The Okappy Revolution: A New Era for Earth Mover Tyres
Earth Mover Tyre Solutions, as its name suggests, is a company providing specialist tyre solutions for large earth mover and plant vehicles throughout the U.K. Whether it is the sale of new or used tyres and wheels, undertaking repairs or re-treading, or providing onsite fitting, ETS carry out the full range of tyre services needed to keep large earth mover vehicles operational. In addition, they also provide haulage solutions and excitingly, they’re setting up their own in-house tyre recycling plant to make them and so have become a “zero waste to landfill” company.
With dozens of engineers and fitters operating throughout the country, they needed a digital solution to help manage their operations more effectively.
We caught up with Frankie from ETS to ask how they manage all their accounts and admin for the business using Okappy, particularly for the tyre-fitting side of their business.
How did you hear about Okappy?
“Our team was researching online about how to create improved job-sheets online. We were aiming for a paperless system to support the tyre recycling side of ETS.”
What challenges were you facing prior to using Okappy?
“When the technicians are onsite they have a lot to think about. It is amazing everything they have to remember. When we were using paper, it was hard for them to remember to fill in everything, such as serial numbers or plant numbers. So what we’ve done with Okappy is that it is easier to make the boxes mandatory, so they physically can’t go past it”.
“The Okappy platform also allows you to take and store photos relating to particular jobs“.
“It is also good for when we’re delivering tyres or completing a survey it allows us to have visible proof by having the photos” said Frankie.
What solution did Okappy propose?
Frankie described how they appreciated the amount of support and resources available to answer all their questions:
“We had a lot of questions about how it would help to convert from paper and if it would be a big step. [Okappy] walked us through the whole system and how it would help so that we could take it to our boss“.
How has your work benefitted from Okappy?
“It was good to see how and when fitters arrived on site. It helps us to start preparing more accurate ETAs to customers. We can provide a lot more information based on their locations, and it enables us to fit more jobs into one day in that same area“.
Describing how being more particular about the fitters’ ETAs with customers, Frankie said:
“We aim for more personal approach with customers, that’s what makes the company, good relationships. Okappy is a platform that enables us to do that“.
“Along with other changes, it has also helped to reduce the carbon footprint of the company by becoming paperless“.
Do you integrate any other platforms with Okappy?
“At first we just wanted to provide the fitters with online job sheets, and just see how it went. So at first we didn’t integrate with other platforms. However, currently we’re starting to integrate it into our accounting software Xero, so it will help to speed up the invoicing process. So now we can copy invoices from Okappy straight into Xero, and it all just runs a bit smoother“.
What is your favourite feature about Okappy?
When talking about her favourite features Frankie said that “we have two“.
She then went on to describe the tailored interface for fitters to enter information into the system:
“One of our favourite features is having the freedom to edit and move boxes around freely, there is no extra charge, and we can do it exactly how we want it“.
“The second one is that no other software that we looked at could work for both Android and Apple devices, but Okappy does which is amazing!”
What impact has Okappy had on time management?
“Well at first it seemed slower moving, but it is because most of our technicians have never worked with software like it. However, when it was all up and running and the fitters started to understand it, we realised what features would make it easier for them – like the drop-down feature on the fields. We had all the options there so they could just click on what they needed to. It was quicker and easier for them so they could get back on the road to their next job more quickly. It definitely sped everything up from that respect“.
Another benefit she described of moving from a paper-based system to a digital one was:
“When the fitters were in the bottom of a quarry it was inevitable that something was going to happen to the paperwork. If it was windy sometimes the paper documents blew out of the cab into the mud, or if the fitters were busy trying to get back on the road they’d scribble information down. So sometimes it was hard to decipher their handwriting and it took us longer in the office to process the paperwork“.
What impact has Okappy had on time management?
“I would definitely say do it. At first the only thing that was putting us off is that it is such big software, we were a bit worried about if we were jumping in a bit too deep. However, the Okappy team were brilliant. If we were stuck with anything you could email them, or call them, they were always polite“.
“Speaking of saving money, another thing that was really good is that everything comes under the one fee. You don’t get into the middle and have to pay any additional add-ons“.