With two depots in the Midlands and a customer-base throughout the UK, Law Plant & Tools was initially a division of the George Law Group, a major building and civil engineering company with a history dating back to the mid-1800s. Since going independent in 1979, Law Plant & Tools has built up a large inventory of over 1000 plant and tools for hire to the construction industry.
The Challenge
Over the years, Law Plant & Tools has increased its operation to the point where it was no longer getting the results it required from its outdated character-based hire management system. When the supplying company decided to no longer support it, this gave Law Plant the opportunity to look for a modern Windows system.
Law Plant & Tools Managing Director, Mark Houghton, explained: “We were beginning to realise that our old system wasn’t keeping pace with the modern world, let alone our operation. It couldn’t interface with emails or the Internet and processing was linear and painfully slow. Information had to be inputted time and time again for every calculation and transaction-processing was non-existent.”
The Solution
Consequently, Mark and his colleagues reviewed the market for a comprehensive, fully-integrated, Windows-based system that users would easily adapt to and that would deliver the functionality and scalability they wanted. One of their prime objectives was to benefit from an integrated accounting capability that would ensure both the hire operation and the company’s financial system would be supported by the same supplier.
After a competitive review that involved MCS and several others, Mark opted for the MCS offering.
“We settled on MCS-rm because of the high level of support MCS offered and the fully-integrated functionality of their financial system,” Mark explained. “The MCS-financials solution is incredibly easy to use and offers us all the flexibility and scalability we could possibly want.”
The Benefits
The unified ledger design of MCS Financials (MCS-fin) provides the attributes and functionality of accounts receivable and accounts payable ledgers within one environment, thus avoiding duplication and potential errors. This structure ensures Law Plant’s accounts are always in balance and reflect the true current position across their entire operation. Furthermore, this also means that accurate data can be accessed quickly and easily to ensure efficient reporting and analysis.
“The benefits to our end users and to the company are vast, especially compared to the old system,” Mark continued. ”For a start, it is a real advantage to have a single source of input. This means any customer, financial information or hire contract automatically correlates to the relevant account. This gives us a faster and more accurate view of customer or supplier activity which supports and enhances our business relationships with them.”
Law Plant users also benefit from automatic alerts for a variety of aspects such as customers exceeding their credit limits, for example, that aids the decision-making process and leads to a more proactive service.
The two hire managers really appreciate the seamless hire contract workflow. MCS-rm comprises a hire, sales and service contract administration system that streamlines Law Plant’s core operation. As a familiar graphical Windows interface, it is easy to use and quick to operate and thus reduces training as well as customer response times.
MCS-rm also helps with the complexities of Health & Safety enforcement to reduce risks and guarantee compliance by displaying an appropriate prompt at the right time to renew equipment certifications.
“Another area we were keen to implement was Workshop & Maintenance within MCS-rm,” Mark claimed. “It gives us a comprehensive integrated repair and maintenance system for our own and third party equipment. This means our equipment is regularly maintained and is always in tip-top condition and ready for hire.”
The Future
Mark envisages increased use of the customer web portal functionality. Mark looks forward to offering trusted customers direct access to their equipment and contracts via the Internet, with the potential to book and order plant and tools online 24/7.
“We are currently at the start of our relationship with MCS and are very encouraged by their support and the functionality offered by MCS-rm,” Mark concluded. “MCS is critical in underpinning our plans for future success.”
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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