Deichmann Planter
Founded in 1927 and located in Hørsholm north of Copenhagen, Denmark, Deichmann Plants is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious office plant service companies. The company’s 25 gardeners service more than 700 customers nationwide.
With a large number of long-term customers, Deichmann Planter wanted to optimize and structure time and material entry, thereby cutting administration. This along with a number of other benefits was achieved because of implementing ExpandIT Mobile Service.
The previous data collection work process was slow and inefficient. Janne Johansen, owner of Deichmann Planter says:.
“We wanted to get away from the manual data entry of time and material consumed by the gardeners. We entered time and materials on a form, which was then sent or handed over to administration, where everything was then re-entered into our IT system. With 600 - 700 customers, that’s a big job every week, especially if you’d rather be tending plants.”Quotation: Deichmann Plants- Janne Johansen:
The solution was to equip every gardener with a handheld computer for time and material entry and link that to Deichmann’s Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP solution.
A central IT system – with many tangible benefits.
The collaboration between Deichmann Planter, Henrik Borstrøm from Borstroem IT, and ExpandIT has developed over the years so that the system is used for more than was originally anticipated:
- Jobs are planned centrally and sent to the appropriate gardener.
- The exact time spent at a customer site is registered automatically.
- Jobs are planned to minimize the carbon footprint.
- Weekly timesheets are completed on a handheld computer.
Deichmann Planter has noted a number of tangible benefits using ExpandIT Service Management:
- Saving half of an administrative position, equal to approximately 150,000 Danish Kroner per year.
- Eliminating concern over misplacing worksheets en route to the office.
- Significantly quicker and more precise time and material entry at the customer site.
- Better inventory control and purchase order proposals.
- Increased employee satisfaction.
Dialog and continued development
Beyond the original scope, we have been able to make the weekly time sheets run super smoothly. Our team feels happy and safe because they can manage their own time. Also, we have become more competitive because we have much better time entry data when we negotiate extension of existing customer agreements.”
At Deichmann Planter there is only positive feedback working with Borstroem IT and ExpandIT, says Janne Johansen.
“Over time, the competitive environment, the team, and outside factors change, so old requirements disappear and new ones appear. Borstroem IT and ExpandIT have been really good partners, creating tools to support new ways of conducting our existing business.
It has been a pleasure working with them, and the jobs have been done in a positive spirit. This successful partnership means that there are now plans to extend the functionality so that our gardeners can bring pictures of plants and blueprints to our customers. “