Account managers for an Oilfield Chemicals Supplier were using an Excel spreadsheet to identify tools that are instrumental in managing their client accounts, such as a Quality Interface Plan, Supply Chain & Facilities Plan and Annual HS&E Action Plan. About 50 different tools in various formats, e.g. Word or PDF, cover all aspects of the business.
The tools were stored in numerous locations on the company’s intranet so account managers needed to search for the tools listed in the spreadsheet – a time-consuming process. Also, managers were often not confident that they were using the most up-to-date versions of tools because there was no centralised repository.
We defined the objective – for account managers to collate the relevant tools to manage each of their client accounts quickly and easily. We designed a web app that cuts out hours of searching by incorporating a ‘shopping cart’ style downloads folder.
Account managers define the client’s account category and type in two clicks which triggers an instant upload of the relevant mandatory tools to the folder. Managers can select additional tools from an optional list which are also automatically added to the folder. The folder can be downloaded instantly and managers can begin to use tools straightaway.
All tools are centralised in a database within the app so that users are now confident they are using the latest version.
An average of an hour’s work using a spreadsheet is reduced to five minutes.
