The John F Hunt Demolition Group incorporates a number of diverse specialist hire companies. John F Hunt Plant Hire, initially established to support the heavy machinery requirements of John F Hunt Demolition, has grown into a major hirer of operated heavy plant and specialist attachments. The formation of John F Hunt Hire Centres in 1994 introduced a full range of non-operated plant and small tool hire services available through a number of depots in London and Essex. Thameside Lifting Ltd was purchased in 2002 and offers a comprehensive service for all lifting gear products. In 2005, John F Hunt Power Services was formed and is now a national business supplying power generators and associated services to the event, construction and utilities sectors.
The Challenge
In the early days, the hire group used paper-based manual processes, moving onto a technology solution to support the company’s rapid growth. Martin Lavery, Operations Director explains, “We originally used the MCS UNIX-based system and this managed our business successfully for ten years. But as the company continued to grow, we sought a Microsoft Windows-based system to manage the complexities of our increasingly diverse and expanding business”
He continues, “We did take time to review some of the alternative systems on the market, but the exercise only confirmed our initial view: MCS knew our complex business inside-out and always provided excellent support, as well as resolving our issues quickly and efficiently.”
The Solution
The group chose MCS-rm. It was a considerable task to move to the new platform, especially for a business with multiple depots, four databases and different priorities for each company in the group, but it was handled smoothly by the MCS team.
It was also clearly the right move, as Martin confirms: “MCS-rm does exactly what we want it to. It supports our work across the business, with many users, including depot hire controllers, accounts staff and credit controllers.”
The Benefits
Ease of use was one of the priorities in moving to a new system. Martin comments, “As MCS-rm is based on familiar Microsoft technology, new users pick it up within a couple of days. It’s very intuitive”.
The system generates valuable business information: “MCS showed us how to produce reports, such as on-hire reports. We can let customers see instantly what they have on-hire by sending them an email with the report attached.”
MCS-rm helps manage some 4,000 items of equipment across the business, with the visual allocation chart displaying exactly what is on hire at any point in time. Martin and his colleagues can also calculate equipment asset utilisation across the fleet, as well as viewing the full accounting picture, with all the company’s financial data being consolidated into the MCS Financials package.
The individual companies have unique business processes and offer different hire services, and MCS-rm handles these requirements efficiently. Martin elaborates, “The system’s wide-ranging functionality is fully utilised. For instance, John F Hunt Plant Hire offers excavators on an operated or self-drive basis. Where appropriate, we use the operated plant module to input all the hours worked by the operator, and this time can be detailed in the invoice”.
Another area of the system that is fully used is the Workshop functionality, and this is particularly important for John F Hunt Power Services, which provides the hire and installation of generators. As Martin points out, “If a generator fails at a festival, our reputation is on the line. Through the Workshop module, staff can schedule proactive maintenance alerts so the generators are serviced regularly and kept in prime condition.”
For Thameside Lifting, a particular priority is providing testing services to ensure the safety of lifting gear. MCS-rm can record all the test incidents and invoice for the time an engineer has spent on-site testing the customer’s equipment.
The Future
The system continues to adapt and expand in line with business changes. John F Hunt Plant Hire has been looking at the helpful daily to-do chart, as well as rolling out the Purchasing Order module, which creates all purchase orders to suppliers, automates the purchasing process and helps understand the true cost of purchases.
The rehire module is also under close consideration, as the company’s rehire operation is currently handled by a stand-alone system. Martin is looking forward to the benefits of the MCS-rm rehire functionality which he may introduce in the New Year: “With a geographically dispersed business, we are always reviewing ways to improve the service whereby we hire in equipment from other companies; the rehire module will help us better coordinate this facility.”
Martin concludes, “We constantly endeavour to improve our efficiency and it’s good to know that we can activate new functionality on MCS-rm when the time is right for the business. Whatever we ask it to do, MCS-rm is up to the job. We’re more than satisfied.”
To find out how MCS-rm could help your business, call us on +44 (0)1628 828000 or use our enquiry form.
View All Case Studies