Growing customer base for CMMS served by new web site

SoftSols Group is celebrating its growing business with a brand new website. The new site highlights the range of sectors in which the company’s Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS), Agility is continuing to build its reputation as affordable and easy to use maintenance software.

The world’s largest distributor of electronic and maintenance products and one of Britain’s most famous high street chains are among the latest companies to sign up for the Agility Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).

Agility is widely recognised as a leading system for efficient and cost effective maintenance management. The CMMS enables users to easily prioritise and schedule work for their maintenance teams. It offers a clear overview of the work that needs to be done, so resourcing levels can be confirmed, response times monitored, and all tasks can be managed and assessed. Agility will automatically generate planned preventative maintenance (PPM) work orders and can be flexibly configured to work well for a variety of sectors and different companies’ specific needs. Each company decides what it wants to measure, adding the data fields that it needs and customising key performance indicators.

International garden products manufacturer Scotts Miracle-Gro recently selected Agility for its largest British manufacturing site in Yorkshire, while RS Components, the world’s largest distributor of electronic and maintenance products, also chose Agility to improve the performance of their maintenance operation at their Nuneaton distribution centre (GB). Argos – Home Delivery has also chosen Agility for maintenance management at its Darlington, Castleford, Stafford and Bedford (all in England) distribution sites and Mars Group’s pet division, Royal Canin, continues its roll-out of Agility from its British factory to a new site in Canada.

Agility’s reports and Key Performance Indicators help businesses to easily understand the true picture of all of their maintenance activities, to make better informed decisions, and improve their output and profit margins.

Agility CMMS provides an intuitive and powerful method to efficiently manage maintenance activities.

Maintenance and facilities management software

SoftSols Group has launched a new version of its Agility Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS), which has a range of new features and alerts to help users improve the management of their facilities and maintenance.

Agility 3.4 provides a new dashboard layout and new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to enable users to focus on the factors which are most critical to their own business. It also provides new features that allow end users to configure their own view of the data, all within the same easy-to-use browser based interface as previous versions of Agility.

Other new features include:

·       Visual KPI Charts - which track labour utilisation, stock levels, planned and reactive maintenance;

·       New Service Level monitoring tools - which track response times using real-time logging on PCs or PDA devices;

·       New conditional formatting - which can be used to highlight data in various colours and give visual prompts, for example highlighting urgent overdue activities or low inventory alerts Conditional email alerts: allowing any change of data to prompt an e-mail alert;

·       Improved automatic purchasing - with a one-step stock level review and automated purchase order generation process to email directly to the preferred supplier;

·       New system health check - a new component on the homepage gives a quick overview of key system parameters, reminding you to back up and confirming that the automatic generation of PPM work orders has been activated.

Agility makes it straightforward for users to manage breakdown and preventive maintenance work orders and the associated spare parts and resources by providing up to-the-minute information about all assets, work orders and planned schedules. It is used by organisations of all sizes, from small maintenance departments to multi-site corporate businesses. SoftSols has a 30-year track record of success in the market and is committed to delivering simple, affordable software solutions which provide an outstanding return on investment.

David Hipkin, SoftSols (EMEA) Limited Group Managing Director, comments, “We’ve listened to feedback from our customers and added a range of new features to Agility which will help them tailor it to their specific requirements. In these challenging economic times managing maintenance effectively and keeping equipment running is vital to business success, and we believe Agility is the most cost-effective and easy to use solution available.”

SoftSols will be demonstrating Agility 3.4 at Maintec 2011  in Birmingham (GB) on 29th-31st March (Hall 8 and on stand D6). The SoftSols team will also be presenting 3.4 at customer workshops throughout 2011 in Manchester, Northampton, Newcastle, Peterborough, Glasgow, West London, Telford, Bristol, Leicester and Dublin.

Robots in hospital

Revolutionary hospital robots and cutting edge Agility software

Software company SoftSols Group is helping a hospital in Scotland become the first in Britain to use a fleet of robots to carry out routine deliveries.

The robots at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire will help to keep patient areas free of trolleys and other clutter, reduce infection risks and free up support staff to focus on priorities for patients.

Operating behind the scenes, in specially designed tunnels and lifts, they will also provide a calmer environment, to improve the patient experience.

Supporting this innovative solution is the Agility computerised facilities management Helpdesk system developed by the SoftSols Group. The software is being integrated with the robotic vehicles to monitor their performance delivering and retrieving a wide range of supplies.

The Agility software monitors the robots, generating performance management statistics as part of an automated system, which flags an alert should the robots not deliver on time. Trials of the robots are currently underway ahead of the hospital opening its doors to patients in August this year.

In addition to performance management for the robots Agility is being used to automatically allocate and dispatch porters based on their location in the hospital, take food orders at the bedside and manage a wide range of services including reception, estates maintenance, security and cleaning.
The software has been implemented as part of the hospital’s Facilities Management contract with international service company Serco, who are part of a Project Team led by Forth Health (A joint venture between John Laing and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia) and including Laing O’Rourke as the Design & Construct Partner.

Robin Barter of Serco says, “SoftSols Group rapidly understood the extremely complex requirements of the performance management system and the system interface with the robots, and then expertly translated these into comprehensive specifications and, subsequently, a coherent working system.”

David Hipkin, SoftSols Group Managing Director said, “This cutting edge project is exciting for lots of reasons, not least because it shows how flexible the Agility solution is. It is a whole new area where the software is not just supporting systems; it is enabling innovation and breaking boundaries.”

Maintenace management portfolio

David Hipkin SoftSols (EMEA) Limited Group Managing Director (left ) reviews Agility and Plan 4 with Plan4 chief architect James Park

SoftSols Group has extended its range of innovative solutions with the acquisition of Plan4 from Solutions PT. This Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) expert, which has a 25-year track record of success in the market, has announced the acquisition as part of its ongoing commitment to deliver simple, affordable software solutions which provide an outstanding return on investment.

The move means that existing Plan4 customers will have the added peace of mind that their software will now be managed by a specialist in the maintenance software industry. Plan4 is widely used in the manufacturing sector by organisations including bakery chain Greggs, Dupont and TK Maxx.

David Hipkin, SoftSols (EMEA) Limited Group Managing Director, comments, “Despite the recession, we’re managing to buck the trend and grow our business. We’re already selling our facilities and manufacturing maintenance management systems to companies around the world including organizations in Poland, Australia and China. Our acquisition of Plan4 is an extremely exciting development for us, enabling us to offer an enhanced product range to all our customers, backed up by first class levels of training, service and support.

“Many of SoftSols’ customers have been with us since we began in 1983. Having upgraded through previous product generations they are now using our state of the art browser-based CMMS, Agility. Our new Plan4 clients will have access to the very latest in technology and innovation from our portfolio. We will work hard to ensure that they continue to have confidence in both the Plan4 system and our ongoing relationship.”

The Plan4 system enables maintenance and engineering teams to keep a record of all plant equipment, including monitoring maintenance schedules and generating work orders. Effective maintenance systems are vital to maintaining healthy plant, reducing maintenance costs, minimising downtime, improving energy efficiency and ultimately enabling businesses to lower their cost base.

As part of the acquisition deal, Plan4 chief architect James Park will join the SoftSols team, bringing with him 25 years experience in the maintenance business. David Hipkin adds: “James will be an important addition to our development team here at SoftSols, enabling us to continue to effectively support Plan4 customers and develop the platform. His experience will also be valuable in the ongoing development of our existing CMMS system Agility.”