Harran Limited provides innovative solutions to the offshore logistical sector. Owning a rental fleet of 400 tanks that include chemical tanks, waste oil tanks and transportable helifuel tanks, Harran also provides expertise, personnel and equipment in support of helicopter refuelling activities for the UK offshore oil industry. With depots in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth, Harran currently services 14 major clients and over 60 installations world-wide.
The Challenge
As Harran’s hire business grew, the unique complexities of the offshore operation began to put pressure on its previous hire management system based on ad hoc spreadsheets and Word documents.
“The manual processes failed to cope withour operation. Different personnel creating different documents and lack of co-ordination all contributed to errors,” explained Harran IT Manager, Toto Sanderson. “For instance, some information, such as customer deals and extended hire periods that may have been agreed verbally, wasn’t being captured accurately or consistently - leading to mistakes and inefficiencies.
The Solution
Toto and her colleagues decided to review the market for a comprehensive, automated hire management system that could handle the specific requirements and complexities of their offshore hire operation. After looking at several offerings, they opted for MCS-rm from hire management solutions specialist, MCS.
“Our criteria were that the solution should be easy to use and one that offered functionality that could be tailored to suit our individual requirements,” Toto continued.“As a Windows-based system, MCS-rm gave us this, plus the advantages of scalability for future expansion.”
Harran installed MCS-rm and in addition to its core functionality worked with MCS to create some bespoke functionality that would deliver the capability Harran users needed.
“We chose MCS-rm because of its comprehensive functionality and amazing flexibility,” Toto said. “In addition we also really benefited from their expertise in adapting some parts of the software so it matched the exact requirements of our very niche offshore logistical operation.”
Toto and her colleagues were very pleased with the support offered by MCS during the implementation stage with the system is now regularly used at the Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth depots by the yard supervisors and base operators. They are now able to monitor and manage the delivery, collection and certification of the tanks when they go on hire and off hire.
The Benefits
MCS-rm quickly started saving the company time and delivering efficiency and productivity benefits. This, Toto said, is due to the accessibility of all hire information in one, cohesive, companywide system together with the system’s ability to automate the quotation, contract and invoicing processes without having to re-key information.
“The offshore business has a lot of statutory documentation such as dangerous goods certificates and offshore cargo summaries that must accompany each delivery,” Toto continued. “One of the key benefits of MCS-rm is the ability to tailor standard forms within the system to include additional information in different formats that meet these documentation requirements.”
Previously, Harran personnel used Excel and Word to design these documents so MCS-rm saves time by eliminating double-entry and duplication.
“What’s more, with all our tanks and spareparts individually itemised and identified on the system, we are achieving much better management of our assets with MCS-rm,” Toto said. “And our accounting procedures are much more convenient and efficient.”
The MCS-rm invoicing function manages single and batch invoicing as well as producing pro forma invoices and daily‘due’ invoices with a few clicks of the mouse. Harran use it to automatically calculate rental periods for each customer and generate accurate, up-to-date, month-end batch invoices.
Toto also uses MCS-rm for utilisation reports to gain a better picture of stock movement and utilisation. These reports are quick and easy to create and thorough in the accuracy and immediacy of information. This has benefited Harran by eliminating the human error that can creep into the on hire and off hire processes.
“For instance, with our manual system, we had a situation where tanks that were thought to be on hire were charged to a customer when they should have been taken off hire long before,” Toto explained. “We had to credit the customer thousands of pounds as a result, which was unprofessional and bad for customer relations. With MCS-rm, mistakes like that can no longer happen.”
The Future
“We will continue to work with MCS to tailor further bespoke functionality as we take on new customers and grow our inventory accordingly,” Toto concluded.“The support of MCS and our relationship with its people has been excellent and we look forward to a productive future with them.”
To find out how MCS-rm could help your business, call us on +44 (0)1628 828000 or use our enquiry form.
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