A Job Management system is the key platform for your business – even more so than your accounting package. The Job Management System will run the operational side of your business with everything from enquiries through to Quotes, Jobs and Invoicing. It will be the system the whole team is jumping into throughout the day both in office and out on the road. The correct selection of a Job Management System is critical to accelerate and help you systemise and scale your business. Here are the 5 killer mistakes we see being made as part of the selection process.
Choosing a job management system that suits you now
The last thing you want to do for your business is to settle for a simpler system now and plan to upgrade in the future when needed. Firstly, this will not provide the platform your business so desperately needs – some processes will still be manual, key features may be missing meaning that you are not buying back your time. Secondly changing job management systems is not something you want to plan to do. It’s just like moving house but for your business – unless you’ve done it previously you won’t realise just how painful it can be.
Choosing a job management system with limited mobile capabilities
For most trade and service-based businesses you will have a significant number of workers out on the road. You need the mobile experience to be excellent. A big chunk of your team will be spending a lot of time in their day working from a phone or tablet from the job site. You and your team need and deserve to have a native mobile app – an app that runs directly from your phone or tablet – not a mobile-friendly website. We all know what it’s like to try and use a webpage from our mobile device – not the easiest! Mobile friendly websites are without doubt clunky, hard to use and will naturally lack many key features that a true native app can have. An excellent example of this is having an offline mode or offline capabilities. Offline capabilities allow you to continue working in areas where you have no mobile reception. It also means that you won’t be running slowly with screens taking ages to load in areas with poor mobile coverage.
Choosing a Job Management System that only works on a particular platform
Some Job Management systems may only operate only one a single mobile platform – for example iOS only or Android only. This may seem like a small thing or not impact you now but you are limiting yourself to running only on a particular platform. Will you only employee people based on the mobile platform they are running or will you be providing a work phone to all employees? Additionally, we have clients that are required to run a mix of tablets due to different operating conditions. For example, a client needed an Android-based system as it was the only mobile hardware to have an intrinsically safe case that was capable of safely operating on oil and gas processing plants. Rather than paint yourself into a corner, you’ll want to keep your options open and utilise a platform that has mobile apps listed in both the Apple and Google App Stores.
Choosing a job management system that does not have regular updates
Regular updates for apps are critical. Just like you regularly service your car, so to should you regularly update the apps you run. Regular updates are necessary to ensure the app itself is running well and keeping up to date with the platform it is running on – every year there are updates to iOS and Android that will require updates from your mobile app. Regular updates are also a great indication that the job management platform is being maintained and also actively developed. A great way to check this is a quick search under the Apple App Store, even if you’re on Android, as this will list out the version history for all apps in a quick and easy way. If you see that an app only has infrequently or 6 monthly updates or the updates are “performance enhancements and bug fixes” it’s a clear sign that the app is no longer maintained or just isn’t evolving.
Choosing a Job Management System Solely based on a recommendation
There’s nothing wrong with checking what job management system a friend, neighbour, accountant or related business is using. However, this should be only one of the factors when deciding on a system. It’s essential that you verify the prospective job management system meets the specific requirements for your business. As part of the evaluation process, we would recommend stepping through a demo of the job management system so you can also see it in action.
Choosing a Job Management System based on the cheapest price
While price can be a factor in making a decision with regards to which Job Management System to select. It should be the last factor in the process. Everything else regarding the features, workflow fit, ease of use and whether the job management system will continue to evolve to meet your needs are far more important.
Choosing a Job Management System is one of the most important decisions you will make for your business. We hope the above pointers help you avoid the core mistakes we see in the process and we’ve helped hundreds of businesses over the years. To continue the discussion and see how Ascora can work for your business reach out to the Ascora Team on 1300 810 789 today! Ascora is a complete Job Management system that covers your business from Enquiry through to Quote, Job and Invoicing and is configurable to meet your business needs.
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