Tela brings together key communication solutions to help reduce costs and improve productivity.
Background
Established in 1993, Taylormade Landscapes undertakes commercial landscaping & design, fencing service, grounds maintenance, turfing and tree surgery projects for a variety of clients, including local authorities, the building sector, and private companies. They are one of the Midland’s leading commercial contractors and are renowned for their reliability, professionalism, and quality.
“We believe in the importance of investing in the company through training for all member of staff, with emphasis on safety procedures, as well as purchase of equipment and vehicles to enable us to deliver at the highest level on every project.”
The Challenge
Ensuring that a business can maintain communications effectively, not only with its customers but also between its employees, is key to running any business. But it can be challenging for organisations that operate with a high volume of field-based staff.
After a period of intense growth, particularly over the past 5 years, Taylormade’s employee numbers grew from 5 to 50, predominantly in customer facing field based roles.
Field-based employees were required to report to Head Office to obtain their daily job allocations before heading out to customer sites. Taylormade Landscapes sought to adopt a solution in which they could improve communications, reduce unnecessary travel costs, reduce their carbon footprint and improve productivity.
Taylormade were looking for ruggedised tablets that could be used by their field operatives, that were not only reasonably priced, but simple to use, and durable. The team would need access to applications for health and safety, work schedules, and timesheet completion, as well as a means by which to communicate with Head Office.
The Solution
After seeking recommendations on LinkedIn, Taylormade Landscapes came to Tela. With 30+ years’ of experience within the telecommunications space, backed by a number of customer testimonials and reviews, Tela served as a great option to aid Taylormade’s requirements.
Tela’s business development manager met with Taylormade and took the time to understand their business, and the challenges faced, before putting forward a recommendation:
- Providing the team with sufficient data allowance was essential. An initial request for 5GB per user was put forward, however, thanks to Vodafone’s competitive pricing we were able to propose 10GB, providing peace of mind that data allowance limits would never need to be exceeded.
- Knowing the field operatives were carrying out physical work in challenging terrain, Tela recommended the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 3 Enterprise Edition. The suggestion was brought forward as a means to provide the field operatives with a trusted, hardy device, that would continue to work well in any outdoor environment.
- Samsung Knox was included, for the first year. This allowed the head office team to lock devices if needed using ‘Kiosk Mode’ which meant only company-approved applications could be used, while also providing an additional layer of data security should a device be lost or stolen.
“It has been a pleasure. Tela have helped to guide and negate our way through the minefield of on-site portable communication ensuring that we found the right options both for the business and our on-site teams. This will now give us direct communication and access to all our site-based teams, and we will see a massive improvement in communication and huge cost savings. Thanks for the great service. Highly recommended.”
Paddy Lawlor, Operations Manager, Taylormade Landscapes.
The Outcome
Several technical demonstrations were provided before the first device was deployed, to ensure the devices were optimised for use. With complimentary feedback received from the field operatives, an order was placed for 45 tablets and data SIMs.
The tablets enabled the team to transfer their previous paper-led operations onto an easily accessible digital platform, suitable for their field based team, while also reducing costs and improving productivity.
