Taking control with technology

Managing building services can often be a challenging area for social housing landlords and their contractors. Amtech offers a range of solutions to help take control of these key operational areas, including Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR).

Amtech is the UK’s leading provider of software, data and information for building services. The company has been delivering innovative software products for over 25 years, exploiting the latest technologies to create practical solutions for everyday tasks.

As such, the company has developed a comprehensive range of products that bring a higher level of efficiency to the maintenance of key social housing assets and the management of building services projects. These range from the management of electrical Inspection & Testing certification through to broader service and maintenance operations – as well as electrical design, estimating, job costing and contract management.

Electrical Inspection & Testing
When managing the electrical safety of social housing there are two key areas to address. The first is to ensure that the required Inspection & Testing, such as the Electrical Installation Condition Reports on each dwelling, are carried out in a timely and compliant fashion.

The second is to manage the administration of these reports and resulting certificates. Amtech’s FastTest has been specifically developed to simplify the management of electrical certification, even across multi-residential buildings and extensive estates with multiple engineers working on certification projects.

Multi-user functionality
Unlike other electrical certification software FastTest gives complete control over large teams of electrical engineers working simultaneously on Inspection & Testing projects. It is capable of synchronising input from a large number of engineers at any one time, working on PCs and/or mobile devices from local or remote locations. It stores all information within a dynamic data management system, providing access to this central database so that all data is kept fully up to date.

FastTest allows engineers to create a full range of 17th Edition Amendment 1 certificates, work on live projects and add electronic signatures. It also features an automated reminder system to ensure that re-tests and instrument calibrations are never overlooked.

That’s why FastTest is the most widely used Inspection & Testing software in the UK.

Fast and accurate electrical design
Amtech’s ProDesign is the UK’s leading electrical design software, providing full electrical design and calculations to BS 7671. ProDesign is ideal for projects of all sizes from individual houses to residential blocks and provides a wide range of design options.

Crucially, ProDesign allows schematic drawings to be produced quickly and easily, while ‘what if’ scenarios can be evaluated with the click of a mouse. Seamless integration with FastTest ensures that completed designs can be exported to FastTest for production of certificates – saving many hours of work compared to manually re-entering the information.

Service and maintenance management
Amtech’s Service Manager provides complete control of planned preventative maintenance (PPM), reactive and call-out jobs and minor works – at both operational and strategic levels. A fully networkable Outlook-style interface, powerful GPS tracking and electronic on-screen mapping all combine to ensure that resources are used to maximum effect.

Service Manager Mobile can be used with a range of mobile devices to improve communications and overall efficiency while reducing paperwork and enhancing the accuracy of data collection. Improved control of the mobile workforce also facilitates the allocation of 2-hour time slots for appointments, as recommended by the Audit Commission.

Refurbishment and installation projects
Amtech’s Estimating, combined with Luckins product and pricing data services, provides a versatile estimating package that makes the production of estimates for refurbishment projects and new installations faster and more accurate. Estimates can be fine-tuned with advanced tools for managing supplier quotations and making ‘what if’ comparisons for material substitution. When combined with other modules from the Amtech range, the information from the estimate can also be used for ongoing project management with Amtech’s powerful electronic filing system.

Amtech’s extensive family of products and services also includes modules for Procurement, Job Costing, Accounts and Contract Management.

For more information visit the Amtech website or call us on 0800 028 28 28.

Article originally appeared in Inside Housing, September 2012 issue.

 

Data management takes care of the bottom line

There’s a lot of effort involved in producing estimates and staying on top of project data, so a software package that can ease this burden may go some way to making jobs easier and more profitable. Nick Harper, Sales Director at Amtech, looks at the possibilities.

In any successful business there has to be an element of teamwork, between the people in the company and between the different parts of the business. Basically, it’s essential that not only should the left hand know what the right hand is doing, but they should be helping each other out.

The same is true of the core processes that you are involved in every day, from producing estimates to running the jobs and getting paid for them. The more efficient each of these processes is, the more likely you are to make a sensible profit.

At the heart of many of these processes is the information the business needs and the technology you use to manage it – and using the right information technology (IT) can make all of these processes easier and more efficient. And there are levels of IT that can benefit every size of business from a major contractor to a sole trader.

These principles are best explained by looking at each of these processes and how they can share information.

Good practice
Starting with the estimating, there is an element of ‘the more you bid the more you win’, therefore a good estimating system should help to produce more estimates so you can bid for more jobs. It should also help to ensure you quote the right price, based on up-to-date materials prices from a database that is updated on a weekly basis.

Once the job has been won, any projected profits from the estimate will only be realised if the job is run as efficiently as possible. This applies to everything from procurement of the materials, through the management of variations and dayworks to the valuation of completed works and unfixed materials and submission of Applications for Payment.

Thirdly, and just as important as winning and running the jobs, is the financial side of the business; measuring and controlling the financial performance of each individual project as well as the cumulative effects of all projects on the overall finances of the business.

And fourthly, you may have a service and maintenance operation that just covers warranty obligations or may operate as a separate business unit with ongoing maintenance contracts.

Strong support
Clearly, each of these areas needs to be strong in its own right but they should also add strength to each other to gain maximum benefits. It’s also important that these areas can share information without you having to re-type all of the information to get it from one system to the other. It is far more productive to allow the information to flow from one process to the other.

For example, the information from the estimate still has an important role to play once the job has been won. It can be used to generate ‘buying lists’ for individual projects, for different phases of a project or for all of the company’s current projects to maximise buying power. It also plays an important role in ensuring that the actual costs of the project are in line with projected costs.

