KAB Solutions books game changing gains with Emvisage

KAB Solu­tions is was­te and demo­li­tion com­pa­ny that ser­vices the con­struc­tion sector. 

They’­re using Emvi­sa­ge workflow auto­ma­tion softwa­re to stream­li­ne their job trac­king, field paperwork and job coordination. 

We comple­ted a deep dive with Kurt Bec­kett, Direc­tor at KAB Solu­tions, to unders­tand how they use Emvi­sa­ge to auto­ma­te and dri­ve their workflow.

 

How did they start?

KAB had diver­si­fied to a ran­ge of ser­vices inclu­ding demo­li­tion, exca­va­tion, rub­bish remo­val trucks, tool hire and labour. A high volu­me ope­ra­tion, with more than 2,500 jobs a year and growing, direc­tor Kurt Bec­kett and his team were snowed under each day coor­di­na­ting the work. Using a manual sys­tem of spreads­heets, sha­red calen­dars and sha­red dri­ves was hol­ding the busi­ness back. It nee­ded a more auto­ma­ted, stream­li­ned way of wor­king. After eva­lua­ting many solu­tions, Kurt cho­se Emvisage.

 

Getting the right ‘fit’ with Emvisage

KAB have dif­fe­rent field crews run­ning simul­ta­neous­ly each day, across a ran­ge of dif­fe­rent work types like skip bin trucks for rub­bish remo­val, demo­li­tion, tool hire and exca­va­tion. Need­less to say, the­re are a lot of moving pieces to coor­di­na­te each day, whi­le sche­du­le chan­ges are frequent. The team were struggling to keep up, long hours and high stress levels were the result. 

‘The way that things were ente­red into the sys­tem that I was using. And the guys nee­ding to remem­ber eve­ryt­hing to go in -  this tool with this mac­hi­ne, people on site, the order they were going in. It was impos­sible, it was a full time job to get eve­ryt­hing in so at the other end eve­ryt­hing came out right for invoicing’

Direc­tor Kurt Bec­kett knew how easy it was for things to be mis­sed or slip through the cracks, cos­ting the com­pa­ny time and money. This along with a need for grea­ter efficiency led to Kurt eva­lua­ting a lar­ge num­ber of pro­ducts. ‘I searc­hed around for years to find somet­hing that would work. At one sta­ge I near­ly gave up. I am so hap­py now that I didn’t give up. Eve­ryt­hing was too open and vague and wasn’t direc­ted at all to my busi­ness. They just didn’t grab the infor­ma­tion that I nee­ded and the right terminology’. 

With seve­ral dif­fe­rent work types, each having unique workflow and dif­fe­rent data to be cap­tu­red. It’s unders­tan­dable why Kurt had a long search across many pro­ducts, wit­hout fin­ding any that would fit the bill. Emvisage’s deep cus­to­mi­sa­tion and flexi­bi­li­ty is unique, with tech­no­lo­gy that makes set up fast and fea­sible. It simply can’t be done with other pro­ducts, the clo­sest is softwa­re cus­tom built from scratch. 

When Kurt first saw Emvi­sa­ge, he knew it was what they nee­ded – his eter­nal search was over. With exact­ly the right ‘fit’ to their busi­ness, the results have been game chan­ging,  dri­ving efficiency, accu­racy and inc­rea­sing reve­nue. As Kurt puts it: 

‘I don’t know how we ran befo­re wit­hout Emvi­sa­ge, it’s been a game changer.’

 

More efficient job allocation with Emvisage

Like many field ser­vice pro­vi­ders, KAB make time com­mit­ments to their cus­to­mers for jobs. The­se time com­mit­ments must be balanced with crew avai­la­bi­li­ty, equip­ment avai­la­bi­li­ty whi­le also fac­to­ring in the type of truck or bin requi­red for the job. The team at KAB comple­ted job alloca­tion eve­ry  after­noon in pre­pa­ra­tion for the next day. Each day the team also made a series of pho­ne calls to field crews, to get a clear unders­tan­ding of progress and delays. The live pic­tu­re was impor­tant for KAB, to res­pond to chan­ges, problems in the field or traf­fic delays. Toget­her  the job alloca­tion and the job progress calls were taking con­si­de­rable effort each day. The time nee­ded was just get­ting big­ger and big­ger as the busi­ness grew. To grow sus­tai­nably, KAB nee­ded a more efficient way to work. 

