Advantex

Key benefits

• HSE compliance  
  Guaranteeing that engineers had signed up to risk assessments and RAMS – or adapting to sickness and reproducing documents for the replacements – was a challenge. Advantex use Re-flow to mandate tasks and quickly assign safety documents to new users.
• The smart scheduler and visibility of jobs   
  Previously, varied work with specialist engineers was difficult to plan and keep track of. Previous software wasn’t up to task. Now Advantex use Re-flow’s smart scheduler to see everyone and all their jobs in an instant – colour coded to show signoffs, ongoing work, and more. 
• Cybersecurity and auditing  
  Advantex have multiple ISOs and accreditations and needed a data-secure software solution with powerful reporting features. Re-flow gives them the security they need. They benefit from professional, comprehensive company-branded reports that embody their professionalism and compliance. 
   

Summary

Advantex, an IT solutions provider specialising in cybersecurity and physical security, faced challenges scheduling and scaling their diverse operations. The software limitations of Microsoft Dynamics and Outlook hindered efficient asset scheduling, data management, and compliance – all critically important for a business holding multiple rigorous accreditations. 

Re-flow provided a data-secure, flexible field management solution, which centralised documentation and eliminated paper processes. Now Advantex accurately plan their long-term schedule for their entire team. They’ve gained real-time visibility of data and job progress, customisable form creation for professional client-facing documents, and a repository for the company’s comprehensive knowledge base. The software has proved so successful that the company now hold weekly meetings to analyse other areas where Re-flow can enhance Advantex’s workflows. 

Organisation details

Advantex are a full-service IT solutions provider, delivering turnkey systems that cover everything from cabling infrastructure to servers, PCs, and the surrounding security product stacks. 

The business also offers a comprehensive physical security service, including IP CCTV systems and access control such as key card entry. Unlike many providers who outsource parts of their service, Advantex retains all expertise in-house, with directly employed staff handling every aspect of delivery. The company provides its own training and support, ensuring a tailored, end-to-end solution that meets their clients’ specific needs. 

Challenges

The nature of Advantex’s work – which span multiple sectors including advanced cybersecurity, business communication systems, and critical IT infrastructure – means they’ve built up a team of specialists with very different skill sets and equipment needs. As the company grew, scheduling at this scale was becoming increasingly unmanageable. 

Initial workflows using Microsoft Dynamics and Outlook hit their limits and couldn’t scale to Advantex’s new requirements. These alternatives lacked flexibility and weren’t user-friendly. Even basic tasks like adding location fields to jobs – for parking, collecting permits, and other processes – became needlessly time-consuming. 

Elsewhere, the order to fulfilment process was slow. Checking through POWs, printing, scheduling – not being able to easily see which engineers were free – were drawn out by their manual nature. Getting documentation back from sites, chasing up missing information and waiting for forms to return to the office, led to frustration. 

When Advantex considered other field management options, there were concerns about being able to adapt software to their specific workflow and multiple cybersecurity needs, and as they work with the likes of the MOD, non-compliance risked a decline in accreditation ratings and an inability to tender for future work. 

After all, Advantex have achieved:

• ISO:9001/2000
• ISO:9001/2015
• NICEIC Certification
• Cyber Essentials Plus
• NSI Gold quality seal 

Aims

With cybersecurity a core concern, any new field operations software needed to be trustworthy, feature secure sign-ins, and manage customer data in a way that wouldn’t breach any accreditations. 

Advantex wanted a scheduler capable of managing their diverse workflow while scaling with the business as it grew. It needed to build on the company’s professionalism and improve multiple logistical processes – particularly the challenge of fragmented documentation. It needed to eliminate the requirement to store and manage paper forms and create a central repository for job-critical information like drawings, scopes of work, and other elements of the company knowledge base. 

Other desires: 

• Improved operational efficiency: Achieving real-time visibility on critical tasks like daily vehicle checks, allowing for more robust management. 
• Enhanced compliance: Ensuring risk assessments are completed and the company’s documentation is in order. 
• Accelerated customer sign-offs: Providing instant digital client sign-offs at job completion, eliminating delays from traditional paper-based processes and the wait for documents to return to the office. 
• Everything needed for ISO 27001 ambitions: For Advantex to achieve their aims they needed to eliminate the amount of paper the company were using. 

