"MYOB Greentree offered an all in one solution that allowed us to electronically enter time, plus produce invoices and quotes, manage stock and a CRM module all from a unified interface."
Brian Emberson, Owner / Founder, Mobile Electrics Pty Ltd
Who are you:
Brian Emberson, owner and founder of Mobile Electrics Pty Ltd.
Star Client Since:
2007
Comvision Client Since:
2006
IT Infrastructure:
2 HP Enterprise Servers running 5 load balanced, Virtual Servers, onsite Disaster Recovery system with offsite storage, approximately 35 HP Desktop and Notebook systems
Tell us a bit about your business?
Mobile Electrics started in 1987. Essentially we provided specialist electrical and industrial automation solutions to large manufacturers and industrial companies throughout Victoria. Mobile Electrics is situated in the Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and employ a team of 40 full time personnel, including: electrical engineers, special class industrial electricians and A Grade electricians.
We provide everything from labour hire of these specialised electrical roles, through to the complete turn-key projects, involving; design, implementation, documentation, maintenance and support.
What prompted you to move to a MYOB Greentree system?
Prior to MYOB Greentree we were running several different systems, QuickBooks our financial package and a tradesperson scheduling system called TSM and many in house spreadsheets. Having different systems meant a lot of manual data entry, and duplication of records. This was hugely inefficient and was holding back the growth and profitability of the company.
MYOB Greentree offered an all in one solution that allowed us to electronically enter time, plus produce invoices and quotes, manage stock and a CRM module all from a unified interface.
Why did you move your IT support and management to Comvision?
It was about the same time that we decided on MYOB Greentree as a solution that we also decided that we needed a higher level of IT support and management. Comvision came recommended and were attractive because they were able to offer us a team of IT consultants with experience across a wide range of IT areas. The other advantage we saw was that they always had available resources when we needed them and we were never left waiting when we needed IT assistance.
We saw an immediate change in our IT management, they weren’t just focused on fixing issues as they occurred, but proactively assisted us with IT budgets and asset and risk management.
How does the integration of Star and Comvision’s services work for you?
The real benefit of using Comvision and Star is that we trust both companies to work together in the background to provide the best solution for our business. Comvision ensure that our underlying IT infrastructure and critical systems such as back up and disaster recovery, meet the requirements set down by Star for the MYOB Greentree system. Star are able to work with Comvision when they need to provide critical maintenance to the MYOB Greentree system.
We’ve seen it in other businesses where the IT Company and the software provider blame each other and nothing ends up getting done. That’s the real benefit of working with two professional organisations, we know that they are always working in our best interests.
What are the biggest challenges you face with your IT systems?
The biggest challenge we face is IT downtime. We are focussed on minimising the risk of downtime to our IT systems. Our IT infrastructure is so integral to our business, that every hour our system isn’t working at 100% it is costing us money.
Around half our staff work out on the road in challenging environments and Comvision have assisted in implementing a strategy to streamline out IT efficiencies not only in-house but in the field. This has been a huge cultural shift in our company to move to an IT system that is now so integrated into our day to day operations.
Where do you see your IT systems going in the future?
We are currently investigating mobile tablet access for all our field team, enabling them to utilise MYOB Greentree, update job information and status and generally communicate with the office and customers without the need to tether to slow and cumbersome laptops. This is going to be another large shift in our thinking for our business and will raise new challenges such as another round of training and staff buy-in as well as technical issues like data protection and security and constant connectivity to our systems while on the road and sometimes in remote locations.
At Mobile Electrics we see ourselves as being at the forefront of technology. We utilise IT throughout our business to improve our efficiency and deliver a cost effective solution to our business partners.
This is why our decision to select the best possible support partners is paramount to our business.