New build after-care specialist A&S has used the latest mobile workforce technology to double its business to a £5m turnover in 2 years.
Using the cloud-based job management system from BigChange, A&S has successfully diversified into high-level access services and asset management services for the Private Rental Sector (PRS).
Established just eight years, A&S has become a leading player in the fast-growing market for new build after-care. With a head office near Chester and a national training centre in Market Drayton, the company employs multi-skilled and specialist trade teams carrying out NHBC remedial claims, assisting with high-volume build programmes, remedial repairs and technical reports.
A&S works with the major house builders and is now expanding into the private rental sector providing services to UK and overseas investors with A&S Asset Management. With a pool of 100 tradesmen using mobile devices to connect in real-time with the office, BigChange provides a paperless dynamic CRM system that is boosting customer service and efficiency on site.
A&S recently acquired JA Access, allowing the group to offer high-level remedial works, technical external investigations and cladding remedial schemes. JA Access will be the first scaffold access company to utilise BigChange, and A&S are creating a nationwide supply chain network to provide access across the country. This new capability will help A&S complete recently secured cladding remediation and solar panel installation projects.
“BigChange has already delivered productivity gains of 20 percent within our after-care business,” said Sean Coldrick, Group Managing Director, A&S. “Now it has been deployed to underpin expansion into the private rental sector and manage new division in access services – helping us to boost turnover to £5m in just 2 years.”
Sean Coldrisk, Group Managing Director, A&S
“BigChange has transformed JA Access from a paper-driven to paperless business, allowing processes to be streamlined,” Coldrick explains.
“Incorporating JA Access was easy thanks to the ability to link data by the click of a button, making purchase orders and job data simple to exchange. It’s now a business underpinned by a dynamic CRM system; we’ve been able to seamlessly add new clients, double staffing levels and boost sales by 50 percent.”
Sean Coldrick, Group Managing Director, A&S
Using the BigChange mobile app, tradesmen manage all work on-site, aided by on-screen workflows to ensure all the correct procedures are followed and information recorded. It is completely paperless, and job cards are completed with accompanying on-site photographs, generating contra-charge reports at the click of a button. BigChange also has fully integrated vehicle tracking, providing time and location data, routing, customer ETA alerts and driver performance reporting.
With customer service central to A&S, BigChange provides an important platform for customer mediation, with a portal allowing customers to access all information, including quotes, bookings, job cards and invoices. BigChange has also been used to transform stock management, with real-time stock control and replenishment of stock on vans and the ordering of parts and materials by tradesmen via their tablets.
“BigChange has allowed us to really streamline our mobile operations. Tradesmen are now much more self-sufficient; journeys to the depot are rare, first fix rates are improved, and there are fewer wasted hours.
We have complete visibility of everything going on in real-time and that provides assurance that all works are properly controlled. The system allows us to meet any contract specification, opening up new business opportunities and much bigger contracts - with the assurance that we can deliver exceptional service with a well-proven system and processes.”
Sean Coldrick, Group Managing Director, A&S
BigChange is also helping A&S expand into private rental, creating a new division. A&S Asset Management provides a complete service to the PRS sector, working with UK and overseas investors and increasing the ROI on residential units by providing a high-end cost affective refurbishment scheme for residential units.
The new division has already secured a multi-million-pound scheme within the NW to bring what are currently standard rentable units up to a modern category, introducing green energy and modern techniques to reduce carbon footprints significantly.
BigChange allowed A&S to centralise all overhead facilities and gave both JA Access and A&S Asset Management a foundation to provide the clients with reassurance. BigChange ensures all the key requirements are in place; H&S, tracking of jobs and vehicles, asset control and transparency with client login.
“BigChange has lived up to our expectations and transformed the business. However, more than anything, we chose BigChange because the system was clearly backed up by real people; a team of professionals that have since proven to be invaluable in the roll-out of the system,” said Coldrick. “And like us, they have a forward vision and ambition to grow; that fits very much with our own ambitions.”
Sean Coldrick, Group Managing Director, A&S
