Using automated workflows to stay one step ahead

A lot is happening in the energy market right now, and that is undoubtedly as exciting as it is terrifying. For electrical businesses, their owners and operators, and their staff, this means they need to be prepared for key changes that could occur in their workplace.

The solution for staying one step ahead of the waves of incoming work that could occur as the result of change is surprisingly uncomplicated, and one that could actually boost productivity and profits throughout the workplace.

We’re talking about job management software — a powerful, often cloud-based, program that can automate and consolidate a number of electrical business workflows. This technology is fast becoming the future for the various industries that find themselves falling within the Trade and Services sector.

Provider simPRO is a leading contender in this market, with their cloud-based solution widely known for its comprehensive approach to business and its ability to help companies boost their productivity and profits through streamlined workflows and processes.

To help electrical businesses focus on the future of their industry and how their business will be affected, simPRO offers a variety of tools that better facilitate job and project processes so they can be managed efficiently and completed quickly — giving owners and operators time and energy to focus on what’s important.

Scheduling, for example, is a popular workflow that can be greatly condensed and better managed using simPRO.

With simPRO, administrative team members updating or creating jobs for technicians can choose their own calendar perspective and tell at a glance who is available, when and where — plus, they can avoid double-booking by setting up alerts for overlapping schedules.

Teams of staff and equipment, like electricians and apprentices with certain tools, can also be created in simPRO as a group booking so administrative staff only need to schedule once to include everyone and everything in a job. Plus, schedulers can easily think ahead when it comes to travel and its impact on billable hours by calculating the distance between a job site and the closest electrician — this ultimately will boost job profits and the amount of time staff are spending on the tools.

Estimating, whether it’s for large projects or simple jobs, is another key workflow that can be streamlined so it takes a matter of minutes to complete using simPRO.

The Form Builder feature of the program in a built-in tool that offers users the ability to create, edit and format various form templates. Users can choose between a variety of ready-made system templates for project quotes or even create new ones using standard word processing features. Once these have been created, fields can be added to the templates in simPRO that will pull corresponding information from the system and populate the final form — data like customer or job details.

Administrative staff can also see a complete overview of all labour types and costs easily as users can set them up in the simPRO system. From there, it is easy for team members to choose the cost rate, sell rate and markup price for any labour type and use this as a default for any new customer. These costs can easily be adjusted at any time.

Additionally, supplier catalogues and materials lists can be imported into simPRO so staff can compare supplier prices and add items directly from supplier catalogues onto estimates — a move which in turn can greatly improve the accuracy of an estimate, and the speed at which it can be completed.

At a time where demand for staff is high, and jobs and projects are growing in number and size, it can be valuable for you and your team to look to employ a system that will help you automate some of the simpler business workflows. With a job management solution, like simPRO’s, you can stop untamed processes from eating away at your staff’s time and business profits, and focus on the future of your company in the ever-changing and ever-growing electrical sector.

This kind of functionality is great for electrical businesses looking to get ahead this year and boost their productivity and profits. With simPRO electrical owners, operators and other staff can handle whatever jobs or projects the energy sector may throw at them, all while keeping customers and staff smiling.