Kurt and his field crews are ’on the go’ almost all the time. Boo­king jobs on the pho­ne, con­fir­ming tip drops, cap­tu­ring demo­li­tion infor­ma­tion or run­ning exca­va­tor pres­tarts, it’s why being able to do eve­ryt­hing on a mobi­le pho­ne was so impor­tant for KAB. Emvi­sa­ge worklists are auto fil­te­red to jobs for the day,  a run list field crews can see quickly and clear­ly on their pho­nes. Mobi­le friend­ly reports allow crew lea­ders to mana­ge the day’s work and res­pond as it’s unfol­ding, traf­fic light reports have replaced the need for pho­ne calls, enabling KAB to make adjust­ments quickly. ‘That is amazing, the green and red colours for jobs. That chan­ged my life. I glance and know what’s done and not done. A lot of what I do is on the run. I don’t have to click, look through and read. In the past I would have to scroll through it, go through it, check it. In the end I would end up cal­ling the dri­ver. So it’s sped the process up.’

The tai­lo­ring of Emvi­sa­ge to KAB’s workflow has remo­ved the complexi­ty and admin bur­den from their mul­ti crew, mul­ti work and dyna­mic work sche­du­le. Job alloca­tion time has been reduced by 69%, whi­le 88% less time is spent on job progress trac­king each day.  The­se two acti­vi­ties alo­ne  have saved Kurt and the team from more than 6 hours of repe­ti­ti­ve admin each week. The­re are less pho­ne calls, no more spreads­heets and a hap­pier team. Kurt desc­ri­bes the impact. 

‘The Job alloca­tion is 100 times bet­ter. Now I can come into Emvi­sa­ge, skim through it for 10 -15 minu­tes and that is it. It has reduced stress levels and double handling’.

Less errors in the field - more time, more revenue

Prior to Emvi­sa­ge the sys­tem KAB used for cap­tu­re in the field was pro­ne to human error. It was too easy to miss things, so KAB put in steps in place to check and rec­heck. This came with an over­head for the busi­ness and still items could still slip through the cracks, for KAB mis­sed items meant lost reve­nue, lost pro­fits. With this in mind, reducing errors was one of the main draw points of Emvi­sa­ge.  The deep cus­to­mi­sa­tion of Emvi­sa­ge forms ensu­res KAB field crews cap­tu­re exact­ly what is nee­ded for each of their work types. Whi­le in-built ‘smarts’  have auto­ma­ted the qua­li­ty chec­king for field tech­nicians, remin­ding them whi­le they are on site to cap­tu­re evi­dence, cate­go­ri­se a rub­bish type or comple­te a job.

‘Befo­re my big­gest problem was the day sheets not get­ting fil­led out cor­rect­ly. Things were mis­sed or lost and so they didn’t get char­ged due to human error. Emvi­sa­ge has almost comple­te­ly remo­ved the human error. On the first day, Emvi­sa­ge pic­ked up $600 we would have mis­sed in the past. On the first day.’

The result for KAB has been a double wham­my, with 75%  less time spent on qua­li­ty chec­king, plus a lift in reve­nues.  The lift has come from plug­ging two areas whe­re reve­nue was ‘lea­king’. First­ly, Emvi­sa­ge makes it’s much har­der to miss things in the field, so the­re are less mis­sed char­ges.  Second­ly, the full his­to­ry inclu­ding time stam­ped pho­tos has meant KAB are get­ting reve­nue for jobs that pre­vious­ly were incor­rect­ly dis­pu­ted and not paid. Befo­re Emvi­sa­ge it was dif­ficult to pro­ve for example that a bin pick up was not pos­sible because con­struc­tion mate­rials bloc­ked access. The­se days it’s no lon­ger a problem for KAB,  one email with the evi­dence attac­hed dis­pels any doubt and invoices are prompt­ly paid.. 

KAB’s results - game changing productivity gains

Since part­ne­ring with Emvi­sa­ge, KAB has made some fan­tas­tic gains.

 

88% Reduc­tion in job progress trac­king time 

69% Less time on job allocation

75% Time saving on qua­li­ty checking

Capaci­ty to grow the business

 

The­se pro­duc­ti­vi­ty leaps were due to auto­ma­tion and impro­ved flow of infor­ma­tion between ope­ra­tions and field crews. KAB no lon­ger have reser­va­tions about how they can hand­le more growth. Emvi­sa­ge has simpli­fied the work,  replacing 4 sys­tems into one. Stress levels are down, efficiency is up and Kurt has the con­fi­dence to invest in new equip­ment and grow:

‘I feel now like I have a solid base to build on, to grow more, because of Emvisage.’

 

Emvisage - game changing workflow automation

If you need to auto­ma­te your workflow, but it feels impos­sible or not fea­sible. It’s worth get­ting in touch, our tech­no­lo­gy can be a game changer.

 

Are you rea­dy to auto­ma­te your admin and work bet­ter?  Book a quick demo