Graham Shaw, Commercial Manager at Work Services explains how WorkPal, Barclay Communications’ mobile workflow management solution has helped to streamline the business.

Work Services

Work Services is made up of Salt Works and Clean Works. Salt Works provides winter maintenance, snow clearance and multiple salt products throughout Northern Ireland. Clean Works offers internal and external commercial cleaning and grounds services.

Barclay Communications and WorkPal

Established since 1997, Barclay Communications is a leading provider of business mobile, landline and digital solutions. It is also known for developing WorkPal, its award-winning solution for mobile workflow management, reporting, tracking and invoicing. WorkPal was designed specifically to support businesses with a field-based workforce.

Salt Works’ Job Management Challenges

Graham explains: “Before WorkPal was introduced to the business we relied heavily on spreadsheets and had to manually check individually set customer criteria against MET Office reports in order to allocate jobs. It was extremely labour intensive and required a lot of administration time. We had no way of proving when field workers were on site and for how long. We approached Barclay Communications looking for an effective job management system that would be easy to manage and save time, while also increasing efficiency and professionalism.”

The WorkPal Solution

Barclay Communications supplied Salt Works with WorkPal, their end-to-end job management system. WorkPal now enables Salt Works to generate a report based on each client’s individually set call out criteria and the daily MET office report, eliminating the need for the manual checking of spreadsheets for job allocation. It also enables Salt Works to send job details to the field worker’s mobile app, which they use on site to complete documentation, take pictures and more. Once a job is completed all the information is synced back to the office, invoices can be generated and job histories are created. It is important for Salt Works to maintain a high level of customer service and have the ability to support the customer in the event of a claimant.

Benefits of moving to WorkPal

Graham comments: “WorkPal has literally transformed the business. We are now able to track every job in real time enabling us to see the precise time off and on site and each field worker’s actual route is also mapped. Snail trail tracking is printed on to job sheets. Vehicle checks are also carried out using the mobile app. WorkPal offers great flexibility, we have been able to customise the system to meet our specific requirements and have added extra features, such as an ‘opt in/opt out’ email that adds value for our clients and also has the potential to create new business opportunities for Saltworks. So, WorkPal is now supporting us with customer service and business development. This also allows Salt Works to scrutinise productivity and ensure that each customer’s site is protected correctly with minimal effort.”

Impact and ROI of WorkPal

Graham explains: “WorkPal has allowed us to invest the money that ordinarily we would have spent on headcount into other areas of the business. This positively impacts our customers as we can provide the very best service with an efficient and manageable effort. If you would like your business to become more efficient and are interested in saving money I would thoroughly recommend investigating WorkPal.”