Business Operations

Smarte Carte Saves 200 Hours Per Month with GoCanvas Inspections

Transportation workers looking at digital work orders on tablet.

How Smarte Carte Saves 200 Hours Per Month on Inspections

Overview 

  • Industry: Transportation & Logistics
  • HQ Location: White Bear Lake, Minnesota
  • Website: Visit Here

Quick Facts

  • Created & deployed 10+ mobile forms
  • Recovered 200 hours/app per month in productivity
  • Over 26,000+ digital records captured annually

The Background

Founded in 1970, Smarte Carte has grown into a global enterprise of 1,300+ employees that service over 1,900 locations worldwide. Their inventory of self-service luggage carts, lockers, strollers, and more can be seen in almost every major airport, train station, mall, amusement park, resort, and fitness club across the world. With their ever-expanding footprint across the world, it quickly became a top priority that Smarte Carte was able to view and access field data in real time.

The Problem

Every day, hundreds of Smarte Carte service technicians are dispatched to various client locations to inspect and service equipment. When service technicians were previously using paper forms, data would routinely come back to the office late or with data errors. These mistakes made it almost impossible for team leaders like Eric Zitelman, Retail Regional Manager, to be able to efficiently track the daily production of their field employees.

The Solution

This is why Eric and several other team leaders at Smarte Carte decided to deploy GoCanvas mobile forms in order to increase the consistency and accuracy of the data collected at client locations

For Smarte Carte, the deployment of GoCanvas mobile forms started with a pilot of 450 fitness clubs across the United States. The reason? Eric Zitelman and his fellow regional team leaders needed a better way to track the daily productivity of their field service technicians.

With GoCanvas, Smarte Carte was able to create mobile forms that require service technicians to collect all the key pieces of information about the equipment they are inspecting before they are able to submit it. Once completed, the technician reports now automatically transmit directly from their mobile device to their regional supervisor. This allows for the instant analysis of each report in real-time, as well as the tracking of the productivity of each technician on a daily basis. Due to the success of the pilot program, Smarte Carte now uses GoCanvas across 1,600 fitness clubs!

The Outcomes

Since then, Smarte Carte has expanded its use cases to include everything from Field Service Reports to Driver Time Logs. These mobile forms utilize features such as:

  • GPS Capture
  • Photo Capture
  • Reference Data
  • PDF Designer

These features help Eric and the upper management at Smarte Carte to quickly verify the accuracy of all the data being collected, as well as to generate highly detailed reports. This enables them to track critical performance KPIs on the backend and to make proactive decisions within their global operations process.

Since starting with GoCanvas in 2017, Smarte Carte is still finding new ways to integrate GoCanvas mobile forms into their various departments and workflows. In their first year of using GoCanvas to replace paper reports, Smarte Carte has captured and stored over 26,000 digital records. This has resulted in a recovery of over 200 hours per month in productivity!

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

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Centurian Transport saves $100k every year with GoCanvas

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Feature Focus: Import Your Database with Reference Data

Posted on by Danny Kanev

Feature Focus: Import Your Database with Reference Data

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Introducing: Reference Data

Speed up data collection with automated fields

When new users ask, “what makes GoCanvas so different than paper?”, I immediately point out Reference Data. The reason is that with paper, you are always stuck in 2nd gear filling out your form. There is no faster way to manually fill out a piece of paper unless you grow a 3rd arm. With Reference Data, you are instantly putting your employees into 5th gear by giving them access to your company catalogs and database from right within your mobile forms.

How it works

Reference data is a core feature that is available for all users of the GoCanvas platform. You simply upload a .CSV(Excel) file with the information you wish to connect to your mobile form(s) and use the App Builder to connect that datasheet to the relevant data fields. After this quick update has been made, your users will be able to dynamically pick from these values when filling our their mobile form.

Getting started with Reference Data

For example, say your employee selects the value “John Doe” from a drop down field in the mobile form. By selecting “John Doe”, this will automatically populate the Address, City, State, and Zip Code fields that correspond to that specific value. Below is an example of the datasheet that would have been uploaded and connected to the mobile form.                                             

Best use cases

The great thing about Reference Data is that it can be applied to almost every industry and process.

The most popular use cases are:

  • Customer & Vendor Lists
  • Project Locations
  • Parts, Price, and Material Lists
  • County or State Tax Rates
  • Employee Names
  • Inspection Scoring

Each of the above would typically reside in an Excel sheet (like the one above), so Reference Data simply takes that data and makes it accessible through your mobile forms. No more carrying around spreadsheets or catalogs.

Benefits

The first obvious benefit of using Reference Data is the time savings. Instead of having to look up and fill out multiple fields manually, you can simply just fill out a single field (usually a drop down) and have it automatically populate the rest of the form. This can easily save you 5-10 minutes per section compared to manually filling out each field.

