Efficient Air

Industry: Environmental electrical contracting
Services: Business Management Software

"The improvements in efficiency have been tremendous. We have better control over the sales process and we have been able to transfer resources to proactive project management from office administration, giving us a major benefit."

About the Company

Efficient Air is dedicated to achieving significant energy savings on its UK customers’ bills by retrofitting technically advanced products into air handling units and air conditioning systems. Such energy savings can amount to between 20 and 75 per cent for large and medium sized energy users. 

Efficient Air’s independent evaluation service is based on its knowledge of all types of air handling systems, and ability to quickly calculate the percentage energy savings by installing the latest air movement technology. They aim for maximum payback, and all aspects of the air conditioning systems, fan installations and related equipment are carefully examined.

Challenges:

1) Need to grow the company, approximately doubling turnover each year for the next three years

2) Enhance scalability, by developing the facility to delegate more activities whilst still retaining control and exercising management prerogatives

• Sales & Marketing
- Lead Generation, the system needs to deal with leads and enquiries, by managing leads and managing salesmen
- Develop an improved Sales Funnel / Pipeline system improving customer relations, managing the sale, generating quotes, generating invoices, and tracking lost sale reasons.

• Management Control
- Accounts are needed with standard reports generated in-house particularly for purchase and sales invoices
- Automated reports preferably emailed to you
- Develop confident delegation
- Institute integrated systems and accounts
- Fast frequent Gross margin reports

• Project Control
- Institute a tighter, logical system for planning and controlling survey projects and full installation projects, including booking sub-contractors and instruments and ensuring all the requirements for ISO9000 are fulfilled
- Pay critical attention to Costing and purchase invoice process
- Project Costing reports, preferably automated

• Productivity
- Admin / filing / paper to be as efficient as possible for example a Drawings Register is needed
- Internal communications are seen to be crucial for effective team working, managing projects and for not doing the same work twice
- Instigate Instrument Calibration renewals routine
- Processes / Workflow – making sure it’s done right, preferably automated
- Institute integrated telecoms with computer telephony interface and with remote integration over VOIP Facilitate Home-working and remote working

• Risk & Security
- Storage for all data, emails, drawings, scanned documents and faxes including integrated Email Management 
- Backups – sufficient and offsite, giving peace of mind
- Asset Management for example Instruments Register

Solutions:

• Install TeamLink Advantage Business Management software and set-up a unique project structure for the controlling the implementation of all work to clients’ contracts

• Create a project control system for ensuring that each element in each project is dealt with

• Set-up a document database so that all documents can be scanned in at head office or elsewhere and be available to you and your accountant as well

• Extend the system to embrace additional engineers so that all their work can be managed effectively and therefore that you can expand the business

• Set up document templates for quotes and all business documents including purchase orders, sales invoices and purchase invoices so they can be completed quickly and effectively

• Set up a sales opportunities system for logging and developing all potential sales opportunities

• Create automated emails for confirming purchase orders and delivery dates and for creating automated reports for project management information

• The TeamLink Advantage system includes data security and disaster recovery to the highest commercial standards and includes every piece of electronic information whether voicemail, email, documents or drawings etc

“The greatest benefit is everyone working together on the same information and everyone contributing their part to the business. As a result we can now more confidently work with remote staff and they in their turn feel they are an integral part of the team.

The first stage has been to get control of the sales process and also to use joint diaries and this is now proving very successful. All the documents relating to client contracts have now been filed electronically and we are now starting to raise purchase orders and sales invoices so we that get on-line project cost control.

Overhead savings are being achieved and the progress of every client contract is being monitored at every stage. The whole story is maintained on-line. All our back data is being progressively imported as this will save us doing separate offsite data back-up.

To access my complete business and back-office systems from anywhere, all I need is an internet connection"