Below we take a look at the challenges faced by three very different organisations when selecting and implementing a new system and the benefits they have gained from the process.

Hutton Mechanical and Electrical Services Ltd

Hutton Mechanical and Electrical Ltd provides heating, plumbing and ventilation services across Northern Ireland. A family-run business with around 35 employees based in Belfast, Hutton is responsible for the maintenance of heating, plumbing and ventilation systems across schools in the Belfast education system, as well as universities, nursing homes and hospitals across Northern Ireland

For some years Hutton had used an estimating package that was laborious and time consuming so the majority of the tender process was still done by hand. When the company’s computer system was replaced two years ago, the old estimating package was no longer compatible, providing the opportunity to invest in software that would speed up the entire estimating and tender process.

Edmund Hutton, Managing Director, takes up the story: “Our new system, Software Toolcase is much easier to use than our old system. It took about a week to set up, with inputting discounts from suppliers and other pricing elements that are unique to us, and the benefits are huge. The system knows exactly what discounts we can get from all our suppliers, and when the price updates are put through the system, it takes into account the deals we are able to obtain, to provide a much more accurate estimate of the costs involved in each individual job. We can now see, at a glance, the full breakdown of the job and what our profits would be, making it much easier to decide whether or not to take a job on.”

The time taken to complete each individual estimate has been dramatically reduced thanks to Software Toolcase. Hutton M&E now has a blueprint for each common type of job, which can be copied, re-named and adjusted accordingly.

“Instead of having to start everything from scratch, all we now have to do is copy the original job and revise it with the new quantities,” Edmund explains. “For example, the basics for each plumbing job are the same, so instead of having to tell the system which parts are required to cost it up, we just amend the numbers accordingly, and the system prices it up. It used to take us a day and a half to create each new job – it now takes just half the time.

“There are lots of short cuts within the system which all add up to save us literally days of work each week, and allow us to get on with our jobs, rather than being held back by old technology. The amount of work I have to pass to others, such as the re-typing of estimates, has been greatly reduced, as it can all be done quickly and easily by the new system. I use the Software Toolcase everyday. The system meets the needs of our growing business and we are looking to further our use of the system in the future.”

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Environmental Management, Electrical and Mechanical division, produces detailed estimates for maintenance work in the 900 public buildings including schools, civic offices, social services, leisure centres and care homes. They have recently upgraded to the Software Toolcase estimating software with Luckins’ DataPlus product and price database.

Martin Darby, Electrical Contract Manager at Dudley Council says: “Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council has separate divisions for both housing and public building contractors. As you can imagine, the electrical equipment needed for all of the jobs varies significantly so one standard database would not be appropriate for both areas. We needed a solution that could easily integrate with our existing desktop applications to provide constantly updated real-time information about all the electrical equipment that would be needed for project completion.”

“We originally selected Luckins as it provided us with a thoroughly comprehensive database that was difficult to find elsewhere. A major bonus for us is the fact that the solution has so much flexibility and even allows us to adapt and configure our own database according to our unique individual needs.”

The flexibility of Software Toolcase means that different Dudley Council users can work in their own way without compromising the accuracy of the result. Speedier estimates mean that individuals can respond to every enquiry with accurate, professionally-presented tenders structured to the specific needs of its various clients. The system provides a faster, more effective way of managing work loads and ensures costings are always accurate, which in turn helps them to control tight budgets.

Shepherd Engineering Services Ltd

Shepherd Engineering Service Ltd (SES) is a Top 50 UK Mechanical and Engineering company with an annual turnover of over £100 million per year.

SES has partnerships with over 20 leading building contractors including Carrillion, Costain and Bovas, and produces the electrical and mechanical installations for contracts upwards of £500,000. Recent projects include the University of Newcastle, Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton and Hoclas, the Head Office for the new Home Office Central London Accommodation Strategy Projects.

Three years ago, the company decided to rewrite all of its in-house software systems, prompting a review of its data services. SES needed a product and price database which could be accessed by both the new estimating and procurement applications, and would enable data transfer between them. A key goal was for the core database system to be accessed by multiple departments and locations – something SES had never been able to do before.

Luckins’ DataPlus data service proved to be the obvious choice for SES as it could meet both current and future requirements and Luckins were able to tailor the service to SES’s specific requirements. Gary Cole said: “The Luckins database was always at the core of every tender we did here at SES. It is universally recognised as the industry standard when it comes to providing accurate product and pricing data. We were impressed with the way that Luckins offered extensive consultancy and worked with our own IT team to tailor the solution accordingly. A member of the Luckins team even worked here for a while to ensure that quality levels were being maintained.

“In upgrading SES’s mechanical services database, it was imperative that we did not lose vital historic data or compatibility with the old database’s estimates – Luckins therefore embarked on a project to match the old and new databases, item by item, to ensure that none of the old data was lost. SES’s staff are always able to contact Luckins, and get a quick response whenever a query comes up.”

SES now has a unique comprehensive data solution which supports the entire organisation. The data provided by DataPlus can be accessed by the appropriate people in any of the company’s ten regional offices. Updates detailing price changes as well as new and discontinued products are supplied electronically every week, along with the enhanced information bulletins which provide vital background information regarding the changes.

With the DataPlus solution now firmly in operation, SES is already looking to the future and new ways to enhance its business processes. Luckins data forms the backbone of information referencing within SES and throughout the industry, from manufacturers through to distributors and installers. Together SES and Luckins are exploring the concept of using the Luckins data as a basis for electronic trading with suppliers.

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