Case Study

Company: HE Services (Plant Hire) Ltd
Web: www.heservices.co.uk
Country: United Kingdom
Industry: Excavator hire services
Products:
• MCS-rm with:
• Purchase Ordering
• Workshop & Maintenance
• MCS-crm
• MCS-fin
• MCS-bi

Established in 1972 and part of the H.E. Group, H.E. Services (Plant Hire) Ltd is the largest specialist excavator hire company in the UK. With a fleet of over 2000 items of plant available from 12 depots around the country, the company provides every type of plant, from mini diggers and dumpers to heavy plant and a range of associated accessories.

The Challenge
H.E. Services needed to replace its UNIX-based hire application with a comprehensive, Window-based system capable of co-ordinating the activities of all four companies within the H.E. Group and delivering a level of performance that would keep up with its expanding operation.

H.E. Services IT Manager, Richard Lansdown explained: “We firstly needed to automate our hire operation so that our users across the business could see all customer and contract information in one, central system.”

The Solution
Richard and his colleagues looked at the products available, short-listed four and eventually chose MCS-rm from hire management software specialist, MCS.

“We chose MCS-rm because of its versatility, user-friendly interface and high standard of reports" commented Peter Durey, Managing Director of H.E. Services.

H.E. Services went ahead and installed MCS-rm. This offered a comprehensive core functionality that includes solutions for Hire, Contracts, Asset Management, Purchase Ordering, Stock, Availability Planning, Rehire and the Workshop & Maintenance function. H.E. Services also integrated MCS-crm (customer relationship management) as well as MCS-fin (financials).

“We wanted our users across the business to have one source of information for all their operational needs,” Richard stated. “MCS-rm was a perfect integrated fit and gave us the ability to tailor the MCS-crm functionality to our requirements.”

The Benefits
The core functionality of MCS-rm allows H.E. Services greater control and flexibility. For instance, the ‘kit’ function within MCS-rm enables the hire company to aggregate all operated and non-operated machinery and attachments that are involved with a project within the same hire contract. The hire software solution also lets them apply different hire rates according to the details of the agreement and how customers want it to be structured.

Further functionality which formed part of the selection criteria included the integrated financial package, MCS-fin as well as the integrated MCS-bi (business intelligence). Together, these enable in-depth, flexible reporting including Aged Debtors, Invoice Register and Document History reports. When details are needed on suppliers or a certain set of figures, running these reports is fast and easy for the users.

“For instance, the Invoice Register lets us track and monitor all invoices received from suppliers,” Richard continued. “We are quickly able to create a report and view the detail which saves time and resolves issues quicker.”

“Likewise, the Purchase Ledger runs more efficiently than before. It takes less time
looking for information, more detail is available, and paying suppliers has never been easier. All this,” claimed Richard, “keeps everyone happy.”

Furthermore, with the Hire and Sales departments making upwards of 50 customer and prospect calls a day, there was a big demand for a more comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) functionality. Working closely with MCS, Richard and his colleagues developed the integrated MCS-crm package to meet all of H.E. Service’s requirements. This sophisticated CRM function makes it much faster for users to capture customer information, such as email addresses and mobile telephone numbers during a call. The system then stores the information in one central place to be viewed by all. This single-entry data input not only eliminates errors, but increases customer satisfaction due to its time-saving and problem-solving capabilities.

National Sales Manager, Malcolm Gough, claimed that MCS-crm has reduced customer contact time on the telephone from 10 to 3 minutes to capture the customer’s basic information.

“We now capture and input all customer information much quicker,” Malcolm explained. “Also, we can quickly see previous quotations, customer turnover, a record of payments outstanding, payments made, credit limits and any other relevant financial information. This gives our users an up-to-date profile of a customer very quickly and enables them to make better judgements when negotiating a hire deal.”

MCS-crm is now used as an interface by all depots to co-ordinate customer contact among themselves. For example, three or four depots may be chasing the same customer so now they can all check MCS-crm first to see which other users have already spoken to that customer, what deals have been discussed and what prices have been agreed.

The Future
The next step is to use MCS-crm to conduct targeted campaigns that involve sending out special offers by e-mail. Richard Lansdown is confident the system could, for example, identify those lapsed customers who previously hired specific types of equipment, or those whose spending levels have dropped below a set monthly level.

“Throughout our collaboration, MCS has been most helpful,” Richard concluded. “They know how we operate our systems and can usually resolve any issues in a speedy manner. If we have any issues, they are always willing to investigate and advise.”

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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