If you have read the profile of the Kevin Meaney group of companies in this publication, you are getting the picture of an organisation that is doing ‘everything, everywhere and all at once’.
Kevin knew us at Jpoint Software from his time at MW Hire and he reached out to us when he needed to get some help as his business was growing so fast. His team were doing the best that they could but they needed to have a system and the support of a team who understood their business.
Together, we looked at where we could make an immediate impact on the business. Paperwork was the nightmare both for the hire operations and the haulage division. The most logical place to start was with the plant hire division.
The biggest concern being the need to know exactly where the equipment was and ensuring that it was being invoiced correctly and in a timely manner. Within a few weeks in the summer of 2023 we got the plant hire operations live on our Easi-Hire system.
Very quickly afterwards, we implemented our mobile app with the drivers. The obvious benefit of replacing paperwork had the desired result. With an electronic proof of delivery system, there are other significant benefits. Firstly, during the cash collection process, being in a position to email proof of delivery documents while in a telephone conversation is hard to overestimate.
We all know that looking for signatures is all too often a delaying tactic but when you are in a position to email it instantly, that particular ploy falls at the first hurdle. Secondly, when the users of equipment see that photographs have been taken during the delivery process and will again be taken during collection, they realise that it will be easy to trace and charge for damage. Our clients have observed this changes the behaviour of customers. The amount of broken lights and scuffs etc is reduced.
It is said that to have an exciting business, you need exciting customers. This could be said of plenty of our client base. It is most certainly true in the case of Kevin. On the 19th of December, when we were all winding down for Christmas, we got a call from Kevin. He was taking on a premises in Athy and wanted to have a retail element.
Over the years, many tool hire shops have built a significant retail component to their business using our system. Directly after that call, we ordered all the components he would require: till drawer, receipt printer, barcode scanner etc and had them delivered to us the next day. When we arrived on site in early January, the Meaney team were only taking possession of the premises and removing the rubbish from the previous occupant. Within an hour, the shop was fully operating.
A Derry native watched on as we put his hire of a power washer live! We were on site again a few weeks later and the place was transformed. We showed the team behind the scenes how to get all their products loaded into into the system from spreadsheets.
There are many divisions to Kevin’s business and likely to be more.
Our system allows for multi-company/multi-division/multi-location accounting. So the financial controller is in a postion to produce monthly profit and loss reports per division directly from the system.
As part of the accounting function but also key to operations is the Purchase Ordering system. With such an array of purchasing happening now and on-going, having the Purchase Order system in place will save a lot of stress in the long run. Our software can run a process that monitors the stock levels in the shop and create purchase orders to replenish items that have dropped below the minimum quantity.
We are always open to working with our clients where customisations might be required. To that end, we have made customisations to our mobile app for use in the haulage process. The standard delivery docket records where the delivery was made.
The ‘haulage’ dockets also identify where a load was picked up. In order to reduce paperwork further, we will be implementing our service module which allows fitters to use our app to complete post-hire inspections, record repairs and also produce certificates (eg GA1) from the system and email these directly to their customers.
Over the coming months, we are looking forward to a further programme of works with Kevin and his team. We are delighted to be a key part of helping Kevin’s team do everything, everywhere, and all on one system – Jpoint Software.
Contact Mel Cawley
email mel@jpoint.ie
phone 01 293 8883
