The rapid development of new communications technologies and their integration with IT systems are opening up opportunities for the tyre industry to reap huge operational benefits.
According to Cam Systems, a greater number of tyre businesses are now taking advantage of these opportunities, which have been made possible by advances in internet, broadband and GPRS technologies and the improved sophistication and reliability of IT systems.
Cam has been at the forefront in helping businesses take advantage of these new opportunities. Its market-leading Cameo software programme utilises broadband links to receive and process data and work to deliver new facilities and services which can revolutionise the way companies go about their business.
PDA hand-held technology
PDAs – Personal Digital Assistants – have mostly been used for basic administrative purposes such as diary and contact management. But the rapid development of mobile telephony and GPRS services now mean that PDAs can connect with internet applications to link mobile technicians to head office or other central administrative locations.
Cam Systems has taken advantage of this facility to help one of its customers, plant tyre specialist Tyrefix, to transform the way in which it collates and processes service data from its fleet of mobile technicians.
Traditionally, the company has relied on manual job cards and invoicing systems to process onsite work. This could mean an invoice taking up to five days to process and involved a high degree of manual labour and paperwork systems.
By taking advantage of the new technology, jobs are now transmitted from work site to head office via PDAs using electronic job cards and invoice data. This is received by a Cameo facility developed specifically for Tyrefix, which automatically logs the job card information for invoice completion. The new system is faster, more efficient and more cost effective than its manual predecessor.
Chris Dale, administration director for Tyrefix, says that the system has revolutionised the way the company operates: “It’s made a massive difference by replacing paperwork systems with electronic communication. We now get job details from our fitters in minutes and can then send worksheets and invoices to clients by email or text. Everything has been speeded up which is particularly important in the plant hire market. We can even send pictures of damaged tyres to support work sheets, which provides another level of service to our customers, “ said Chris.
Adding to this, Mike Allen said: “This is a perfect example of how improvements in communication technologies can be harnessed by Cameo and made to work for customers. The type of software we developed exclusively with Tyrefix will also have wider applications and potential uses for other businesses with field-based service, installations, inspection and sales personnel.”
The pace of technological change is moving faster than ever before, bringing new opportunities for business efficiencies. Developments like real time trading and remote data transfer via PDAs can be exploited cost effectively by the majority of companies with an existing IT infrastructure. In most cases the cost of development and installation is far outweighed by the labour savings and efficiency improvements that result.
