How JLR Cranes Inc. reduced admin tasks by 50% (invoicing) and 75% (payroll) and improved the efficiency of their service teams.

Tell us a bit about JLR Cranes Inc. and its business …

JLR Cranes is a contractor specializing in the rental of operated cranes, both short and long term, offering services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The company was founded in 1993 by Jean-Luc Tremblay and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2023. In 2012, his daughters, Audrey and Cindy, joined the administrative management of the company.

To date, the fleet includes 25 cranes offering a lifting capacity of 25 to 450 tonnes. In addition to the crane rental service, the company also offers rental of a wide variety of accessories that attach to lifting devices such as adjustable chains, baskets, supports, drills, etc.

The main uses for JLR cranes are the erection of walls, houses, installation of ventilation devices on the roofs of buildings, tower cranes, etc. They offer their services to general contractors in the civil, industrial and commercial sectors.

Why did you choose the Praxedo solution?

Before Praxedo , we had a lot of problems in our daily operations and administration.

• Our crane dispatch software was no longer optimal and had reached its limits. It was a system designed and customized for our needs but was not compatible with our accounting software. We were dependent on a developer.

• Not having a mobile application, all service contracts were still in paper format. Service requests came to us by email or phone. A paper work order was created and linked to the service rendered. For timesheets, technicians’ notes were also made on paper documents.

At all stages of the process, there were considerable delays and accumulating errors, such as:

• It took 3 or 4 days to receive service contracts from technicians

• Accounting errors were numerous, since it was necessary to transcribe the handwritten contract to the computer.
• We had discrepancies between items consumed, tracking times, and items actually sold to customers.
• We saw an impact on our revenue with the loss of service contracts: the crane operator was paid for his time, but the customer was not billed because of oversights related to non-centralized information. It is difficult to make an assessment of these losses, but we estimate that it concerned 2 to 5% of our income.

Here are the reasons for our choice:

• The mobile app on smartphone
• Elimination of paper forms, and the ability to customize digital forms to our specifications
• Compatibility with our accounting software to avoid input errors

Who uses the Praxedo solution and for which tasks?

The Praxedo web application is used by our dispatchers as well as five people from the administrative department, including our accountants. The mobile application is used by our crane operators.

80% of the time, our jobs (especially in high season) generally last half a day and sometimes only one day. For some sites, the job can take up to several weeks or months.

Crane operators enter their billable time in their form from the mobile application and then they are validated in the office.

Praxedo made us change the way we organize our resources. For example, we now schedule the technicians first and then assign the cranes to them. Before it was the opposite.

The dynamic dashboard allows you to see equipment reservation schedules at a glance, which is very practical.

Planning is done day by day, usually around 3 p.m. we plan for the next day. Previously, you had to send text messages to everyone. Now, work orders are sent directly to the mobile app and with Praxedo’s synchronization function, we know that the technicians have received the information.

The real-time vision offered by Praxedo allows us to improve our internal communication, our responsiveness and our productivity.

Despite resistance to change, technicians have learned to use Praxedo . They particularly appreciate the use of the map from the Praxedo mobile application as well as the one-click route that opens their favorite navigation application.

What are the main benefits of the Praxedo solution?

Praxedo allowed us to completely remove paper from our process. In addition, we have improved the quality of our service reports by including photos that help us provide proof of service to customers.

Praxedo has made remote working possible because the app is available from any device, anywhere. Now the dispatcher can adjust the schedule while being at home. With the old system, changes to the calendar had to be made from the office computer where the software was hosted.

Geolocation, mobility and intelligent planning in Praxedo have enabled us to avoid printing our trips to the office on paper. Each employee came to get his itinerary before leaving to make his way.

Concerning the work orders, previously, it was necessary to make a scan of the yellow paper (customer copy). Now customers receive a PDF copy of the work order automatically as soon as it is closed/validated.

We created our own billable items in Praxedo including equipment (cranes and their accessories) which allows us, unlike the other applications we’ve seen, to better bill our income and see the details in the Acomba accounting software since the two tools are connected.

Concretely, the workload has greatly decreased in the office:

●  The printing of the technicians’ routes on paper by the dispatcher took him around 1 hour a day: this task has now disappeared.

●  The creation of invoices took us 2 or 3 hours a day whereas we now put 1 or 1h30 maximum.

●  Payroll management was about 4 hours per week. Since working times are captured in Praxedo , it only takes us 1 hour per week.

Many other tasks and activities have been reduced or even eliminated, but it is more difficult to assess the gains. For example, time spent on the phone or texting or emailing crews on the road has been reduced to almost zero.

The connection between Praxedo and Acomba made it possible to avoid duplication in data entry. For example, new customers are created only once in Acomba and are then synced with Praxedo. The same for invoices, since the items consumed are transferred directly to Acomba.

From the technician side:

Praxedo allows technicians to work faster, forget less, and by eliminating handwriting, has resulted in no more misreads in the office. The outcome is that we invoice better and faster.

The number of daily trips has decreased: before, technicians had to come back to the office to drop off their work orders and completed timesheets. Now they can complete their reports onsite or at home using the mobile app, saving time on the go.

Information circulates better, and exchanges have increased: we communicate more optimally, and we have more reliable and direct information.

Configuring the forms allowed us to add required fields for capturing payroll data and technician expenses. As a result, we can measure the company’s profitability more accurately.

How do you see the future of your collaboration with Praxedo?

We intend to continue with Praxedo as long as we find benefits. It has become a central application in the company since everyone uses it.

We are delighted with the services offered and recommend Praxedo to any company that wants to improve its service management.

If you had to describe Praxedo in 2 words, what would they be?

JLR drastically improved productivity and communication, thanks to Praxedo.  Through productivity & efficiency gains JLR has decreased workload for their teams.

●  Time saving

●  Ease of use once set up for both admins and employees on the go

●  Easy training for new employees

●  Improved communication in the organization

●  Responsiveness and efficiency in work and vis-à-vis customers