Clearview 241 - December 2021 | Page 73

Business News

‘ NEED FOR SPEED ’ DRIVES GROWTH

Framepoint ® hits 1000 active users

» USE OF THE FRAMEPOINT ® APP from Tommy Trinder continues to grow ; the firm reports passing the threshold of 1000 active users for the first time in October .
The value of work quoted by installers on Framepoint ® is on the rise too ; £ 64 million of supply and fit work was quoted via the platform in the month of October , a new monthly high . Rising average quote values are also a feature with quote values averaging £ 5300 over the last three months , compared to £ 4700 in the same period last year , says CEO Chris Brunsdon .
“ Framepoint ® subscribers have always been able get a bit more on every job because it ’ s so easy to show off premium features such as foils , dual colours , dummy vents , mechanical joints , flush casements , surface mounted bars in a very visual way .
But the ongoing rise in average quote values also points to supply chain price rises filtering through , together with installers taking improved margins on lengthening order books .”
Tommy Trinder report that more than 11,500 homeowners have received a quote generated by Framepoint ® in the last three month and , notably , more than half of them were provided with visualisations to accompany their quote .
“ The makeover tool , where installers provide a mockup to the homeowner of their new windows in situ , is definitely becoming a staple part of the quoting process ,” says Chris . “ 58 % of homeowners receive them , currently . When you consider the ease with which consumers are able to model other significant purchases like cars or kitchens , it feels inevitable that offering the client a visual of windows and doors will become the norm .”
www . tommytrinder . com

‘ Almost instant ’ payback from new software

» WHEN LEAD TIMES ON PVC-U frames were at their peak in 2020 , one of the responses from fabricators who were buying in even a portion of their output was to increase their own manufacturing volumes .
For Newcastle upon Tyne based Ramage Trade Windows , which doubled its output from 130 to 270 windows per week during the pandemic , that process was made considerably easier thanks to its investment in Business Micros EvoNET software .
Ramage Trade Windows had previously bought in around half of its volumes but when it started to suffer significant supply shortages , took the decision to invest in new machinery and new software so that it could reduce its reliance on other fabricators
and deliver increased certainty to its trade , retail and new build customers .
The company , which supplies Eurocell windows throughout the north east of England , had been a Business Micros Evolution software user for many years . While it was only manufacturing a hundred or so windows per week , it was easy to manage things like production batching and
despatch manually , but when volumes started to increase , the Ramage team wanted to ensure that they stayed as efficient as possible .
Director Andrew Ramage Jnr explained : “ The payback on the software was almost instant . A year after it was installed , we are producing double the number of frames , but with no increase in the amount of time we spend on admin .
“ We now have barcode scanning stations throughout the factory which gives us total visibility of what is being produced and we can see the status of every job via the in-built dashboard . We can batch production using EvoNET to optimise material and labour efficiency and generate reports instantly on everything from output per fabricator to quantities of remakes .”
Ramage Trade Windows has included the EvoAssist module within its EvoNET set up so that it can automatically send order confirmations and invoices to customers via text or email .
www . ramagewindows . com
www . businessmicros . co . uk /
evonet
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