GOFORMZ CASE STUDY

NQCranes

NQCranes uses mobile forms to streamline the completion of their hundreds of daily forms.

“The ability to have forms flow through the organization, with no data loss and be automatically uploaded is excellent.”
- Stephen Goodson, IT Systems Administrator, NQCranes

NQ Cranes logo

AT-A-GLANCE


Challenge

NQCranes needed to address the inefficient collection and processing of forms that were being completed by hand in the field. With hundreds of forms being completed remotely, each document required delivery, as well as the manual rekeying of information into other systems.

Solution

After test-driving various options, the NQCranes team digitized and thoroughly customized their forms with GoFormz. With dynamic, digital features, forms completed in the field could be filled out more rapidly and thoroughly, leading to significant efficiency improvements.

Results

  • 40+ administrative hours saved per week
  • 50% reduction of time spent completing field technician paperwork
  • Forms completed more thoroughly, accurately and are no longer lost
  • Client-facing forms are more professional
  • Automations allow back-office personnel to better monitor field team progress
  • Capture more detailed and complete data through new data types like images
  • Increased flexibility allows for equipment specific forms versus a ‘one fits all’ approach

Forms

  • Inspection Forms
  • Timesheets
  • Quotes
  • Meeting Notes

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THE FULL STORY


About NQCranes

NQCranes is “Australia’s largest independently owned overhead crane service business, and one of Queensland’s largest overhead crane manufacturers.” Specializing in the manufacturing and servicing of lifting gear, the NQCranes team strives to provide excellent service and stellar customer support.

The Full Story

As a team that works tirelessly to provide exceptional service, paper forms simply could not support the massive amount of data that needed to be collected by NQCranes personnel. Field teams would often be dispatched to inspect a customer’s equipment on site, which required that a technician not only complete their own inspection form, but also a form for the customer and one for the back-office. To support this process, NQCranes field teams were burdened by triplicate books, which would then need to be manually delivered to the office, usually at the end of the week. This meant that time and fuel were spent hand-delivering documents from days prior, which would then need to be rekeyed into back-office systems. With hundreds of forms being completed by hand daily, this process became very inefficient and was ripe for an overhaul.

NQ cranes uses GoFormz mobile forms in their bridge cranes operations

The Smarter, The Better

Stephen initially implemented GoFormz within one of NQCranes’ seven regional offices. “We made the forms really smart to start with, so the technician experience was easier than filling something out pen to paper,” Stephen explained. “When we created the mobile forms we built in databases with automatic answers and color coding and the ability to complete a section of a form by just hitting a button.”

These ‘smart’ features helped to significantly streamline form data entry, especially when completing lengthy, detailed inspections. For example, within one of NQCranes’ overhead crane Inspection forms, there are one hundred points that need to be completed. This form is especially important, because it is used to note the safety of equipment and record any maintenance that may be necessary. Leveraging Dynamic Field Properties, Stephen implemented a variety of hidden fields, to instantly mark numerous related inspection points as completed. Similarly, when grading the condition of equipment (on a scale of A to E) a Checkbox is used to auto-fill all of the graded points within a specific section.

If an inspection point receives a poor grade, comments detailing why must also be included. To simplify this process, Stephen implemented more hidden fields. “Rather than have them type the comment in, based on their selection we have another hidden field that will give them commonly used comments,” Stephen explained. “So if they choose a ‘C’ condition on access to the main isolator, up will come four commonly used comments about the main isolator. If they chose a D or E there, three or four different answers will come up.” This process had previously taken a significant amount of time, and often resulted in missing data (from forgotten or overlooked fields). Now, with mobile forms, NQCranes technicians can effortlessly expedite their inspections and data entry. “It’ll take them two minutes to fill out a form, when previously it would have taken them ten.”

Real-Time Retention

One of the more impactful benefits of digitizing their forms collection, was the vast improvements in NQCranes’ form completion and delivery. Because their original paper forms had to be hand-delivered, field teams would often wait until the end of the week to deliver all of their forms at once. “We would lose forms on the way into the office,” Stephen recalled. “The fact that they can be emailed and we’ve built interactions on each form to email it to the correct place within the organization means that we aren’t going to lose any forms anymore.”

The automatic, real-time nature of forms also helped back-office personnel to better monitor the progress of field teams when completing critical paperwork. For example, NQCranes teams are required to regularly inspect their vehicles to prevent safety hazards and accidents. With GoFormz, these vehicle inspection forms are now automatically emailed to Stephen, and data is pulled to create a dashboard showing who has completed their vehicle inspections, and who still needs to.

“The ability to have forms flow through the organization, with no data loss and be automatically uploaded is excellent.”

ROI

NQCranes now uses GoFormz to digitize and complete the entirety of their forms collection, including Timesheets, Quotes, Meeting Notes, Inspections and more. This digital transformation has resulted in incredible benefits across the NQCranes operation. “Timewise, we’ve had massive savings,” Stephen emphasized, noting that they have witnessed administrative time savings of approximately 50% for technicians and a savings of 40 administrative hours a week. In addition, forms are now completed more accurately and can contain data types unavailable in paper documents - especially visual information like images and sketches. “We can add photos… and photos speak a thousand words.”

NQ Cranes employes GoFormz Mobile Forms to to streamline their overhead cranes operations

What’s Next?

Stephen and the NQCranes team are currently working with the GoFormz professional services team to leverage the GoFormz API to push and pull data between forms and their CRM.”


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