Case Study - AD Holdings
BLUE SKIES THINKING
“Improving Office Communication”
THE SOLUTION
Working closely with John Ellison, PJ Web first gained a thorough understanding of the company - how it worked and where intranet improvements were needed to help staff and enhance the running of the business. PJ Web then devised and implemented a series of solutions to get AD Holdings' intranet up to speed…
CALL MANAGER
First, AD Holdings needed a solution to control the technical calls they were receiving. Their intranet had a rudimentary bulletin board for posting messages, but this was inadequate for dealing with customers properly.
John explains: “When a customer contacted us with a technical query, we wanted to find out statistics about them - had they called before, was it the same query, were we getting a lot of customers asking for help about the same problem? We just didn't know and we needed to have this information at our fingertips to deal with the calls efficiently.”
In response, PJ Web Solutions devised a Call Manager tool for AD Holdings' intranet. This logs all customer calls and gives each query or ‘ticket’ a number. Technical staff can then trace every customer's call record, and so detect recurring issues. And because the system records the exact time spent resolving a query, the company can use this information for efficiency monitoring and analysis, as well as more accurate billing.
DIARY SYSTEM
Knowing where your staff are and what they are doing is an important part of running an efficient company. For a number of years, AD Holdings had tried to keep track of staff using a wipe board in a main office for writing appointments and messages. But they were looking for a more advanced solution.
“It was very unsatisfactory, especially if someone walked too close to the board and wiped off the information with their sleeve! We wanted something on our intranet that was efficient, accessible and visually strong, with easy buttons to click,” recalls John.
In response, PJ Web Solutions designed a Diary System web solution. With this, staff can choose a daily, weekly or monthly view and quickly update information. Everyone in the company can use it to schedule meetings and appointments, and keep track of their colleagues. PJ Web Solutions also included a new feature that most web-based diaries don't offer. This involves adding in a meeting room that can be scheduled just like a member of staff, which everyone can view and access.
The diary system is also very flexible and user friendly. Staff can access it with laptops and from remote locations anywhere in the world using any web browser.
SOFTWARE RELEASE SYSTEM
AD Holdings also writes software for a number of different products. However, the company intranet only had static pages that were difficult to update with information on new software versions and engineers risked installing old versions in error, which would prove costly to correct. With more versions added to their software, internal engineers and salespeople needed a central point to find the latest versions.
Having worked closely with AD Holdings on other solutions, PJ Web Solutions realised they needed help in this area. Their strong personal relationship with the client meant that PJ Web Solutions could approach John with the idea of a Software Release System. His trust in PJ Web Solutions led him to agree to their designing and implementing the new solution.
John explains: “With the Software Release System, we can now look up the whole history of our software, from the oldest to the newest version, and also read comments on changes to the software. It is much quicker to publish new software releases on the intranet, and using a web browser anyone can easily upload and update software to the intranet pages. A main advantage is that we can download versions as well. The system is almost self-managing, and it's an excellent tool for our staff.”
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