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.

 

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