What do most businesses want from their IT systems? Well, mostly they want them to work hard unnoticed in the background to make day-to-day work easier.
Many software packages promise such things, but at a huge cost, and also come with a lot of features, which can take time to understand; and money and time are two precious commodities in a business of any size.
This was the problem Jayne Doutch was facing several years ago. Her fledgling remote PA business, GoodCall, needed a system which tracked all the calls coming into her team for every client, how long they took and whether they were transferred.
All this information is needed at the end of the month when each client is billed and, without an automated system in place, this was a fiddly and time-consuming process.
“The end of the month was so stressful for me,” Jayne recalls. “It took such a long time to gather all the information, and I didn’t have time to spare.
“I looked at a lot of pricey off-the-peg software packages, but they offered way more than I needed and it would have taken me weeks to get my head around how they work.”
Springboard IT’s approach is different. They look to evolve existing processes so that they work more efficiently. This means that there is no significant learning curve and less fear of change for the users.
GoodCall also offers a service where the client can receive a summary of their messages and calls at the end of each day, which again was being done manually, by cutting and pasting the day’s individual messages onto an email, using up precious hours.
What’s more, with over 100 clients, each with 2 or 3 dedicated PAs from Jayne’s team, Jayne was looking to ensure that when the PA picked up a call, they knew instantly which company the caller was ringing for, so they could answer the phone with the client’s name.
Jayne approached Steve at Springboard IT to see if he could come up with a solution.
Springboard created a system which, when the PA sees which client the incoming call is for (a feature of their telephony solution), with one click, they can also call up key information on their client on their computer. This helps to give the impression that the PA is situated within the firm, creating a more professional feel.
Springboard also set up a system where the costs of all transferred calls and messages sent to each client are automatically collated and sent to the client as an invoice at the end of each month. The invoice is automatically recorded in their accounting system.
She also has an ‘end of day’ button which now creates the daily email summary for each client automatically, detailing the day’s messages and calls. This can be personalised if need be.
“I call it my ‘going to the gym button’,” says Jayne. “It, and Springboard’s other solutions have revolutionised my business. They have joined up all the dots and things run so much more smoothly now. I don’t know where I would have been without their help.
“When I have a problem, I want it fixed quickly and with common sense. I don’t need to know how the system works; I just want it to work. Plus, I don’t want to deal with a large, corporate IT firm, who I don’t know and who doesn’t know me, and who will over-complicate what I need.
“Springboard more than meets all these requirements. I can ring Steve up and ask for a button to simplify my work and he goes off and does exactly what I need first time. I can’t ask for more than that!”