To that end, integration with job costing software is invaluable. You can populate the job costing package with a breakdown of estimated costs and revenue, organised into meaningful ‘pots’ of information, or cost heads; such as tube, valves, heat emitters etc. These budgets form the basis for comparing estimated costs against actual costs as the job progresses.

Division of labour
You can also set up separate cost heads for materials, labour and sub-contract costs so you can compare actual costs for each of these areas. Crucially, for maximum productivity, this needs to happen automatically through the integration capabilities of the software so that analysis and reporting becomes a by-product of day to day operations, rather than an extra task.

As the job proceeds, you can use cost information in the management of variations and dayworks and for producing valuations for Applications for Payment. At the same time, integration with accounts modules ensures that each purchase order, time sheet, material and sub-contract invoice is automatically posted onto the relevant contract as a by-product of processing the payroll, purchase ledger and sub-contract ledger – along with Applications for Payment and sales invoices – and updates the ledgers in accounts. And, of course, the accounts software should be configured to deal with the unique accounting requirements of the construction industry, such as the CIS scheme.

Where a service management software package is in use, it needs to help you track the costs and performance of each contract automatically and flag up areas where profitability is below expected levels, just like job costing does with installation projects. Links to accounts software allow invoices to be raised, with all of the relevant information already laid out.

Planning ahead
So these are just a few examples of the importance of being able to share information throughout the business, highlighting the need to make such integration as easy and straightforward as possible. The important thing is to ensure that the software you choose meets not only your current needs but can also be expanded as your business grows. Teaming up with a supplier than can meet all of these needs and advise on the best options for your business is clearly the most sensible way to achieve this.

 

Horses for courses
If you’re running a smaller contracting company you may feel you don’t need specialist software – but you are almost certainly spending a considerable amount of time in producing quotes and dealing with other administration. You may be getting by with standard packages such as Word or Excel, perhaps with a bit of copy and paste between them, but that’s not making the best use of your time.

In fact, there is now software that has been designed for smaller businesses in the heating and plumbing industries. It’s competitively priced, easy to use and designed to produce quotes, buying lists, purchase orders and invoices very quickly, leaving you with more time to do the ‘real work’ or maybe put your feet up.

First you select the items you need from a list in the software, which also keeps the prices of these items up-to-date, and build a quote, which already contains your details and logo so you don’t have to add them for every quote. You can then print the quote for posting to the customer, or email it. If any changes are required it is very simple to just open the quote, make the changes, and produce a new version.

Once your quote has been accepted you can print a ‘buying list’ to take or send to your merchant. This list automatically uses the information you put in the quote (unless you’ve chosen to edit it first) ensuring nothing is missed.

When the job is complete you simply open the software and print an invoice at the click of a mouse, again using the original information from the quote. The result is that information you entered when producing the quote now flows through all of these tasks with the minimum of input from you!

For more information visit the Amtech website or call us on 0800 028 28 28.

Article originally appeared in PHAM News, September 2012 issue

 

Let software take the strain out of paperwork

Software can take the strain of dealing with paperwork but it’s important to choose the right package for your needs.

It’s a fact of life that dealing with quotes and other paperwork can be frustrating  but the risks of trying to run a business without it; losing jobs, forgetting materials or even not invoicing for work carries out, for example it can cost businesses money they can ill afford.

Software can carry out much of this time-consuming work, but users must always ensure they are not paying for features they don’t want or need.

For smaller companies, there are packages available that will produce quotes, buying lists, purchase orders and invoices very quickly and in an organised fashion. For larger companies, software can be accessed that also includes complete job management and accounting features.

An example of software suitable for smaller companies is Amtech’s WorkSmart, which has been designed for contractors who want a package that is simple to use and quick to learn. Users simply product a quote by selecting the materials they need, then add their mark up and labour rates. The prices are held in the software and are supplied from the Luckins pricing service. The price information is also constantly updates, so that you can be sure you aren’t undercharging.

Once the quote has been assembled, the information can be transferred to a pre-prepared template containing the company’s logo, address and other details, ready to be posted or emailed to the potential customer.

If the customer wants changes to be made, a revised quote can be produced quickly. Crucially if prices have changes since the original quotes these are automatically updates, do the user can be certain they will maintain their margins.

Once the job has been arranged, the same quote can also be used to produce a buying list for the merchant and, when the job is complete, the information from the quote is used to produce the invoice.

As business grows
As businesses grow and become more successful, their work becomes more complex and any software used needs to be able to do more.

As well as providing accurate estimates, for example, a larger company may also need to manage the day-to-day running of jobs and several employees, including deliveries, dayworks and CIS.

Amtech’s Extreme range of products for estimating, job costing and accounts management is an example of this type of integrated software.

Once the estimate has been completed and the job agreed, that same information can be used in Job Costing to compare actual costs with budgeted costs as the job progresses. Any overspend is then flagged up and can be dealt with quickly.

This information feeds into specialised contractor’s accounts software,  which gives the user complete control of every aspect of their accounting, including cash flow forecasting and VAT ledgers.

For more information visit the Amtech website or call us on 0800 028 28 28.

Article originally appeared in HVP Magazine, June 2012 issue

WorkSmart Estimating Software Demo

WorkSmart, from Amtech, is a powerful estimating software for the smaller contractor. This is a demonstration of just some of the features.

Click for more information on WorkSmart or call 0800 028 28 28. To see our full Estimating range, please click here.