Taryn Peck, Treloar’s Accounts Manager, describes how before implementing Cypher IQ Digital’s solutions, the business’s admin processes were very labour intensive, ‘employees would hand everything back on paper including dockets, timesheets and pre-starts’. Taryn continues, “and then we had an admin team in our office, and they would enter this data into a cloud-based program and financial system”.
The issues Treloar faced with this process was the lack of software functionality, as well as the turnaround for time-sensitive information to get in front of business decision makers. “If we had a project that wasn’t running well, or the costs were high in a certain area, by the time it got the information into our office and our Civil Engineer reviewed it, it would be the end of the month and we would have potentially been making a loss, or could’ve been doing things more efficiently,” explains Taryn, “it would take too long for us to pick up on, and by that time it would be too late to rectify the issues.”
“We recognised the potential loss in revenue due to this. We were consistently behind the game operating this way. So, we decided to make a change.”
In discussions with their accountant, Treloar investigated a range of different programs, but none could do what the business wanted, how they wanted. “To be honest, the program we looked into before Cypher IQ Digital, we thought we’re not going to get any better than this, and we nearly went for it,” says Taryn. Luckily, their accountant encouraged them to try one more option, and so they met with Cypher IQ Digital. “What stood out for us is that in the demo we just flew questions at them, and they were open to doing anything that we wanted, and happy to look into making anything work,” recalls Taryn, “it’s probably that customisable piece that Cypher IQ Digital offers that sold us.”
Cypher IQ Digital has implemented a range of digital solutions for Treloar across their payroll, accounting, data management, and admin systems. These solutions have not only created efficiencies across the business but have also helped improve cash flow. “If they handed their timesheet in with a paper docket, and they missed two or three dockets – which did happen – we were missing out on revenue,” says Taryn. The daily visibility has allowed Treloar to pinpoint where revenue is missing and correct issues before they impact the business’s bottom line.
Taryn continues, “It’s been an eye opener for us, to see potential revenue that maybe had been lost. We would review a report and think, “how would we have previously accounted for that?”. It’s improved our cash flow and revenue because we’re actually charging everything out”.
The first Cypher IQ Digital solution Treloar implemented was the electronic docket. Rolling out a digital solution across an older workforce was something that Taryn knew would be challenging, something she knew she had to get right the first time to ensure staff would support the change.
“We have a lot of long-term employees, some of them are past retirement age and they’re still working. One of the hardest things for anybody is change,” Taryn explains. “That was probably our biggest concern with implementation. Some employees have old Nokia’s, so we’ve had to navigate how we would work through that.”
To ensure a smooth uptake, Taryn and her team took a staged approach in rolling out the electronic dockets. Starting with some tech savvy senior staff members and other staff members who Taryn knew would provide valuable feedback, the group worked through the program, identifying any issues which were all fixed by Cypher IQ Digital before rolling out to all staff at a big business breakfast. The roll out was very successful with all staff taking up the new process, even those who Taryn had thought she might be entering dockets for until they retired.
Cypher IQ Digital basically builds whatever we want,” laughs Taryn, and once they have fully integrated their accounting software this month, the next thing she will be getting added to her Cypher IQ Digital suite is a pre-start communication workflow between workshop staff, office staff, and operators out in the field.
Currently at the start of the day staff complete their pre-start, a checklist to ensure their vehicle is running properly, and issues are flagged with the workshop staff. The pre-start is done through a system in each vehicle that is not integrated with any other system, so the data collected is very stagnant. Taryn’s new workflow will see the pre-start data entered directly into Cypher IQ Digital and the relevant staff notified about any subsequent actions. Taryn elaborates, “even in the office, we know the parts have been ordered, and it’s going to be booked in, in two weeks, but our employees don’t know that, and this will improve our communication with them.
“When our employees enter their pre-start data into Cypher IQ Digital, it will be reviewed each day by the workshop manager, and if parts need ordering, they’ll tick a box that says parts need ordering, and it will automatically notify the employee.”
Treloar are also working on incorporating their onboarding process into a Cypher IQ Digital system, which would then be rolled into the payroll system, and then furthermore into the accounting system. Taryn finishes, “we’re looking at Cypher IQ Digital being the place that we originally enter all the data, and then everything’s pushed out to the different areas or programs that we need from there”.