Solutions

The key benefits of Re-flow for Advantex included: 

• Advanced scheduling and planning: Giving the team the ability to view and manage large volumes of information – people, equipment, timeframes – without any of the system slowdowns experienced previously.
• Enhanced environmental credentials: Supporting progress towards ISO 27001 compliance by reducing paper-based processes as much as possible – which for Re-flow clients is often 100%. 
• Customisable form builder: Empowering the creation of tailored document automations and workflows and professional-looking PDFs complete with company logos and headers. This boosts company credibility with clients and streamlines audits and sign-offs.
• Security guarantees: Delivering peace of mind with secure login and data-handling features.
• Support and guidance: Re-flow’s experienced onboarding team worked closely with Advantex, including the provision of a form-builder course. This empowered the company to adapt and create their own forms, while functioning as one part of a wider process of understanding the revolutionary potential (streamlined processes, automated actions, and so on) of management software. 

Results

‘I couldn’t imagine going back to pen and paper and chasing down engineers for the documentation,’ said managing director and co-founder David O’Connell. 

‘From a leadership perspective, Re-flow puts things at my fingertips. If I do an audit, I can see exactly what the team are doing. I’ve got that audit trail. Even for things like risk assessments, which we need to do on every single project, I can actually demonstrate everything. And it’s timestamped, it’s digitised.’ 

Areas where Re-flow has impacted the business: 

• A smart and powerful scheduler: All company assets – from vehicles to the engineers themselves – can be planned and scheduled easily and intuitively with drop down menus and autofill.
• A long-term solution: Re-flow manages everything even as Advantex scale. Features like flexible re-scheduling, automations, triggered notifications eliminate time-consuming processes.
• Continuous process optimisation: Inspired by the process of working with the software, Advantex hold regular internal meetings to identify new areas for digitisation, such as timesheets and their bill of quantities. Only flexible software gives this kind of opportunity.
• Collaborative form development: These meetings facilitate a collaborative approach to building and testing new forms using Re-flow’s intuitive builder, with ongoing support from the Re-flow team.
• Centralised knowledge base: Re-flow’s knowledge base consolidates previously scattered resources, providing readily accessible videos, how-to guides, and toolbox talks, ensuring field teams have vital information at their fingertips when out on site.
• Streamlined absence management: Automations within the company’s Re-flow absence form deliver instant notifications to management and users regarding holiday and sickness requests, along with tailored follow-up tasks like self-certification or return-to-work meetings.
• Tailored compliance for unique needs: Re-flow’s flexibility enabled the quick and easy creation of highly bespoke sign-off forms, specifically adapted for sensitive site scenarios like working in explosive atmospheres, ensuring all company-specific checks and questions were addressed.
• Digital, intuitive clarity: Re-flow’s location field, with its ability to drop multiple map pins, now provides precise, turn-by-turn navigation directly to exact site locations, eliminating previous vague instructions for parking, permits, or visitor points.
• Enhanced professional documentation: Re-flow’s form builder produces professional, branded PDFs, creating a polished document suite that streamlines certification and sign-offs, boosting client satisfaction and aiding their internal processes and audits. 

‘I definitely think Re-flow gives us an edge,’ states Shaun Charlton, Advantex’s qualified supervisor and Re-flow implementation lead. ​‘When we turn up with a tablet with our drawings and risk assessments and everything on it, we look professional.’ 

‘Re-flow has been absolutely superb,’ said David O’Connell. ​‘The support has been second to none. We use a lot of different companies, and we’d wholeheartedly recommend Re-flow to other businesses. It’s a fantastic product. Everyone at Advantex uses Re-flow in some capacity – our basic users who use it for holidays and absences, our admin and HR staff that look after around planning, and the guys out on site aligning with the certifications [and processes] we’ve run through it.’