Professional IT enhances ‘Freedom’ system for Lewis Day

Systems Integrator Professional IT enhances ‘Freedom’ system for Lewis Day, and improves productivity with Momote’s Agile Wireless Mobility Solution.

Background -

Professional IT has led the way in developing computer solutions for courier and chauffeur industries since 1999.  Lewis Day is one of the UK’s largest courier and executive car providers in the UK, with an advanced operations centre in the heart of London and offices all over the country. The company has around 1,000 drivers, having doubled in size over the last two years, and  has been a client of Professional IT for a number of years following their implementation of a booking, control and administration system called ‘Freedom’.

Challenge -

Lewis Day wanted to extend the improvements brought about through the introduction of ‘Freedom’ through to the front end of the business - the drivers. Traditionally, Lewis Day circulated jobs and liaised with drivers over public radio. This meant up to 5 calls per trip from the initial description of the job, to closing down of the call. In between, there were lots of areas where problems with communication could arise, such as misheard names or addresses. In addition, on some jobs, signatures were required for proof of delivery, creating a long paper trail of worksheets and faxes from the driver to the office, and then on to the client.

Evaluation -

Lewis Day asked Professional IT to analyse their business processes and make recommendations on how the efficiency and accuracy of the business could improved. Professional IT quickly realised that the key to the solution was to provide drivers with an intelligent device which could communicate with the ‘Freedom’ system and automate the distribution of messages. The solution needed development costs to be kept under control whilst ensuring the system could be easily maintained and kept up-to-date.

Steven Smith, Managing Director at Professional IT, explains
 With all the clever devices and gadgets around today, solving the basic communications issue was not a problem. But when we investigated further, we realised that many handheld devices are based on proprietary standards and most software toolkits limit themselves to specific devices such as PDAs. Experience has shown us that this is not the way to develop this kind of service. Lewis Day needed a solution that protected their development investment and did not tie them to specific devices in this fast changing market. We wanted to use standards based software, enabling us to quickly develop and deploy the application on a whole host of devices to suit the budget of our client

Solution -

Based on the XML open data interchange standard, the Momote MX Platform met all Professional IT’s needs for open standards, interoperability and cost efficiency. The MX platform allowed Professional IT to quickly develop a solution to interface with Lewis Day’s ‘Freedom’  system, and at the same time to communicate with virtually any mobile device - mobile phone, Blackberry or PDA.

Smith continues, 
 The sheer flexibility of the Momote Wireless technology means that we and our customers are future proofed against changes in underlying devices and networks. We found Momote to be totally in line with the values of Professional IT, enabling us to easily craft the front end delivery and hook into our existing software.

“The speed of development was exceptional.” recalls Smith.
 Within weeks we had a demonstrable system to trial and within 4 months we had it fully operational across the whole Lewis Day fleet.
The solution, Pro- Mobile, takes information entered by the call handler and sends out full details of the call, usually over a GPRS link, to a PDA in the driver’s car. The driver acknowledges receipt and accepts the call. Throughout the trip the driver updates the system on time of arrival, passenger on board and reached destination. The application also allows the driver to capture the signature of the client on the PDA. The controller can monitor the whole trip in real-time and this information can be made available to the person who booked the call.

Benefits to Lewis Day -

Jeffrey Ritterband, Operations Director at Lewis Day is delighted,
 The Pro-Mobile solution has had a huge impact on the day to day running of the business. The reduced number of calls per job going through our control centre, combined with a reduction in noise levels and faster dispatch of work, has allowed us to grow at a much faster rate without any increase in our control infrastructure. We are able to focus more on the customer with better response to calls and the ability to offer instant proof of delivery. The solution has streamlined our whole fleet, increasing productivity and improving our customer service. A winning combination all round.

Benefits to Professional IT -

The implementation at Lewis Day was a perfect example of ‘open systems’ Smith explains,
 By using Momote we were able to reduce development costs and have  an application that runs across virtually any mobile device. We also have a portable application that we have already deployed at other client sites, amounting to over 1,500 live PDAs in the field on a daily basis. We are always careful when choosing partners and the help and support we received from Momote was exceptional. They saved us lots of time and we have the knowledge that what we have developed is both open and portable.