When a price query on a part has been made, the system asks if postage and packing are to be added and if so, a lookup table will be accessed. The minimum parts cost and the retail price information are then combined to price the job. The status of every repair job and parts order can be easily tracked and this is backed up by a very comprehensive set of built-in reports that are simple to generate and available to both office and engineering staff alike. For engineers working in the field, a diary system is used. An engineer will be allocated a visit and an arrival time scheduled.
Postcodes are the key to allocating visits most efficiently.
Communication and connectivity between Sites A repair coming into Mitchum, might be sent to Horley if it is felt that the appropriate expertise resides there. With three sites and many hundreds of bookings, keeping track of where any particular appliance is could be problematic. However the system runs extremely smoothly. Connectivity between sites is addressed by way of overnight download. The company decided not to go the route of wide area networking at present, as costs have to be kept to a minimum, and 24 hours old data is fine.