to this less fuel will be used as technicians will no longer have to make a special trip back to the office to deliver job cards. Improving availability of information to support decision making is another benefit this functionality has brought to the table. The professional manner in which Xcallibre’s experienced team, assisted and supported the design and roll out process, was remarkable. ” says Mariana Pretorius, Project Manager for Eqstra.

Benefits

• Due to the digitization of forms, the Technicians do not have to drive back and forth to deliver the forms to the Controllers. This then gives the Technicians more time to attend to jobs and reduces the amount of fuel being used and wear and tear on vehicles thus reducing costs.
• Invoicing the client can now be done as soon as the job is complete rather than weeks later due to the controllers having access to the forms digitally real time and are notified via the email alerts when a job is complete and ready to be invoiced.
• Email alerts assists the staff to perform critical tasks timeously as they are received real time and there is no need for Technicians to phone or bring in the copies of the forms thus enhancing communication between the Technicians and the Controllers.
• Reporting assists the Controllers in managing the technical staff daily therefore enhancing service delivery
• As the data from the forms are now housed in a database it is much easier to do trend analysis based on data from multiple forms.