Commusoft and PartsArena Pro have partnered to improve efficiency for field service technicians. Learn even more by watching the Commusoft and PartsArena Pro integration webinar!

Key benefits of using PartsArena Pro and Commusoft:

• Manage and keep track of parts
• Ensure the right technician has the right part on site
• Sync in real time back to the office and increase technician utilisation rates
• Track the cost and sales price of parts
• Faster diagnosis, fewer errors and return visits
• Engineers spend less time on-site
• Engineers complete more jobs per day
• Customers enjoy a faster fix

Plumbing and heating specialist, A.C. Wilgar were delighted to win Smart Installer of the Year at the 2018 H&V Awards this month. Powered by Surefire field service software, the company has invested in its own pioneering app, with the latest integration being the addition of PartsArena data for optimal efficiencies in servicing.

Now in their 24^th year, the H&V Awards are an annual celebration of excellence, forward thinking and the highest achievements across all areas of the UK building services industry supply chain including installers and service and maintenance companies.

In the past year, A.C.Wilgar, which has 3,000 customers on maintenance contracts and a turnover of £2.3m, has spent 7% of its turnover on developing and maintaining the Surefire app. The PartsArena integration was accompanied by a link up to the Wolseley database, enabling field service engineers to view parts numbers and “live” prices whilst on-site, delivering exemplary customer service. The award-winning company said: “To our knowledge, no other plumbing and heating firm has developed anything like this tool in-house”.

Surefire helps many hundreds of engineers in the heating and plumbing industry to organise and manage their day-to-day activities via an iOS enabled mobile device, streamlining work processes and minimising the requirement for time spent on paperwork and duplication of effort.

Of the awards achievement for A.C. Wilgar, Jonathan Ralphs, Infomill CEO said: “It’s hugely gratifying to be directly associated with a proactive plumbing and heating specialist that achieves high profile award recognition for their integration work that included PartsArena. We congratulate A.C. Wilgar in their forward-thinking move to enhance both productivity and customer service. It’s the perfect demonstration of just how powerful PartsArena can be when incorporated into field service software.”

A long-standing and trusted specialist in the UK housing sector, ROCC has fully integrated PartsArena Pro into its Uniclass software, helping gas service teams benefit from an end-to-end system that will enhance productivity and facilitate meeting stringent operational targets for gas boiler maintenance.

With well over 30 years’ experience, ROCC is a G-Cloud registered supplier for the social housing market, offering an innovative range of technology products and support to improve productivity and operational excellence in all areas. Whilst ROCC’s Uniclass software provides a robust and streamlined system for managing housing repairs and maintenance services, the company had identified a knowledge “gap” where boiler technical information was concerned.

Comments Peter Luck, Technical Director at ROCC: “Continually working to develop our products, we could see the frustration that housing associations experience when knowledge and data is disparate. PartsArena Pro has been an effective tool, long-used in the housing sector, but generally on a stand-alone basis. By fully integrating PartsArena Pro into Uniclass, heating engineers have a powerful and streamlined system that gives them accurate information at their fingertips, enabling them to find the correct parts and transfer the parts list to the job record directly. This in turn can reduce costs, improve tenant satisfaction and help to meet challenging KPIs.”

Heating engineers have historically held a great deal of essential parts information in their heads, which becomes a difficulty when they leave the company or retire. It is a practical impossibility to carry a full set of boiler manuals around, or to ensure that every boiler location displays one. Access to PartsArena Pro entirely deals with these challenges, regardless of the number of engineers that require access to this ever-growing bank of knowledge.

The leading heating parts identification software in the UK, PartsArena Pro provides essential data on more than 180,000 unique parts from no less than 110 different brands. Updated daily, it can provide engineers with 23,000 interactive, exploded diagrams to help with fault diagnosis, before providing the correct parts number to ensure far more accurate ordering. Stockist information is also held in PartsArena Pro, to allow for completion of the job, right up to parts ordering.

