The Solution
Eminent Home Inspections started using eTech’s SMART EPC, SMART Floor Plans and
SMART Work Manager which is a combined software and hardware solution, enabling
their Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) to generate EPCs with supporting site notes
from data captured on handheld PDAs on site. This helps them to save time and
automates the whole process, while producing comprehensive and consistent electronic
records of inspection.
Eminent used to be able to carry out three EPCs a day manually but their Domestic
Energy Assessors (DEAs) would have to do two hours work at the end of the day to
produce the reports, whereas now they’re able to produce at least one extra EPC
per day but with barely any admin required back at the office. Currently using
four PDAs, this means that Eminent Home Inspections is able to produce an average
of an extra twenty EPCs a week, and if their DEAs are producing reports on blocks
of near-identical flats this figure can be much higher. Daryl Townsend, Operations
Director at Eminent Home Inspections particularly likes the ‘traffic light’ system
within the software, which makes DEAs aware of how far they’ve got with their survey.
He says, “you can’t complete the EPC if the traffic lights are not all green. You can
see if there’s anything you’ve missed so you don’t have to double-check your own work.”
Producing floor plans was also a time-consuming process, particularly if the property
was an irregular shape or had awkward features, such as extensions, conservatories or
inglenook fireplaces, but SMART Floor Plans has made this easy and straightforward,
and eliminated the extra work which would need to be done after the DEA had finished
on site. Daryl says, “previously we were only ever doing the minimum requirement for
floor plans – we used to have to draw them by hand and re-draw them on the computer
back at the office, but now we draw them directly on the PDA. I reckon it’s reduced
our workload by 80% and it’s an extra service we can offer to estate agents.”
In conjunction with SMART EPC and SMART Floor Plans, Eminent Home Inspections
are using SMART Work Manager, a fully customisable web-based instruction and work
management system, which links live with the PDA in the field. Having used a system
from a different supplier previously, Eminent Home Inspections very much appreciate
the flexibility and usability of SMART Work Manager. According to Daryl, “one thing
we really like is the ability to start a job directly from the handheld, as opposed to
waiting for authorisation from the central office. For example, if we’re at a property
which requires a second EPC if there is a separate dwelling, such as an annex, but we
don’t realise that until actually at the address. It saves us a lot of time whereas
previously the instruction had to be input centrally.”
Benefits
Eminent Home Inspections finds the biggest benefits of using the SMART systems
are its flexibility and ease of communication between the different packages.
It automates the whole process of producing EPCs, floor plans and home reports,
and SMART Work Manager makes it easy to manage and optimise their DEAs workload
while reducing administration. According to Daryl, “I estimate that it’s reduced
our workload between 30-50%. The improvement on efficiency and fluidity of the
management system makes everything flow so easily.”