Behind the Blueprint: Tailored Software Solutions

Back in 1995 whilst exhibiting at a trade fair, the director and president of the NAS (National Association of Shopfitters) visited our stand and said that they were looking for a traditional estimating system designed for shopfitters. It was from that day onwards that one of our estimators and time served joiners started working with the president of the NAS to develop the estimating system.
This proved to be a great success, and soon the requirement was for it to move into other areas of the company, as the estimate was a good starting point for sharing information between departments.
The system, then called Shopfitter, was now being used by many companies and continued to be developed and became more complex and integral to other areas of a company.
After a few years, it was clear that the name needed to be changed to suit how the system had evolved, and to reflect how it was helping companies to run their contracts. The name Contract Controller seemed very appropriate.

We know the industry! – No surprise there as you would expect, but we have actively worked in the industry with our “Product Manager” being a time served joiner / cabinet maker and senior Estimator.

Understanding how sometimes things don’t always go to plan, a software system needs to allow for this, Contract Controller does this and is a very user-friendly system and can allow a contract and work to be carried out with administration sometimes having to catch up later.

We are always on hand to help with support and training. We appreciate that if you need help, submitting a support ticket and hoping an agent will contact you soon, just doesn’t work in our industry. If you need help, you need it straight away, and that’s why we have telephone support along with screen-to-screen support as well. Just give us a call and we are there to help, advise or simply to have a chat. Yes, we like talking to our clients.

When I first started estimating it was on bill paper with a pencil and giant desk calculator. No, I’m not that old, computers did exist in the industry but in the form of a Main-Frame system that kept track of stock and accounts, but yes, that was about 30 years or so ago. Things then started moving to spreadsheets with more Pcs appearing on desks. Now, no desk is complete without a PC (or Mac) on it!

Fax machines are now pretty much obsolete with email taking over, and CNC machines are now pretty commonplace on the shop floor.

Showing my age here, I can also remember when the World Wide Web made its entry to the industry!

I also reminisce about the old ammonia drawing copy machine, how many hours were spent copying drawings to “post” out to sub-trades too get their costings! – Email has now taken care of that one!

One overriding thought though, and something that we all need to be aware of, is that we still need skilled humans to operate all this technology!

It would be unfair of me to mention one particular client here as all our client deserve a mention.

However, they would all agree that by using Contract Controller from using either just one aspect of the system, such as estimating, to using it for the complete sales to invoice process, it has sped up the workflow with greater accuracy and easy reporting.

Two specific areas are,  stock control of items issued from stores to a contract, ensuring costs are booked to the contract along with stock quantities depreciated accordingly and time sheet collection. With time sheet collection, production tracking sheets are scanned on the shopfloor which both tracks the contract item in the production process, whilst booking the employees’ time to the item and forms the employees time sheet. You can instantly see how much time is or has been spent on a specific item, compared the time allowed for the in estimate. (Scarry for the Estimator!)

Yes, AI is here to stay and can be harnessed. However, I am a great believer that tradition should embrace technology but not be taken over by it. AI has its place and will be extremely useful, but we must retain the human element for ultimate decisions. When I was teaching estimating using computers, and even when training our clients to use Contract Controller for estimating, I always say, you must have an idea yourself as to what you think this contract should cost. You can’t just believe a figure that a computer gives you. (You may have mistyped something or missed something out.)

AI will ultimately find its way into Contract Controller, but only as a tool and not to replace the skilled operative. It is very important, especially in our industry, that we retain our many valued skills.

2 pieces, in connection with work:

Firstly, when I was an apprentice bench joiner / cabinet maker, I was told to imagine that every piece of work I did was for my Mum, (Assuming I liked my Mum!) and that way, the quality would be second to none.

Secondly, when I was training to be an estimator and was staring at huge drawing thinking that I could never work out a price for this! The production director said “Richard, you are joiner / cabinet maker, you know how to make things, Just break down each section to cost in manageable pieces and then the whole scheme will start to come together. Don’t be putt off by the enormity of the whole, break things down in to manageable sizes.”

A quote from the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lea, by the character of Attikus Finch, a defence lawyer, “Never judge a person until you have walked around in their shoes for a while.”

Not one really for talking about achievements because we all achieve things every day, no matter how big or small. Everyone faces challenges every day and if you have done your level best in whatever you have done that day, it is an achievement.

In a nutshell – Use Contract Controller. I know I am bound to say that, but the best way to keep control of a business is to know what is happening with it. If you have too many separate and disparate systems on employees Pcs, you are reliant on them giving you information and sharing information with other team members. With Contract Controller everything is in once place, immediately updated with departments automatically interacting with each other.

Yes, we are passionate about Contract Controller, but we are also passionate about our industry and obviously the NAS.

We have been involved with the NAS for over 25 years and for those of you who are as old as I, may remember the late Trever Henman of Grant Westfield and Gordon Eliot, the then NAS director. It was with these two men, who were dedicated to our industry, that we first became involved with the NAS.

Find out more about Tailored here: https://www.tailored.org.uk/