“We’re delighted to have worked closely with ROCC to integrate PartsArena Pro into Uniclass and this will pay huge dividends to the housing sector as a whole,” says Jonathan Ralphs, CEO of Infomill Ltd. “Leaders in their field, ROCC have great insight into the issues that housing associations face and their ever-improving products and support deliver excellent results where productivity, efficiency and cost management is concerned. We look forward to a long-term partnership with ROCC and their many customers,” he adds.

Click here for more information on ROCC.

Encouraging heating engineers to understand the value of PartsArena Pro first hand, Infomill has partnered with Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant at Installer 2017, to offer free two week trial and discounted annual subscription offer.

Forming part of the Graham Customer First Area, Infomill will be showing visitors exactly what PartsArena Pro is capable of, when they visit Installer 2017 at the Ricoh Arena (9-11 May). The app includes all Graham part codes in addition to a fully comprehensive industry list.

Working offline on any mobile device (iOS, Android and Windows 8 and 10) the app delivers access to technical manuals, parts codes and interactive exploding diagrams whilst on-site, allowing engineers to swiftly and accurately identify the fault or part required.  This results in less time spent on each job and greater productivity overall.  Other handy features include a “create a job” function (add parts to the job and then share with a third party), Graham stockist locator and the ability to add personal notes to a part or appliance.

Heating engineers that visit the trade show can take advantage of a free two week trial and a 20% discount on a one year subscription, reducing the total annual price to just £180 plus VAT (£3.46 a week or 49p a day). This discount is also available at any branch of Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant from 9^th until 31^st May. 

Graham has been using PartsArena at its trade counters for many years now, helping its customers to more accurately identify the specific part that they require when at one of their nationwide branches. It is also available to account customers via the Graham website.

“We’re delighted to have PartsArena Pro being showcased in our Customer First Area at Installer 2017 and promoted in our branches until 31st May. It can really help our customers to be more productive with their working day whilst on-site and spend less time returning due to errors in part ordering.”

–Simon Hayward, Category Manager Spares of Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant: 

A recent customer survey, undertaken with PartsArena Pro licensed users showed that 100% agreed PartsArena Pro had helped to reduce the cost of gas servicing. In fact, 65% said that PartsArena Pro had helped to reduce the time spent per job for repair visits by at least 15%.

“There is no doubt about the power of PartsArena Pro for heating engineers. It’s been proven time and again. Our challenge is to ensure that all engineers understand this potential and partnering with Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant helps us to educate their customers and offer them a free trial to see for themselves. Few engineers want to give PartsArena Pro up once they’ve tried it!”  

-Jonathan Ralphs, Infomill CEO 

Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant: Graham, The Plumbers’ Merchant is a major supplier of plumbing, heating, bathroom materials and renewable solutions…We get what you need! Graham has over 185 branches across the UK, as well as 26 bathroom showrooms. We pride ourselves on Rapid Speed of Response, Unbeatable Availability & The Most Knowledgeable Staff.

Want to learn more about Installer 2017, including how to register for your free ticket?

Infomill Partners with Graham The Plumbers’ Merchant to Improve Efficiency for Roalco

Roalco is an Essex-based building maintenance company that successfully handles 7,000 heating systems repairs a month in the social housing sector. The company works closely with Graham The Plumbers Merchant to supply all of its heating parts. Last year, Graham partnered with Infomill to provide Roalco with the PartsArena Pro system to boost the efficiency of Roalco heating engineers whilst improving service delivery to Roalco’s customers.

The partnership has delivered impressive results. With access to technical manuals, exploded diagrams and parts lists, PartsArena Pro enables Roalco’s engineers to quickly identify the correct information, resulting in accurate parts ordering from Graham. Roalco has seen first time fix rates dramatically improve since the integration, resulting in reduced service costs and happier customers.

“The provision of PartsArena Pro has had a positive impact, not only on the engineer diagnosis of the fault. It has enabled an increased first time fix that benefits not only the business but also the client and we’ve seen an increase in our customer satisfaction figures since using it.”  -Gary Last, Contracts Manager, Roalco

Read more about how implementing PartsArena Pro has improved service delivery for Roalco at FMJ Field Management Journal.