the client

Postawest a bill-posting company, based in the South West that has been servicing billboards since 1983.

the problem

The last great technological revolution in the billposting industry was the aluminium ladder. Data management was very much a secondary thought next to getting the job done. There was a general jumble of spreadsheets being manipulated beyond recognition to feed four busy branches around the South West.

Billposters were being given printouts of spreadsheets to do their work from and it was a big job to collate all of those sheets and report back to the client on orders completed.

They also faced a logistical challenge, TIMINGS! It is crucial that posters go up on specific days, the customer paying for the campaign expects to see their posters from day 1 until the end of the campaign. Managing these logistics was becoming a huge administrative burden.

In an average month, Postawest were servicing up to 3500 orders.

They needed a better data management solution.

the solution

Desktop Enterprises created a custom operational database from the ground up, based entirely on the needs and requirements of Postawest. An interface was created to manage orders.
Orders were given a colour code to easily see orders that were becoming due. This allowed admin staff more chance of creating priority lists and getting orders completed on time.

Physical stock of posters was managed and a poster was assigned to a job as they came into the building.

Different people were able to work on the system at the same time and all the information was stored for all to see.

Jobsheets were created for billposters using a layout that was easy to read and contained all the information needed to get the job done.

The system allowed for daily reports to be automatically sent to customers, detailing the achievements of the day.

The system automatically created invoices based on the work done.

benefits