Creating a Leaner Landscaping Business

Owning a landscaping business can be rewarding – working outside, breathing fresh air, staying in shape, and enjoying your surroundings.  However, when you consider equipment costs, supplies, employee schedules, not to mention your competitors vying for the same jobs as you, you have to wonder—how can I cut costs, provide the same quality services, and continue to grow?  By using landscaping business technology to your advantage, you can ensure your wallet stays as green as a fresh cut lawn.

With landscaping software, you can track work completion, work quality, and worker performance so that your clients have an understanding of the value you deliver.  You can schedule periodic tasks easily and even schedule maintenance on your equipment to ensure it keeps working efficiently.  You can track supplies and inventory, so that monthly budgeting is made easier and more accurate.  And you can stay connected to your team, no matter where they are or what projects they’re working on.

Today’s landscaping software is accessed through the Internet—anywhere you have an Internet connection, you have access to your system.  There’s no need to purchase or learn complicated equipment, as any standard device connected to the Internet can be used, like a standard laptop, tablet or even a smart phone.  You can update work schedules, change maintenance procedures, even send photos to the client, all in real-time, so that the latest information is available to all of your team.  And as each job is completed, your employees can upload details of their work assignment, providing you important feed back to evaluate present practices and make any changes needed.

And speaking of your employees; you’ll know where each employee is, what assignment they’re working on, and how the job is progressing.  You can use the software to evaluate performance, so you can make better decisions regarding assignments.  And you’ll have complete employee information instantly, so you’ll know who’s out sick, who’s on vacation, and who’s ready to work.

If you’ve been in the business any amount of time, you know just how important it is to have dependable, efficient equipment.  Let’s face it—one day with one of your mowers in the shop can really affect your bottom line.  But with landscaping software, the important maintenance tasks that keep your equipment running reliably is scheduled, and the system will alert you to upcoming maintenance procedures.  You’ll even be able to accurately estimate the life of each piece of equipment, so when the equipment eventually fails, you’ll be ready with the ideal replacement.

Today’s landscaping business owners know that success means more than cutting lawns—it means cutting costs and running your business at its optimal level of efficiency.  With landscaping software, your business is running leaner and greener, bringing you more customers and a better bottom line.

Turn Your Janitorial Service Goals Into Reality

Janitorial Service Companies face strong competition, but they have the advantage of market growth. Simply put – most businesses no longer want to have an in-house janitorial team. It just makes more sense to hire an outside contractor.

Consequently, Janitorial Service Companies are projected to flourish, regardless of economic volatility in the business world. And many franchises are available in the cleaning services industry, meaning that the new service companies don’t have to try to succeed on their own—they have a team which supports them and provides them with the latest information for success.

However, janitorial services are no without their share of problems. Employee turnover is amongst the highest of any given business. Along with recent health scares and panics, coupled with concerns over the safety of cleaning supplies and methods, have janitorial business owners on guard. For this reason, Janitorial Software has been popular with cleaning businesses, and their use has produced great results. If you’re starting out in the cleaning industry, or want to learn more about growing your company, here are some of the goals of your peers—and how those goals are met with Janitorial Software:

 

  1. Lower Costs: Even the newest business owner knows that success comes from the ability to cut costs, and Janitorial Software can help you in this mission. Preventive maintenance features ensure that your equipment is running dependably, and decreases the amount of unexpected breakdowns. The use of mobile technologies integrate your system with standard Internet devices, like smart phones, laptops and tablets, so your staff have all the information that they need to complete their jobs accurately and quickly. And supply consumption tracking tools help you manage these costs, and make monthly budgeting easier and more exact.
  2. Improved Employee Management: You can’t follow your employees around from assignment to assignment—but wouldn’t it be great if you could? After all, your success is dependent upon each employee completing each task beyond customer satisfaction. But by using standard mobile devices, your employees can check in at each job site, access the necessary details to complete the task, and give direct feedback regarding each job. You’ll know where each employee is at any given time, and see exactly how long each assignment took to complete. And should a job require special training or certifications, you’ll quickly know which of these employees are available, so that less time is wasted assigning the wrong worker to the job.
  3. Improved Customer Satisfaction: Situations demanding attention happen very day, and they can’t always wait until your team gets around to it. Clients usually want it taken care of immediately, if not sooner. The Service Request and Quality Inspection tools built into your Janitorial Software can automatically generate work orders and dispatch workers, so that jobs are tackled sooner, leading to increased customer satisfaction. And because many new janitorial service clients are obtained through word of mouth, the great reputation you’ve created means more work—and a better bottom line.

If you want your company to stay ahead in the increasingly competitive janitorial services industry, or if you’re just getting started, an investment in Janitorial Software may be just what you need. No other product can better meet the goals specific to the cleaning supply providers.

Controlling Costs with CMMS Mobile Technology

Controlling costs isn’t just the financial department’s job in these tough times—everyone is joining in to figure out new ways to use the available assets, staff and equipment more efficiently.  And the use of a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is a great place to start.

