With a plethora of supply chain issues set to far outlast the worst of the pandemic, installers are bearing the brunt of the consequences. A robust installer management system has never been more critical, which is just one of the reasons why the fully integrated solution from AdminBase is proving popular with installers.
“With labour shortages, price increases and product availability affecting suppliers literally day by day, it is becoming increasingly difficult for fitters to plan a week’s work, let alone a month or more,” explains Rhonda Ridge, author of AdminBase. “The best installers can hope for in the current climate is honesty and openness from suppliers. The more information they have and the quicker they have it, the more chance they have of being able to plan around the disruptions. Projects may still need to be delayed and timescales moved around, but if installers know what’s coming, they can be truthful with their customers and pre-warn them of any changes to the schedule.
“This is where AdminBase is giving installers a huge advantage. Our carefully designed installer management system holds records for each job a fitter has on their books and these records contain the detail of any materials ordered for that job, including supplier references. Having all this information in one place makes it much easier to chase orders with those suppliers. The records also contain order confirmations so installers can quickly see what should be on a supplier’s delivery before it arrives. Proactive installation companies can even produce summary reports that show what deliveries are expected so they can check in with suppliers on orders ahead of the delivery date. This same reporting facility can also be used to highlight items not received on any given order.
“As well as keeping track of orders from suppliers, AdminBase is an essential tool for installation planning,” continues Rhonda. “The system can for example show in one view, all jobs that have every ordered item in stock and so are ready for installation. A second view can show all installations booked in for the following week, that don’t yet have all the necessary materials. Taking this one step further, all this information is fed into the appointments in the Installation Diary on the same system, so that an alert will pop up if a project is booked in and not all the materials have been received.”
Rhonda concludes: “The system in its entirety removes hassle from installers, giving them more time to do what they do best and install home improvements.”
