“For the first time JBC has company-wide visibility, in real-time, of the service operations,”
Sonny Barnes, JBC’s General Manager
JBC Industrial Services SAP Business One Case Study
JBC Boosts Industrial Services Performance with BigChange SAP B1 Integration
JBC Industrial Services is the leading industrial boiler and burner service and maintenance provider in the UK. With an unrivalled knowledge of combustion equipment, boilers and plantroom, the Yorkshire-based business has been established since 1978.
Operating across the UK with 5 service delivery teams, JBC also offers mechanical services. Partnering with JBC to deliver high quality service and maintenance not only provides compliance and robust asset availability, but also gives guaranteed emergency call out 24/7, 365 days a year, all within a 4-hour response time.
As JBC’s business expanded so did the amount of paper and it was becoming an increasing burden on staff having to handle the paper records. With more extensive reporting needs, often relating to health and safety procedures and compliance, JBC service delivery coordinators were facing processing bottlenecks. A fundamental process involved manually entering engineer timesheet data into JBC’s ERP system, SAP B1.
JBC began looking for a solution and had heard good things about BigChange and how their system had been allowing other companies to move their field service operations to paperless working. However,
it was only when their IT supplier, APH Solutions, mentioned that BigChange was planning to integrate with SAP B1, that JBC found the solution that is fit for purpose.
“We had 4 coordinators working in the office and every week around 8 man-days were being spent dealing with engineer paperwork and the manual entering of data into SAP B1,” says Lee Smythe, JBC’s Group Finance Director. “With the BigChange integration with SAP B1, we’ve eliminated all that laborious data entry work and that has led to significant business savings. In fact, it’s fair to say that for this transformation alone, BigChange pays for itself.”
According to JBC these savings are just part of the story. Previously, engineer gas compliance paper reports were sent into the office to be entered into SAP. It often took a week or more for information for PO’s and billings to be available impacting billings and customer service.
“In accounts we now get everything we need immediately so we can raise the necessary PO’s straight away and get much quicker decisions on any remedial work,” Smythe comments.
“This means sign-off is much quicker and we can invoice up to two weeks earlier which has a big positive impact on cash-flow. In addition, with quicker and improved customer communication, together with accurate and easily-accessible job reports, there are less invoice disputes to deal with.”
BigChange was first introduced 18 months ago with tablets being issued to engineers as part of digital transformation of field services, with the SAP B1 integration completed later to provide a fully integrated solution.
“We’ve been able to grow the business by leveraging on the benefits and maximising utilisation of the platform over the last 12 months. And with BigChange and the SAP B1 integration, we’ve done this without needing additional resources and good productivity gains are already being realised,” Smythe adds.
JBC previously relied entirely on paper reporting and spreadsheets for planning jobs. With BigChange JBC now have a single system incorporating a mobile workforce app, customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, and live tracking. Our 40-plus multi-disciplined field service engineers receive jobs on their mobile devices with the BigChange app providing electronic versions of all their previous paper reports, from job reports and timesheets, to risk assessments and vehicle inspections.
“For the first time JBC has company-wide visibility, in real-time, of the service operations,” says Sonny Barnes, JBC’s General Manager.
“BigChange integrated to SAP B1 means we can be more proactive, more responsive. It puts us on the front foot and allows us to support our customers’ needs and compliance obligations more effectively.”
JBC engineers are located across the UK, with a head office at Normanton and regional sites at Hull and Deeside. The system transformation has created a platform to allow centralised visibility and operations, allowing the creation of a centralised Service Delivery Team. This has catapulted JBC’s service offerings and enabled even greater customer engagement and support.
“With BigChange combined with SAP B1 we’ve really got something that is transformational for the business. The field service operation is now seamlessly integrated into the business, in real-time. It makes us more dynamic, more efficient and clearly differentiates us from our competitors. And for our customers and ourselves, compliance is paramount, the systems created rigid methodology to allow even greater control and visibility,” Barnes explains.
“Through strong relationships, communication and a clear project plan, we were able to work collaboratively with both APH and BigChange to drive and deliver, the single most important IT transformation to hit JBC since establishment over 45 years ago!,” Smythe adds.
These strong relationships allowed the business to deliver the project on time, and importantly, to budget. Cross over on go live day was supported incredibly well and both APH and BigChange mitigated our risk by having dedicated resources and site presence. After care service and support also remains strong and both are credited with ensuing a seamless transition.”
