Uses and Case Studies

Digital Pen Solutions for Surveys

Streamlining Domestic Energy Assessment through the data pens

"Having evaluated a range of alternative technologies, we felt that the simplicity and convenience of digital pen and paper technology would work best…"
MD, Energy Survey Company

Energy Performance Certificate (EPCs) are required for domestic properties for sale and rental. Creating an EPC requires a detailed survey of the property by a qualified assessor. The data collected is very extensive and is fed into Northgate Information Solutions' accredited energy certification system to produce an energy rating for the property.

How did the Energy Survey Company benefit from Electronic Data Capture?

• The digital pen has made data collection on site easier and quicker. Also, because the information collected is automatically converted to data and fed into the rating calculation engine, huge amounts of admin time are saved.
• Through electronic data capture, the business gained a faster, more efficient, more productive and higher quality domestic energy assessment service, allowing assessors to conduct up to 10 assessments instead of around only 6 per day.

Transforming Property Information Searches

"Accurate, timely and cost effective remote data collection is the key objective of our business and part of the service we provide. Digital pen and paper technology has allowed us to achieve this"

One of the UK's premier property information suppliers chose Digital Field Solutions to supply an integrated digital pen and paper solution for its nationwide team of property researchers.

The digital pen solution allows collected data to be instantly sent from the field for processing, improving turn around times and service levels. Handwriting recognition, including bespoke lexicons for commonly used property search terms and abbreviations, was adopted to reduce data re-keying and speed up the process.

Faster Floor Plans

For many estate agents, accurate, high quality floorplans are an essential component of the property sales particulars.

One of the UK's leading property marketing organisations was looking for an electronic data capture tool to improve their floorplan offering and production process. Having seen the digital pen in action, the management team asked Digital Field Solutions to provide a digital pen based floor planning solution, utilising both A4 and A3 sized sketchpads.

Almost immediately, the business started to see the benefits:

• Administrative savings – because the digital pen allows sketches to be uploaded during the day rather than the end of the day, the need for second CAD production shift was almost eliminated.
• Improved service proposition – because sketches are uploaded immediately from site via the electronic pen, floorplans can be turned around more rapidly.
• The solution has made life easier and more productive for the field team.

Veterinary Equipment Servicing

The UK's leading veterinary equipment supplier was struggling to manage the paperwork associated with its nationwide servicing division.

Paper records are an essential part of the process, for evidence and acceptance of the work completed and also for statutory purposes, records of the pressure vessel testing have to be left with the client.

The digital pen seemed an ideal data capture solution to improving the paper flow, so the management team selected Digital Field Solutions to provide a complete mobile solution, including eight form types.

The benefits of the electronic data capture solution emerged quickly and include:

• A two week improvement in cash flow because of the immediate transmission of paperwork from the client (client invoices could be issued within minutes of the visit being completed)
• Elimination of the process bottleneck
• Reduction in administration resource required to process the work records
• Reduction in lost paperwork and therefore lost revenue
• The physical paperwork could be left with the client.

Vehicle repairs

A national mobile vehicle repair business was finding it a challenge to get paperwork back from its repair technicians. The paperwork is central to managing the service process both in terms of providing evidence of the work completed so that it can be invoiced and providing an audit trail of the paints used and windscreen components fitted.

Digital Field Solutions was asked to deliver a mobile digital pen solution to replace the existing paper process. After a short training session, the mobile technicians were up and running, finding the digital pen solution easy to use.

For the business, the solution addressed many of issues of the traditional paper process and delivered some significant benefits that resulted in improved service, revenue and cash flow.

Haulage Fleet Inspections

As part of its service proposition, a global oil company conducts periodic reviews of its clients' haulage fleets to assess vehicle condition and the effectiveness of the maintenance regimes. The inspections consist of an 80-point checklist with rating scales for each vehicle and fleets can range up to 100 vehicles. At the end of each review, the inspection results from each vehicle were re-keyed into spreadsheets and analysed / summarised for the client.

The oil company was seeking a means of simplifying the data analysis and reporting process, which was very time consuming. The digital pen seemed an ideal data capture solution to the problem and Digital Field Solutions was asked to develop a solution.

The digital pen solution, in use in Malaysia and Thailand, saved the vehicle technicians' significant amounts of time, improves data quality and enabled a better client service to be provided.

Cleaning Chemicals

A national provider of cleaning chemicals to bars, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and leisure centres was seeking a means of improving its client needs review process and product ordering. With a national team of salespeople, getting client information rapidly and reliably back to the support team was proving problematic.

The client decided to adopt a simple mobile digital pen solution which utilises a range of image only customer needs/audit and product order forms. On sending, the form images are emailed to a central mailbox for processing.

The electronic data capture solution has significantly improved customer information at the centre and increased transparency of the sales and customer service activities. Product fulfillment times from point of order have been dramatically shortened.

Will Consultations

Will Consultations require sensitivity and expertise. The process can also be lengthy, involving the collection of considerable amounts of detailed personal information.

A leading UK supplier of Wills was looking to streamline its production process by electronic data capture during the consultation. Devices such laptops were considered, but were felt to be too impersonal for such a sensitive consultation.

The digital pen seemed an ideal solution, enabling the Consultant to maintain empathy with the clients during the discussions whilst providing electronic data capture. Training requirements for the Consultants would also be low, as the process was to remain pretty much unchanged.

Digital Field Solutions was asked to provide an integrated mobile solution comprising a 16 page data capture form with handwriting recognition applied to all data fields, combined with automated postcode look-ups to simplify multiple address captures. Workflow was put in place to enable data to be verified on line by the support team prior to transfer into the clients' Will production system.

Key benefits of the data capture solution include:

• Easy to deploy and use – low training requirements
• Natural data collection approach empathetic to the consultation process.
• Faster Will turnaround times because data is sent to the support team immediately the consultation is finished.
• Reduced back office support and processing costs due to the removal of paper handling and data re-keying.