When Millard Sprinkler decided to develop a business operations system, it did so out of necessity. The company had tried using other software to track customer information, generate quotes, create work orders, schedule crews, manage parts inventory and invoice jobs. Through those attempts, Millard Sprinkler made several realizations:
1. No one system did everything the company needed.
2. Re-entering information from one system into another was inefficient and introduced errors in data.
3. System complexity increased the learning curve for employees and ultimately reduced adoption of new processes.
Necessity being the mother of invention, Millard Sprinkler set out to create a small business operations system that would make the company more efficient. Development started in the summer of 2020, and in 2021, Millard Sprinkler was partially operating on its new system, called EServ. That year, the company realized a 20% increase in net income. In early 2022, Millard Sprinkler migrated completely to EServ.
While Millard Sprinkler built EServ for its own benefit in its irrigation and landscaping work—including building a database of more than 1,200 parts complete with photos and common part nicknames—the company sees application for its small business operations system in other home-service industries: roofing, flooring, home remodeling, plumbing, and pest control, to name a few. Many companies in these lines of work still use paper or basic electronic documents for customer contact information, work orders, schedules, inventory, and invoices. As a result, information gets lost, misfiled and misinterpreted, wasting precious time and resources.
Small service businesses face increasing challenges. Labor shortages, supply chain disruption and rapidly rising fuel costs have given new meaning to the phrase “lean and mean.” Staying alive means owners must look for efficiencies in every aspect of their business. They also need tools that help them forecast sales and expenses and address shortcomings before they turn into big problems. EServ’s dashboards and reports ensure owners and managers have snap-shot data at their fingertips so they can understand how the business is doing at all times.
EServ isn’t a one-size-fits-all or download-and-dash solution. The team works with each business owner to layout processes, identify challenges and customize EServ to meet the company’s needs. The system integrates with QuickBooks, used by more than 80% of small businesses to manage their accounting. Companies in the irrigation business also benefit from the parts database Millard Sprinkler meticulously built for easy, intuitive implementation. For those in other industries, EServ provides guidance and best practices for building an inventory database that works for your business.
From initial customer contact to invoicing, inventory and incentivizing workers, EServ provides paperless processes that give small- and mid-sized businesses greater efficiency and higher revenue. You don’t need to be a technology wizard to implement EServ—our team works with you every step of the way to ensure successful implementation.
If you’re interested in being part of the EServ Evolution, please complete our contact form and a member of our team will be in touch.
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