Lauren Sherwin
Managing Director / Owner
Pro-Tect
PRO-TECT is a busy Traffic management business established by its owner Lauren Sherwin in 2003. 15 years later Lauren has grown her business from 2 trucks and a ute to 2 attenuators and 14 specialist traffic vehicles supported by 33 staff. Delivering a high level of service on busy roads while meeting strick Health and Safety and managing a highly mobile workforce was becoming a management nightmare for Lauren and her management team.
When you run a business that works on roads and construction sites you need systems that work in the field, we were going really well and growing at a ridiculous rate but none of our systems integrated we were planning on a whiteboard, quoting on an excel spreadsheet printing all of our job scheduling plans and giving paper copies to all of our staff. Jobs were changing all of the time and vehicles were even going to cancelled and rescheduled jobs and staff had not been informed. What's more all of our staff time sheets were being handed in once a week and we were constantly waiting for paperwork from our staff that we needed to get our invoices paid.
Well, I'm no computer or IT expert and neither are my staff. I need something that was simple and easy to use. We researched the market looking at a lot of programmes most of which were made just for trade businesses. We chose Magnetize, the system is simple covers all of our requirements and importantly manages Job scheduling, People and all of our Equipment including trucks and signs. The mobile apps are also brilliant for working onsite.
Lauren says everything is now in Magnetize. The set up was easy we imported our client and supplier information from XERO when we got stuck the Magnetize team were accessible 24/7 and even came over whenever required. Everything to do with a job is attached to the job file we have no paperwork all of our forms are now digital and timesheets are done daily with staff entering them on their phones each day or each job. I love the fact that I can colour code our jobs from booking to invoice so I can look at a months work and know where every job sits at a glance.
Lauren says everything is now in Magnetize. The set up was easy we imported our client and supplier information from XERO when we got stuck the Magnetize team were accessible and even came over whenever required. Everything to do with a job is attached to the job file we have no paperwork all of our forms are now digital and timesheets are done daily with staff entering them on their phones each day or each job. I love the fact that I can colour code our jobs from booking to invoice so I can look at a months work and know where every job sits at a glance.
Another major feature is that Magnetize fully integrates with our accounting software XERO so when jobs are complete we review and send the job sheets, photos and information straight from Magnetize to XERO so invoicing has become paperless and pretty much instant. My management team and staff love Magnetize it has transformed the business and their lives. No more trips to the yard to drop in paperwork and the communication throughout the business has been transformed as everyone involved with a job has everything including a google maps locator for each job.
For the first time in fifteen years I feel like I am working on my business not in it. If anyone would like to talk about Magnetize and how it has transformed my business feel free to give me a call on 0800 ROAD PRO.