A Fine Balancing Act

Ab Initio’s Rhonda Ridge, creator of the AdminBase installer management system, talks about the importance of getting organised and explains how the right integrated software can make all the difference to efficiencies and profitability.

Installation businesses need to keep multiple balls in the air to generate leads, perform sales visits, deal with suppliers, complete installations, chase money, and manage any snagging issues that arise. It can feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. When the working day in front of you is this hectic, it is tempting to just dive in and throw yourself into the tasks ahead. At least you can start ticking off a few things from that ever growing to do list, right? Wrong! Simply jumping into a busy day without a plan or any kind of organisation, is a false economy. Having said that, you also don’t want to spend your entire day planning instead of doing. So, what’s the solution?

Project management

Businesses that have a means of keeping people, tasks and project plans organised can run installations in a way that is accurate, predictable, and profitable. If you lay the foundation for this upfront, it also requires minimal day to day resources to maintain. Efficient project management allows you to easily keep track of how installations are progressing and schedule your resources effectively. It allows you to monitor in real time the number of hours spent on various aspects of the business, as well as ensure easy communication between team members. From quote to invoice, a project can be monitored to ensure best practice and ultimate efficiency is achieved throughout.

The concept of project management is nothing new. Many project-based businesses have for a long time been using a physical job board to track their work. Job boards that have a card for each project and a list of actions that are allocated to different members of the team. As the tasks progress, the cards move along the board. More recently we have seen the same concept move online, giving every member of the team access to the board, whether they are in the office or not.

Get lean

In line with the increasing popularity of these systems, AdminBase has recently added the AdminBase Task Board function – a Kanban style boards element – to its already comprehensive installer management system, created specifically for installation businesses. The addition further supports companies looking to maximise efficiencies because it allows installation teams to handle even the most complex projects in a single, centralised system. It works in the same way as the physical job boards, with cards for each project and an accompanying list of actions. The board provides a way of viewing these actions in real time as organised lists rather than relying on scribbled notes, or an individual’s ability to recall information accurately hours, or even days after the event.

This new system blends seamlessly with the existing AdminBase checklist element to give installation teams an overview of sales and installation pipelines at a glance. But further information is always just a click away with the ability to drill down from these lists to the underlying lead or contract. With the information so easily accessible, changes can be made quickly ensuring the data is always up to date.

Take it easy

Every aspect of AdminBase is easy to use because we understand that for the system to achieve its full potential, information needs to be quick and easy to access, and every member of the team needs to feel confident using it. The AdminBase Task Board function also encourages collaboration across the entire business because every department and individual can see how their actions are feeding into the bigger picture. This level of transparency ensures a balanced allocation of resources so you don’t end up with the situation whereby one team is getting overbooked, while another doesn’t have enough work to fill their time.

Overall, a good project management system is the only way to complete projects while effectively balancing budget, scope, and quality. Without the relevant software to support companies in getting more organised, businesses will struggle to break free of these constraints.

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