Westmade provide accredited building services throughout the corporate, commercial and public sectors — from million-pound building contracts to twenty-pound responsive maintenance jobs.
The challenge
Clients — local authorities, NHS trusts, government bodies and housing associations — expect live data, electronic orders and continual job updates. “You could do all that manually but it would take a very, very long time,” says MD Allen Gilbert-Stroud.
Turnover had tripled in five years. Planning on Excel with 50 operatives was unworkable: the same person booked for multiple jobs, job info on paper or emailed to phones, no structure or prompts.
The solution
Pro Pal looked more straightforward to use, and the monthly subscription spread cost instead of an enormous one-hit fee. Tablets and replacements are included. “I like Field Force’s approach — there’s a real person we can speak to rather than a helpdesk.”
The result
Scheduling works for 12-week contracts and for people doing 10 responsive jobs a day. Photos at the start and end of a job are logged against history instantly.
Seven field-based project managers’ workloads are visible. Dynamic risk assessments on the tablet solve the problem of one-person jobs in the middle of nowhere — their health and safety specialist called it the best solution they had seen.
Tracking alone is estimated at £150 per week per operative. A day a week of admin is saved on timesheets. Phone bills dropped by about £40 a month per person. “I’m 100% satisfied with Pro Pal.”
