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NRS Healthcare has selected Paragon’s routing and scheduling software as part of its commitment to continually improving the quality of service provided to social care users on behalf of the NHS and Local Authorities.

The company will use the planning solution to better manage a fleet of 300 vans responsible for the delivery and collection of mobility equipment, wheelchairs and daily living aids, which are allowing people in communities across the UK to live independently and with dignity.

As a leading provider to the social care sector, NRS Healthcare sources, procures, installs, services and recycles over 2,000 different products to help keep people active when mobility becomes difficult following an operation or due to a debilitating health condition. Following the results of a service user feedback survey, the company identified a preference for tighter delivery and collection windows, so it needed an advanced planning tool to replace the existing manual process.

NRS Healthcare initially implemented a pilot scheme in Cambridge and Norfolk using Paragon Integrated Fleets to plan a mixture of 40 home-based and depot-based technicians, with a view to rolling out the software across all 16 depots.

Over the course of the trial, the company demonstrated quantifiable service improvements which included the introduction of two-hour time slots. In addition, NRS Healthcare achieved an increase in the number of activities per technician by 28 per cent and 17 per cent at each depot respectively which has provided technicians with a more consistent workload and predictable finish time.

 

Moving forward, NRS Healthcare’s central planning team will use the routing and scheduling software to schedule daily operational delivery and collection requirements, including both one-and two-man services, across the nationwide depot network. Estimated delivery times for each product will also be incorporated into the planning process to increase schedule accuracy.

Raaza Temour, Director of Implementation & Training at NRS Healthcare commented: “The key driver for embarking on this project is our desire to continually improve the quality of service we offer. With the NHS and Local Authorities under huge pressure to provide social care within very tight budgets, we needed to find a way to further enhance the experience of the service user without increasing cost. We teamed up with Paragon because of their unrivalled experience across many industry sectors, which gave us complete confidence that they could help us deliver the service improvements.”

William Salter, Managing Director of Paragon Software Systems said: “The growing demand for NRS Healthcare’s services in a market under huge funding pressures means that operational efficiency is critical but this cannot be delivered at the expense of good customer service. The ability to provide time windows that customers can be confident will be met is just as important for NRS Healthcare as it is for a food or furniture retailer.  We are proud to have been chosen by NRS Healthcare to help them deliver an efficient and reliable service to the health authorities that also meets the individual needs of the social care user.”

 

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Warranty, claims and customer care provider Castelan Group is using scheduling software from Paragon Software Systems to centralise the planning of its UK home service operation and manage the allocation of its mobile technician team.

The Paragon software schedules service calls for Castelan’s nationwide team of mobile technicians, enabling the company to improve the customer care experience it offers on behalf of the UK’s major high street retailers.

Castelan (previously Homeserve Warranties) provides furniture and electrical warranty and care packages to more than 1.5 million households. With a team of over 80 service engineers carrying out home visits ranging from damage assessments to TV repairs and French polishing, Castelan wanted to streamline the routing and scheduling process, enhancing the overall efficiency of its technical service operations and in turn improving the company’s customer satisfaction levels.

Castelan chose Paragon’s Multi Depot system with HERE Map Content, enabling the company to plan the routes and schedules for its entire team of mobile technicians as a single planning task. With each technician treated as a “depot”, the system is able to flex the depot boundaries automatically to take into account the availability of its technicians, and provide a higher level of route planning capabilities. This results in improved efficiency in a multi depot planning environment.

“We’re very happy with the support we get from Paragon,” said Lisa Harbison, Network Deployment Coordinator, Castelan. “Paragon’s support team helps us with software upgrades and to use our solution to address new business requirements as they arise. For example, we needed to incorporate the collection of spare parts from stores prior to the service engineers’ visits into our planning process. These collections are now routed through Paragon.”

William Salter, Managing Director, Paragon Software Systems concludes “Paragon’s flexibility helps our customers create efficiencies in many different ways including fleet optimisation, cost control and reduced planning time. Paragon Multi Depot has facilitated the switch to central planning for Castelan, providing the ability to share results and incorporate changes from other sites across the operation. Not only does this reduce planning time, it also improves visibility of the service schedule and gives the planning team added flexibility, helping Castelan to distribute the workload evenly between its service engineers.”

 

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