VanHolm UK Ltd - Bringing the Web to Business
VanHolm is a company specialising in vehicle fleet servicing - with technicians based all over the country from Sheffield to Exeter they service fleet vehicles for DHL and LeasePlan carrying out both maintenance and repair work on site in order to keep the vehicle 'down time' to an absolute minimum. Previously, the VanHolm technicians would keep a paper record of the work done, and materials used throughout the day. When they returned to base at the end of the day, they would email the details of each job to the administrator, who would raise a job card, seek approval and raise an invoice for the job. Although it was possible to search the historical records it was time consuming and difficult to collate the data. They recognised that it was time to lever the power of the internet to develop an integrated solution, improving access and creating an historic, searchable database.
Universal Access
The solution in this case was to create a suite of programs running on a web server. The web server is accessible from anywhere in the country (or anywhere in the world, for that matter) - technicians in Exeter can access the server at the same time as those in London. Each uses a laptop with a 3G modem, so that data can be input from the side of the vehicle, as the job is being done. The job card is created there and then by the technician working on the job, rather than 8 hours later, by someone else. Accuracy is improved, and the speed of compilation and invoice submission has been increased by a factor of 10. If a query is raised, the technician can view the job card online, while talking to the administrator on the phone.
Historic Data Investigation
Perhaps the most important spin off from the new system is the ability to build a searchable database of fault rectification data which allows easy analysis of the fault history or maintenance history of individual vehicles, or of a single type of fault across a fleet of vehicles. Data can be analysed using cost centres, and data can be compared year on year fior the same organisation.
Summary
This example of a web application demonstrates the power of the web to aid business - clearly, an application like this is more, much more, than just a web site.