Marzanno Films

So many of the films I have enjoyed in recent years have showcased the work of John Marzano of MarzanoFilms. He directs aerial filming that uses helicopters and drones. His website has a fantastic range of show reals.

John needed a system that would assemble the right equipment for a job based on the helicopter or drone to be used. He needed packing lists and shipping documentation. 

The system we created managed the rapid assembly of the picking list, taking into account that some equiment might be out of action for servicing or being out on another shoot. Then it creates the shipping documentation. 

Later we added a subsystem to ensure that the equipment, once installed on the helicopter or drone, would not throw the flight off balance.

Shipping goods to film locations requires paperwork, lists of each item being shipped, its weight, its value and its manufacturing origin. Where equipment needs to be swapped out at the last minute, updating this information had been complex and time consuming. Now it is just one button click.

G2 Digital

G2 Digital create custom made servers for high end users. 

Each unit is made to order using the exact specifications suitable for the client and the need.

To ensure that the unit is built to the highest standards a quality control system was put in place to ensure that when a unit completes one stage of production it can only move on to the next if all the Quality Control checks have been completed.

To further improve the level of control we are working on a goods-in system that manages the arrival of the components - no item will be added to stock unless it has passed these rigorous checks. This reduces lost time and potential late deliveries by picking up issues earlier. We are also adding component level tracking to keep a full history of each item.

2Teck

2Teck is a very ambitious and successful company providing four construction and maintenance building services: Electrical, Air Conditioning, Communications and Plumbing & Heating.

They have a thirst for improvement and to simplify and automate their data management to dramatically increase efficiency and better assist their clients. 

The systems that are evolving for the company manage the customer relations, quoting, job management, timesheets and a very sophisticated staff management system. Not only do the directors want to ensure their clients are happy but also that their team is well informed and well looked after.

Apart from the office based system, they are creating an iPad App that supports their engineers do their jobs but also manage their own holidays, uniforms and vehicles.

Coexistence

We started work with Coexistence in 2001. Coexistence assemble furniture packages for office contracts and for residential schemes. With orders ranging from a few thousand to several million pounds the skilled staff are able to select and propose coordinated designs for major UK corporations.

Over the years we have produced together a system that manages quotes, order confirmations, suppliers orders, shipping management, client invoicing, staff commission calculations and stock control.

A great deal of coordination of dates and data is required to ensure that the staff are able to deliver the furniture packages to the client on time. The system assists in the collection of the data, the reformatting and restructuring of it to create the multiple documents needed to purchase the items, have them delivered, installed and paid for. The system also needed to allow external access so that the storage warehouses could keep stock records up to date.

David Collins Studio

We have taken on the ongoing development of the David Collins Studio FileMaker System.

The system that exists assists in the  collection of data to help with the interior fit out of the prestigious projects that the studio is commissioned to work on.

This is a great example of where two clients, David Collins Studio and Winch Designs appear to be in the same industry with the same requirements. But each has a unique niche in the market and so whilst the systems are similar, one could not copy one system and insert it into the other office and expect it to work. The needs are different, the time scales are different and the method of working is different. Having a system that is specific to each clients' requirements helps them be as efficient as they can be without the need to ignore features that irrelevant.

L C Energy

We were very keen to work with a company that was involved in renewable energy. L C Energy are one of the largest suppliers of Bio Fuels in the UK. They supply fuel to some of the largest boiler installations in the England and also to the domestic market.

The system we produced for L C Energy manages the quoting, delivery run management, the recording of deliveries using iPads and the return of that data to the office for invoicing.

This system needed a main office element and a remote element. Data is prepared in the office and then uploaded to the truck driver's iPads where delivered quantities and client signatures are collected. The resulting data is returned to the office for invoicing. This process used to take up to a month to process and is now completed within hours, dramatically improving cash flow.

RAL

RAL required a system to record the delivery of waste material to a landfill site. The partner trucking company finds and organises the collection and delivery of the waste material and RAL provides and manages the site where the waste is being used as landfill.

The issue here was the management of the strict environmental compliance standards demanded by the Department of the Environment.

The system needs to collect four types of data coming in from four parties, all by email. The emails are sent to the system which then identifies the type of data being received and inserts it as needed. The data relates to the initial waste inspection, a number of deliveries of the waste to the site, photographs of the waste material and chemical analyses taken of the waste. Each data type arrives from different sources and needs to be checked for completeness and accuracy. The system then assists with reporting on the deliveries made each week and invoicing to the trucking company.

A second aspect was to work with the trucking company - Axtell Ltd - to link the system to their PDAs to further reduce the need for data entry.

Previous Work

We have used FileMaker database software since 1995. The first system we produced was designed to manage Architectural practices. The idea being to generate a single solution that would fit all. We soon discovered that there was far more benefit to the clients if the system was written to their specific requirements. No two companies work in the same way.

There are some great off the shelf products that work well when there are well established industry standards or compliance constraints. But where these do not exist or where they are still under development we have found that having a bespoke solution greatly benefits the client.

They are able to request system changes to meet new requirements or working methods and see these changes implemented within hours or days rather than having them languish on wish lists.

Since those early years we have produced over 28 major systems.