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Category: FileMaker

There are 2 posts published under FileMaker.

Keslow Camera Always Ready for “Action” with a Tablet Solution

Keslow Camera may not be a household name, but if you watch TV or go to the movies, you’ve seen our work. As one of the largest camera rental companies in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, we have a long list of credits ranging from Lone Suvivor to Disney’s upcoming Tomorrowland, to popular television shows like Sleepy Hollow, Chicago Fire, Shameless, and many more.

Our success comes largely from a culture that always puts the customer first. This requires commitment, talent and very efficient business processes. That’s why Keslow Camera abandoned its old paper-based system for a custom FileMaker solution for iPad, iPhone, and Mac computers that we affectionately call Flawless. Today, the solution touches every aspect of our business, from managing contracts and bids to fulfilling orders, tracking equipment worldwide, invoicing, and forecasting sales.

After implementing Flawless, I’ve learned several ways to succeed with tablets.

  • Don’t get bogged down in paper: Instead of spending several minutes trying to locate an order or determine what’s in stock and what is already rented out, our team can now respond instantly to customers. This flexibility enables us to land important contracts with major media and entertainment companies.
  • Involve the entire staff: We now have over 50 employees across various offices around the U.S., all using Flawless running on Macs, iPads, iPod touches, and iPhones. The equipment puller, shipping & receiving team, and prep technicians all use iOS devices to accomplish their work.  Any time barcodes are being scanned in or out to build contracts; an iOS device comes into play.
  • Engage management: We’re using iPhones running Flawless remotely, either from home after hours or anytime we are out of the office to check availability of gear. This capability is especially handy throughout weekends when we get emergency calls.
  • Keep speed in mind: Production teams need to know in advance what equipment is available if they need additional gear shipped out. Flawless helps us submit bids faster than the competition so we are the first to respond to the customer.
  • Think paperless: We need to manage a large number of PDFs – purchase orders, contracts and invoices. With our custom solution, the company can maintain these documents externally to the solution in managed storage, while still being able to have instant access. 

Developer Scott Rose of ScottWorld developed Flawless. The database is hosted on a Mac Pro for easy access across Keslow Camera’s offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Santa Fe, and New Orleans. Managers and staff can tap into the information they need anytime, from anywhere, including via iPads and iPhones. The FileMaker Go app brings the full, rich application to Keslow’s iPad and iPhone users – it’s not just a slimmed-down version of the database.

Plus, unlike typical off-the-shelf software, it’s really easy to make updates and improvements to our solution, as our business grows – no waiting for months or years for new features. With our new solution, ScottWorld can constantly and quickly make improvements any time an employee has a good suggestion.

Keslow Camera is growing roughly 30 percent year over year, so having this kind of power and flexibility is essential. This blazing-fast solution, accessible to our staff nationwide, is really helping set us apart from our competition.

 

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Delighted Customers Made Possible by Modernizing Business Automation

At Klapprodt Pools, our 25 employees design and build up to 120 pools a year, maintain 200 pools weekly, and make an additional 150 to 200 service calls each month. We serve the Dallas/Fort Worth area and, over the years, we’ve earned a reputation for gorgeous pools and exceptional service.  But our business, while small, is relatively complex.  And our technology was really holding us back.

Our Problem

 

We’re in a high-touch business that depends on details and logistics, and it’s not always easy to keep track. Ultimately, a pool is a luxury and our job is to thrill our customers. This means we have to be synchronized, extremely productive, and aware of even the tiniest details of each customer’s unique job.

 

Employees are on the go every day, designing new pools, or driving around the metro area for routine maintenance calls. We live and die by coordination and need to keep everyone on the same page with current, accurate information that is accessible anywhere, anytime.

 

Yet, our previous technology set-up made it tough to achieve a high level of efficiency and business automation. Like many small to medium-sized businesses, we’ve grown organically, and had a bunch of single-purpose IT systems supporting the business.

 

For years, we were using multiple systems across the company for lead management, construction, service, and billing, which meant multiple entries and having to go to multiple locations to get information. Adding to the pain in terms of technology costs, our sales management system was an outsourced service, resulting in a fairly hefty recurring monthly payment.

 

Our Approach

In solving our problem, we made four key decisions:

 

  • Take a clean-sweep approach.  Our multiple, ad hoc IT systems isolated our data – a problem that would only continue to get worse (and more expensive) as we grew. It was now or never.

 

  • Focus on making our data available anywhere, anytime – to eliminate steps, save time, reduce data errors, improve collaboration, and boost employee productivity.

 

  • Get rid of paper (the enemy!) wherever we could.

 

  • Avoid reinventing the wheel.  Take advantage of off-the shelf software that was simple, affordable, and able to solve the bulk of our needs with some customization.

 

To optimize customer service while improving efficiency and profitability, we worked with developerPool Pro Office to help us build a custom solution to meet our exact needs. Our end-to-end business automation solution runs on Mac, Windows, and iPads using FileMaker software.

 

The Results

Our custom-built solution integrates all the company’s business processes, from design through to maintenance. It puts all customer information (pool design, invoicing, location, and maintenance) in a single location.

 

Today, the sales team uses this solution as a lead management tool for keeping records of appointments and communication throughout the entire sales process. When a job is sold, the customer information and construction plans are passed to our construction team, which uses this solution for scheduling and communication with the customer and subcontractors. When a job is complete, it’s added to our database for future service and warranty work. Our service team uses this database for all warranty and service work. Schedulers use built-in maps within the solution to plan routes efficiently, while our technicians use iPads to access their work orders in the field and update records. They can even invoice customers while on the job.

 

We support so many different types of services over a big metro area that management previously had a hard time staying in tune from time to time. Not anymore. With this solution, we can gather data in real time, remotely if need be, and analyze it using powerful reporting tools.

 

Based solely on the savings from the recurring payments that are no longer being made on our outsourced lead and service management systems – a small fraction of what I’d estimate as the full ROI – thesolution paid for itself in a few months. We’re already saving tens of thousands annually. But most important, customer satisfaction, the performance indicator we care about most, has soared.

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