On-line Workflow System gets Warm Reception from Heating Company.

Guardian Heating is a Berkshire based company providing heating system installation, repair and maintenance services to both residential and commercial customers in the Henley and Wokingham area. They operate to all the current Gas Safe standards and although only recently established in 2011, they have quickly expanded employing additional Service Engineers to cope with increasing demand for maintenance, repairs and the installation of new heating systems.

The Challenge

As with any progressive small business achieving the right balance of managing growth, investing in the right resources, whilst utilising effective workflow systems and maintaining the highest standards of customer care, are the key challenges.  Pressures were increasing on the Guardian Heating administration team and this was exacerbated by the limitations of a traditional ‘pen-and-paper’ method of managing workflow and for allocating jobs to their growing team of Service Engineers. Company Secretary, Joanne Hart acknowledged, “We realised the need for an easier and more effective system that would give us an instant, at-a-glance overview of the work scheduled, work to progress, as well as enabling us to explore the potential and monitor the status of new business opportunities”.  As a result the decision was made to look at the all the available options for a more effective management system that would offer the features and benefits most appropriate to their needs.

The Solution

Following a review of all the available options, the choice was T Cards Online management system which was deemed to be the best solution for Guardian Heating’s project management and workflow needs.
Developed and fine-tuned over a period of 4 years and launched in early 2013, the innovative T Cards Online workflow monitoring system replicates the manual card and board T-Card system which is used by many of the UK’s leading companies since it was established over 35 years ago.

The online system enables users to manage workflow in real time using the drag-and-drop technique, moving job cards around the board to reflect current status. It features password-protected login and enables multiple remote access from anywhere in the world using Verisigns SSL certificates.  Data is kept on a secure, ‘mirrored’ server for extra security and all historical data is maintained so that it can be copied and reused at a later date.

A clear benefit of the new T Cards Online system is its simplicity.  Once the virtual board has been configured to meet individual requirements new cards are opened from the main menu bar, there is space to add title and sub-title as well as a main body area to input details as required.  There is also a facility to link to an external document if required. Since a number of cards will appear on the same chart, they can be colour-coded for easier identification. As work progresses the cards are simply dragged to a new column.

The Benefits

Around a year ago Guardian Heating bought into the new T Cards Online system for an affordable monthly fee and it quickly enabled their admin team to raise a new card for each new job and input all the work details.  Typically the card would contain customer contact details, site address and nature of work.
Commenting on their experience in using the Online system, Joanne Hart said, “As a works pre-planning tool the T Cards Online system has become invaluable, I was surprised that for an extremely versatile management system, how reasonable our monthly charge was”. Joanne concluded, “The system has certainly eased the administration work involved in tracking job allocation”.

Guardian Heatings experience in using the new online system is another example of T Cards Online expertise in helping organisations, large or small, to explore the benefits of a simple yet highly effective online management tool to streamline and improve management processes and ultimately improve productivity.