Clearview National June 2016 - Issue 175 | Page 12

INDUSTRYNEWS

REVOLUTIONARY NEW QUOTING AND
ORDERING SYSTEM LAUNCHED
»»ORIGIN HAS LAUNCHED
a revolutionary online quoting
and ordering system for its
customers. Origin’s Sale Safe
(OSS) is the first system of its
kind, and will help trade partners
to quote and order from the
Origin Home range with ease and
accuracy.
Origin designed, developed
and built the system in house to
improve the efficiency and speed
of ordering, as well as minimising
the risk of mistakes. Simplifying
the quotation process allows

trade customers to save time on
admin, turning around orders in
record time and increasing overall
productivity.
SIMPLIFYING THE
QUOTATION PROCESS
OSS allo ws users to build
whole customer projects, rather
than quoting on individual
products. Information on each
customer is kept in one place,
removing the need for multiple
orders and quotes pertaining to
one customer.
As a huge time saving feature,
OSS allows users to work from
a popular configuration based
on the user’s order history, or to
build a project from scratch. This
means customers can retrieve
quotes simply by choosing the
size and configuration.

‘enables customers
to make changes
right until the order
has been made’
Its intelligent cascade system
allows customers to change an
overall project preference, such as
colour, at the touch of a button.
This removes the need to go in
and edit every single product to
accommodate this change.
Once a quote has been
generated, a bespoke branded quote
template, built by Origin, can be
downloaded and printed for the
customer to keep. The flexibility of
Origin’s manufacturing schedule
also enables customers to make
changes right until the order has
been made.

ENSURING ACCURACY
AND PRECISION
When making changes to a quote,
OSS’s intelligent amendment system
highlights all the changes that have
been made. This reduces the amount
of checking required, limiting the
opportunity for human error.
QUOTING AND
ORDERING INSTANTLY
With an easy to navigate,
simple design and intuitive
functionality, OSS streamlines
the ordering process significantly,
allowing costs to be retrieved
instantly and orders to be placed
on the spot. OSS also gives users
the option of ordering in batches
to meet the customer’s deadline
and budget requirements.
www.origin-global.com

We may not be the builders

»»DESPITE THE
Government promising to deliver
200,000 new homes by 2020,
the latest UK Construction
Market Survey from RICS (a
leading professional status in
land, real estate, infrastructure
and construction) has revealed
that growth in the private housing
sector slowed down considerably
during the first quarter of
2016.

MAIN SECTORS
Private housing workloads
rose at their slowest pace since
Q2 2013, with only 36% more
of those working in the sector
reporting a rise in growth rather
than a fall over the first quarter
of 2016. During the first quarter
of 2015 that figure was close to
50%.
Across all sectors, the RICS
UK Construction Market Survey
shows that while 33% more
respondents saw workloads
rise rather than fall during the
last quarter of 2015, this figure
dropped by five per cent over the
past three months.
EXPECTATIONS
Confidence in the outlook
for the sector also dropped with
the number of construction
professionals saying that they

12 » JUN 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

expected to see workloads
rise over the next 12 month
outweighing those expecting a fall
by 55%. This is a considerable
decrease on expectations from
this time last year when 79%
more respondents expected to see
workloads rise.
Meanwhile, following 4%
employment growth in 2015,
respondents foresee headcounts
continuing to rise over the coming
12 months with a net balance of
41% expecting growth, and a rise
of 2% forecast, on average.
COMMENTS
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS
Chief Economist commented,
“On the surface, it might seem
surprising that we are witnessing
a slowdown in the construction
sector just a few months after
hearing the Chancellor’s ‘We

Are The Builders’ speech, given
the Government’s significant
commitment to this sector.
“However, we have long held
the view that starter homes
cannot be the only solution.
There is an issue around the
availability of land on which new
houses can be built, and we would
like to see more being done to
free up private brownfield sites.
“Our survey tells us that
planning delays are one of the
biggest barriers to growth in the
construction sector. We have
recommended that councils
work together to create a team
of emergency planners who can
parachute into boroughs that are
experiencing significant delays,
therefore reducing a major growth
barrier.”
Source: www.rics.org/uk