Swiftclean improves efficiency and net profit 'exponentially' using new system

We spoke to Swiftclean Managing Director, Gary Nicholls, about how their investment in a new system will make them up to 20% more efficient and offer other benefits besides. Swiftclean have been awarded more than ￡77k by the I-Construct and TALE (Transport and Logistical Efficiencies) projects in total.

How did this project start?

Gary Nicholls, Swiftclean:

“We were using lots of different IT systems, taking information out of one and putting it into another. We'd have one accounting system, another CRM system and lots of Excel spreadsheets. The idea of the TALE funding was to start to bring that all together into one system or linked systems.

“The I-Construct funding is about developing that system further so that the dashboard, all the information we give to our customers, is state of the art. [...] It's about presenting the compliance information and probably more importantly the non-compliance areas because that's really what they need to address. We need to present the information in a way that helps them to manage their non-compliance issues efficiently.”

How does the new dashboard work?

Gary Nicholls, Swiftclean:

“It all starts off through the CRM system. The technical salespeople collect information about systems that need servicing quantities, etc. and then that information is added to the CRM system. That can then be converted into a contract on the Collabit system. The system's a planning tool. Once the contract's set up, those jobs that need to be done will be added to the planner. Certain jobs will be set automatically, every three months etc.

"The system would automatically flag [an issue] and put it onto the customer portal. The customer can then go into the system and see these non-conformances that need to be dealt with.”

What tangible benefits has the new system offered?

Gary Nicholls, Swiftclean:

“With the fire damper testing, on the old system we could only test 10 dampers on a single job instruction. In a lot of these jobs there might be 250 dampers. So, then they'd have to issue 25 jobs. Back in the office, reporting was a real nightmare because they had to take all those jobs and merge all the reports. It would take hours and hours to do that. Whereas now with Collabit we can just press a button and a report is produced. So, there are real efficiencies there. We're now also automating the notifications to customers and that sort of thing.

“In the long-term when the whole project's complete we think we'll gain at least 20% efficiency allowing us to expand without increasing our overhead.?

"The gross margin on the business is around about 50% generally. So once the turnover covers the overhead, then the net profit will increase exponentially because of the efficiencies.

“Having that customer portal also differentiates Swiftclean against our competitors so that when our salesmen are out in front of customers, they can show them this really useful dashboard. We're also hoping that by having that desirable customer interface, our customers are really going to want to stick with us. They won't want to move because they love the information that we're providing them.”