Fire Crest
Based at offices in Gwinear, near Hayle, Fire Crest has been established for 17 years and employs 13 staff.
The company specialises in all aspects of fire protection – everything from fire extinguishers and fire alarms to fire safety training and risk assessments.
Operations Director, Harry Hart, says ‘In the last six months, we have revolutionised the way we use IT. Now we see IT as an enabler rather than as a cost.’
Harry says ‘Through using IT to enable flexible working, the company has been able to increase its productivity, profits and most importantly customer satisfaction.
‘For example, today we received a call from a customer enquiring about a fire alarm. We were able to identify the nearest engineer via satellite navigation and broadband – getting the engineer to the customer within the hour. Then using laptop technology, we were able to draft technical CAD drawings on site and develop an accurate SP203 compliant quote for the fire alarm, keeping the overheads and costs down, so we were able to give a competitive quote to the customer.’
‘Flexibility is key’ Harry says ‘On any given day, at least ten of our staff will now be working either from home or on the move. This means there is less time wasted travelling to and from the office and staff can be more efficient and more responsive to customer needs.
‘There is also less time lost through sickness or other personal emergencies. For example, today one of our employee’s car has broken down but she is working just as effectively at home.’
Harry continues ‘Flexible working also means that staff can have a better work-life balance. Many of the staff have children and now it is easier to work around the times when parents want to put the children first. It is a win-win situation.’
As well as upgrading their IT infrastructure to help enable flexible working, Fire Crest have invested in mobile phone technology and VoIP.
‘One of the big benefits of broadband to us has been VoIP’ says Harry. ‘It has substantially cut our costs as our mobile phones now connect to the wireless access point in the office and utilise the rate savings offered by broadband.’
The company have also installed a customer relationship management system. ‘We have over 4000 customers’ Harry continues ‘ and we can access this remotely from wherever we are. This helps us provide a more comprehensive service as well as being a significant aid to workflow management.’
‘Another innovation we are piloting is that we now send out the day’s work schedules to the engineers over the Internet, direct to their mobile phones. They can edit it and send it back to us. Because our engineers are out on the road, they have really benefited from flexible working through IT. People sometimes think of flexible working as being relevant only to office workers but it is just as relevant to engineers on the road. Our engineers are big users of wireless hotspots, often using them to send through urgent documents or architects’ drawings.’
Harry says ‘Fire Crest is expanding quite considerably and we would normally need to take on an extra unit – but working flexibly will be a way to avoid that additional expense initially. It is also likely to improve our staff retention. There are a number of ways where flexible working is helping us stay ahead’
Harry concludes ‘The whole experience of introducing flexible working into our business with the help of actnow has been fantastic! It has made our business more productive and a happier place to be!’
