Wholly-owned by ITV Studios, ProVision offers an inventory of approximately 20,000 items to the film and TV industry from depots in Manchester and Leeds.

The Challenge

With a growing inventory, ProVision reached a situation where it was no longer feasible to meet its operational requirements using spreadsheets and a basic asset management solution.

“Managing our increasingly complex stock list was becoming a challenge,” claimed Danny Howarth, ProVision Sales and Operations Manager. “We wanted to tie all the management operations into one, front to back-end management solution that also included a comprehensive tracking and booking functionality.”

The Solution

ProVision set about finding an integrated hire management solution that would meet all its requirements for system flexibility, scalability and functionality. After reviewing several products available on the market, ProVision opted for MCS-rm, the hire software system from hire management specialists, MCS.

“It was the enormous flexibility of MCS-rm that attracted us,” Danny continued. “It’s a massively comprehensive system that delivers on many of the functional areas we had requirements for.”

Such was the unique nature of ProVision’s operation, the company also asked MCS to incorporate several progressive new modifications before implementation.

“We agreed a whole raft of technologically advanced functionality specific to our business, such as integrated bar-coding and customised scanner sound alerts” Danny said. “Also, Deal Pricing was particularly valuable for us with its ability to apply different pre-agreed customer discounts as well as capture verbally agreed discounts for multiple orders at the point of sale.”

The Benefits

Every one of the staff at ProVision now has a hand in using MCS-rm at some level. For example, the bespoke integrated bar-coding functionality enables the warehouse staff to check equipment in and out while supporting Danny’s inventory control responsibilities.

“Some items don’t have a serial number, so bar-coding lets us identify them electronically,“ explained Danny. “Information captured by our bar code scanners is automatically uploaded into MCS-rm enabling us to track all inventory items, large or small, whether on hire or off hire or travelling between depots.

Furthermore, scanner operators also benefit from bespoke sound alerts developed by MCS that ensures they take action when a scanner has highlighted a problem, such as when an item is due for a service.

The integrated bar-coding capability also means Danny and his colleagues have access to the history of every item in the system. This highlights key performance indicators such as utilisation and equipment trends - an invaluable tool for inventory control and business planning.

Another innovative feature is the ‘Today’ screen which offers a useful daily reminder of that day’s events and actionable activities to deliver time and laboursaving benefits.

ProVision Van“At the click of my mouse, I can see 73 live contracts today plus five deliveries, no collections and no overdue collections,” Danny demonstrated. “Anything overdue can be immediately actioned and resolved.”

Likewise, once a customer has confirmed a hire over the telephone, Danny can instantly create a contract by clicking a handy ‘Hire Now’ button which automatically imports the equipment into a contract.

Danny explained that, due to the size of their inventory and complexity of their contracts, ProVision need the ability to respond with equal efficiency to a simple one day hire for a camera or a 12 week film shoot that creates up to 500 lines of items on one contract. The Availability and Price Enquiry screen in MCS-rm lets Danny access product information quickly and accurately and add it, along with the pricing, to a contract.

Danny explained that Provision are still exploring the full potential of MCS-rm.

The Future

Danny is looking forward to incorporating portable appliance testing (PAT) information into MCS-rm so that the electrical safety certification status of every item of equipment can be recorded and held on the item. If the PAT certificate is expired, the system will alert the warehouse and the correct action taken.

“We are also talking to MCS about integrating an electronic signature pad capability so we have an electronic record of signed deliveries and collections,” Danny concluded.

To find out how MCS-rm could help your business, call us on +27 (0)11 083 7530 or use our enquiry form.

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