CMMS provides organizations with features that document work to improve visibility, track performance to save labor, and organize work to improve customer relations.  But not surprisingly, one of the biggest reasons for investing in a quality system is the proven ways CMMS can control costs.  And with the use of today’s mobile technology, an organization can quickly see a better bottom line, using some of these features:

  1. Improved Scheduled Maintenance:    Good preventive maintenance goes a long way in controlling costs; by extending the life of equipment and machinery, repair and replacement costs go down, along with the costs due to breakdown and downtime.  With mobile technology, you can make good maintenance better.  When your field technicians have access to all necessary information, maintenance is done quicker and with fewer mistakes.  And they can automatically generate work orders if necessary, ensuring that repairs are done in a timely manner.
  2. Improved Quality Inspections:  What would it mean to you—and your efforts to control costs—if you could cut your inspection times by half?  Through the use of mobile technologies, that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do.  And don’t discount the amount saved in paper by using your system to optimize your inspections.
  3. Improved Employee Management:  How much did you pay in overtime last year?  If your company is like most companies, this is one area that needs some help.  Through the use of mobile technologies, you’ll know who’s doing what, and how effectively the job is being performed.  When your employees have access to all the information they need while onsite, less time is spent on the road or searching for parts.  And with fingerprint time keeping, your employees spend less time at the office and more time on the job.
  4. Improved Inventory Control:  How many times have you ordered parts that, as it turned out, you already had?  Or needed a part, but couldn’t figure out where it was?  Using your CMMS with available mobile technology, you’ll be able to track equipment condition, supply consumption and even evaluate vendors.  And with an additional barcode system, you can give your staff all the information they need regarding the status and history of any given tool or part, so they quickly have the information they need to perform their jobs more efficiently.

“But we’ve just invested in a good CMMS; we really can’t afford to invest in a lot of additional mobile equipment!”

Luckily, most of the better systems work with the mobile technology you probably already use every day; handheld devices such as SmartPhones and Tablets can be used to access any information needed from the system, without the need of special software or upgrades.  So contact your vendor today, and see how mobile technology can cut and control your company’s costs.

Using CMMS to Create a Paperless Office

As technological advances increase in the business world, one obvious change is the amount of paper used in any office.  This is great news for the environment, as less paper means more trees, better air quality, and less waste.  But the financial savings to an office by going paperless can be just as convincing:

  1. Savings in paper costs:  Just how much does your company spend on paper products in any given quarter?  Most companies don’t consider their paper use much, as they have bigger items on their lists of major expenditures.  But paper products do add up.  In this economy, where every bit of fat is being trimmed, many companies are taking a hard look at paper use.
  2. Savings in storage:  How much space is wasted in your facility with files and reports—sometimes boxes or even pallets of these items?  What would it be worth to you and your company to reclaim that space?
  3. Savings in labor:  Did you ever think about the time an employee can spend entering data by hand, versus entering it electronically?  It couldn’t be that much, could it?  But you’d be surprised at the amount of labor lost through antiquated entry techniques.

Considering the potential for savings, going paperless is a great idea.  But how do you get started?  One great way to cut your total paper costs—while improving your workflow, strengthening your workforce and getting a great return on investment is through your Computerized Maintenance Management System, or CMMS.  Through the use of this type of software, you’ll quickly see the use of your paper products diminish, as well as the added costs of paper.  And if you go with a web-based system, you’ll see even more savings.

Through the use of preventive maintenance software, your technicians will have all pertinent information on their SmartPhone or Tablet, and can enter all data needed to complete the job electronically.  Quality inspections can be done in up to half the time, and without the need and waste of entering findings on a hard copy.  And with the use of available barcode technology, you can get even faster results, not only cutting your paper use, but cutting overtime costs and improving customer satisfaction.

Knowing the necessary information regarding your workforce should be fast and easy, and employee management features with today’s better CMMS lets you do just that.  You can quickly ascertain where your employee is, what job they’re performing, and what training they still need.  And by using your CMMS, you’ve eliminated the need for log books, employee files and time sheets.

And with electronic data, you no longer have to deal with illegible sign out cards for equipment.  In fact, you don’t have to deal with sign out cards at all.  With barcode technology and additional barcode scanners, your inventory will be accounted for and your shelves will contain the parts and tools you need—not boxes of papered records and files.

Going paperless; it’s not only good for the environment, it’s great for your company’s bottom line, as well.  And nothing makes it easier than your CMMS.

Using Janitorial Software to Address Safety

There are some experts who claim that, when running a business, safety is the issue that should override all others.  No matter how efficient your company is at handling their responsibilities, it means little if it’s handled in an unsafe way or an unsafe environment.  Losing employees to injury costs thousands each year, and a facility that’s a hazard is not going to help build your relationship with your customer.

By using the features available with some Janitorial Software, you’ll be able to quickly identify any potential problems, and resolve the issue before the inevitable occurs.

Some features that will aid you are:

  1. Employee Management:  Is your company too small to have its own human resources department?  Software developed with janitorial management in mind includes a Human Resources Suite.  Using this feature, you can track safety issues such as lost-time accidents and sicknesses, giving you the heads up on certain prevalent types of accidents.  Then you can quickly resolve the issue before it gets out of hand.  And your system can track the employees who have completed various safety certifications and procedures, so you can send out the right person for any situation.
  2. Standard Operating Procedures:  If you have web-based Janitorial Software, your employees will have access to all information pertaining to their job, including standard operating procedures.  With this information, they’ll not only be doing their job effectively and quickly—they’ll be doing it safely, saving you and your organization lost time and liability issues.
  3. Safety Inspections:  When there is a safety issue regarding a certain piece of equipment, chemical, or cleaning procedure, it can be flagged within the system.  You can inspect safety concerns in work areas, storage areas, and even individual work processes.  Pictures can be taken of any issues found to properly document what is happening so lasting corrective and preventive action can be taken.
  4. Automated Corrective Action:  If a safety issue is discovered during inspection, you need to act on it quickly.  Not only could it be an issue leading to an injury — which can cost companies thousands of dollars — but the potential safety issue could result in fines or even a lost contract.  Your Janitorial Software should automatically generate a corrective action work request, ensuring that the problem is fixed, before a staff member or client runs the risk of injury.

No matter how well developed the system is, it can’t work with any information that isn’t inputted by you or your staff.  With your prudent actions regarding entry of data, your Janitorial Software will be able to stay ahead of potential accidents and injuries, leaving you and your staff free to do a great job.