DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Flexibility and customisation - clients tell us it's what sets Simpel apart
Digital transformation demands more flexibility than editable PDFs and it begins with greater flexibility to customise your forms and processes, all without the need to lodge a support ticket!
Katie O'Mara | Updated on 11 November 2022
If your current software provider doesn’t let you customise your own forms and workflows, or offer additional functionality to help you streamline existing processes, it diminishes much of the value you gain from taking your whole business digital in the first place. Digital transformation demands more flexibility than editable PDFs and it begins with customisation at your fingertips.
I talk with guest contributors, Lachlan and Dinah, our Customer Success Team Leaders in NSW and ACT
I have invited Lachlan and Dinah to talk about their experiences of guiding new clients through Simpel’s setup and onboarding process. In particular, I’m interested in software customisation as I’ve read some less than glowing reviews of some competitor’s software and it seems like a lack of flexibility in construction software is a recurring problem for decision makers and front line users in the industry.
As the first people to speak with new clients about their day-to-day requirements and document specifications, Lachy and Dinah are privy to refreshingly frank discussions on topics such as safety, frustrations and gripes about competitor software, stories about the mountain of hours required to get ISO accredited, and fears about adopting a new system, particularly when transitioning from a workplace that has relied heavily on paper forms.
Fortunately, for Lachy and Dinah, they have the job of helping implement Simpel’s software which solves many of these frustrations. However, as we all appreciate, the proof in the pudding is in the eating. Actually seeing the customisation and flexibility that is possible with Simpel is only fully comprehended when our client’s receive their training, use the software and experiment with it for the first time.
Over to Lachy and Dinah who are guiding our new clients during these early experiences of using Simpel...
Lachy, when you think about early discussions and the set up process that you go through with new users, are there any themes that are repeated across clients?
"What I’ve come to appreciate is that we are working with very experienced people who have put a lot of thought, time and effort into how their business or their division operates, and they’ve developed a mountain of documentation that underpins and supports that. I know initially, there is some concern that a young, preppy tech guy like me is going to dissect all their work and tell them how to do their job.
They’ve spent months with their team creating forms and documentation, and they’ve established detailed workflows which have been approved and achieved ISO accreditation. The last thing they want is to have someone say, “Send us all your forms'', and then to be told they can only have two boxes when their permit form needs four, or maybe they have two signatures on their ITPs and they can only have one because the system may not allow that.
I know of a competitor that only allows you to have one signature on ITPs, which seems insignificant but is actually frustrating for clients who require more than one - so what do they do? It’s these types of changes to their processes that concern them and could jeopardise their company’s accreditation - I know that and they know that, and that’s why some managers have quite legitimate fears about adopting new software.
Simpel doesn’t operate like that, it’s not our philosophy. If you speak to anyone in our team they will tell you, “You can run safety and quality the way you want to run it, not the way Simpel wants you to run it”.
Dinah, you spend a lot of time setting up new clients with Simpel. What’s your experience?
“I love it when new clients realise how much power they have to make changes in the software. They are surprised that the forms and documents that the customer success team sets up for them in the beginning, are completely accessible to them afterwards, and that they can edit them at any time.
When I do Simpel Essentials training, they’ll ask me if they can do something like, update a document category, and I tell them they have access to the admin area and they can update their forms and add as many categories as they like, and they say, “Oh, I don’t have to contact you for that?” No! I can help in the beginning but I can also show people how to do it themselves.
It seems like some competitor’s software has completely stripped people of the power to make fast and critical changes when they need to, instead people have been forced to become dependent on a help desk where they need to put in a ticket request to receive assistance for even the most basic of changes.
Make changes to your eForms any time
As Lachy said, Simpel sets up a client’s eForms initially so that they can get up and running quickly and can be confident that everything will run smoothly when they transition. Our team takes less than 1 week to set these up, as one team creates the new forms, and then another quality assurance team checks them to make sure they are correct. We stay in contact with our clients the whole time and make sure they are across everything we do.
After this, we can provide training to the primary users of Simpel’s software, and once they are comfortable with the system, they can begin to make changes as they need. We have clients who are so familiar with the system they even create their own forms from scratch so they don’t need to rely on anyone in our team to help them. There is actually no real expertise or coding required, a lot of it is just ‘drag and drop’. You just need to learn the process like any new software.
3 days to create a new project?? That’s crazy!
Lots of client’s have told me about how long it takes to create a new project with a particular competitor’s software - they call the support team and they have to wait three business days for a new project to be created. It’s crazy! They are so surprised when they learn that they can do it themselves with Simpel, and they just go into the system, click ‘Add Project’ and they are ready to start working on it within 30 seconds! All the forms, workflow processes and naming conventions are standardised and carried over from the first project allowing our clients to do this.
Add a video to an induction form? Simpel lets you do it!
Simpel’s customisation is really powerful - you can include videos, external links or additional attachments - even in our forms. I know another competitor uses editable PDFs which are just so rigid…and it means you can’t set up an induction that includes a video which needs to be watched before the form can be signed off - with Simpel you can do this, and you can see what percentage of the video was watched!
I get the feeling that it’s really hard to use the software of some competitors and I agree that Simpel has a really different philosophy. We are empowering our clients to manage their own projects and systems, and are providing useful functionality to enhance the experience. We don’t want our clients to be dependent on our customer support team for the day to day running of their business, that’s not what Simpel is about".
Simpel's software is designed to help you achieve two objectives
Day-to-Day Operations
Seamless digital transformation of your existing business processes, forms, workflows and documentation, made possible by our customisable software, and with guidance and onboarding assistance from our Customer success Team. We’ll set you up, but your processes and forms are designed by your team.A springboard for future growth
Free up your time and resources to focus on driving productivity, improving margins and extracting data insights across all your projects.
Simpel’s software doesn’t take you back to square one, it’s the springboard that allows you to reallocate time and resources towards strategic business initiatives; solving problems, implementing new or improved workflows or quality improvement projects, whatever may be on your wishlist. Because you’ve automated more of the day to day processes, you’ll have more time to dedicate towards achieving those goals.
If you're going digital, you should get some extra bells and whistles
Our competitors are dictating how the construction industry runs their business which forces businesses to take two steps backwards and ultimately costs them more due to wasted admin time and reduced productivity. It should be the other way around.
Using Simpel is not only better because you can set up processes that are automated, fast and trackable, you also gain additional functionality that would otherwise be impossible if you were using an editable PDF, spreadsheet or a word document to do the same job. Simpel’s software is designed to be flexible so you can bring your own creative solutions to solve unique operational challenges and drive quality standards within your construction business.
Learn more about customising your projects in Simpel
Transitioning to digital processes is easier with Simpel. Contact us to find our how.