The second benefit is data quality. When using Reference Data, you are eliminating the need for data lookup or hand typing. What this means is that since the information is being populated from a company spreadsheet, the likelihood of a misspelling or incorrect value is essentially eliminated. Therefore you no longer have to worry about things like incorrect client addresses or inaccurate service quotes since all the information is pulling directly from the corresponding spreadsheets.

The third benefit is automated scoring and reporting. Many customers use Reference Data to create inspections with simple sometimes complex) scoring based on how each user fills out the form. This is most prevalent within inspection forms where you are reviewing a number of items and need to get a final score/rating.

Reference Data allows you to assign a numerical value like “1” every time an item is marked as “Pass” and then automatically total up each item into a final score. This scoring functionality not only allows you to get instant insight as soon as one of your employees fills out an inspection, but it also saves you the time of having to manually review each form and count up their score.

With automatic scoring, reporting is made a snap. Now a manager can receive a PDF report, see if it “Passed” or “Failed”, and immediately start making corrective actions if necessary.

Overall, Reference Data is for anyone looking to cut down on mistakes, speed up data capture, and increase the quality of their data. If you are not currently using this feature, reach out to Info@gocanvas.com to learn more!

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About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

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Release Notes: New Functionality for the App Builder & PDF Designer

Posted on by Danny Kanev

Release Notes: New Functionality for the App Builder & PDF Designer

I’m not even sure where to start with this release! There are a lot of new things along with some enhancements to the user interface in our App Builder and PDF Designer in the spirit of making them easier to use. A number of these changes were done to make the controls inside the App Builder identical to the controls inside the PDF Designer so there is familiarity between the two tools.

Brand New Functionality

I’m sure you’re more interested in the brand new stuff, so let’s start there.

App Builder

We added a number of new things to help you save even more time using GoCanvas!

Barcode Field – Read-Only Capability

Now you can make a barcode field “Read Only”. This might be a misnomer, but what this allows you to do is force your user to use the camera and actually scan a barcode. They are not able to manually type in whatever value they want. Customers have wanted to ensure that their mobile users are actually scanning a barcode and this will do the trick.

View Grid

Our “Grid” functionality is an alternative way for your mobile user to use a “Loop” or “List” screen. Now you can see what that Grid will look like on mobile inside the App Builder. One thing to note is that you cannot edit when viewing the Grid. It just shows you a preview so you can see how things will look for your mobile user.

***NOTE***: Grid functionality must be enabled for you by our team here at GoCanvas. If you want it turned on, please email us at support@gocanvas.com. We are happy to enable it for your account.

Identify Conditional Screens and Fields

One thing that can be rather painful is not knowing which screens and fields are set to be conditional. We have added some icons so you can easily identify them now. This will save you a lot of time when building and editing your GoCanvas Apps!

Here is how a conditional screen will be identified…

Here is how a conditional field will be identified…

Identify “Invisible” Fields on Mobile Devices

For years and years we have provided the ability to make a field on the mobile device “invisible”. This is used for all kinds of reasons like triggering conditional screens or fields or hiding calculations from mobile users because they don’t need to see them and much more.

The challenge was then knowing which fields were invisible when working inside the App Builder. Problem solved!

We have added a dotted line around a field that is invisible.

The name of this setting was changed to “Mobile Visible”, too. We wanted to clarify that this setting impacted the field on the mobile device only. You can always see it in the App Builder so you can edit it.

PDF Designer

We continue to add functionality to our PDF Designer so it is faster to create beautiful PDFs and so you have functionality that makes the PDF more engaging for your audience.

More Social Icons & Styling Tools

We really want to encourage you to use your customer-facing documents as additional marketing tools. Encourage your customers to connect with you on Facebook, review your services on Angie’s List (Or Google or Yelp), follow you on Twitter and more. I know this might be new to many of you, but you will grow your business doing this.

Outside of that you can link people to your website, of course. Or link them to specific pages on your site to provide additional information outside of what is in the PDF.

  1. New social icons: We added Angie’s List, Google Reviews, Home Advisor, and Yelp.
  2. Alignment: You can now align the social icons just like any other Element.
  3. Vertical Spacing: This control is on other Elements and fields in the PDF Designer, but it allows you to control the spacing around the social icon itself. Play around with it to see how it works.

User Interface Enhancements

We made some changes within both tools to make them easier to use and a lot more understandable for newer users.

App Builder

You’ll notice some new “Tool Tips” placed throughout the App Builder to help folks understand how things work. Sometimes there will be a question mark you hover over and sometimes you’ll just hover over the word or icon associated with the feature. Here is an example for Screen Conditions.

Field Settings – More

GoCanvas is really powerful, which makes it harder for folks to understand. So we have made changes to the More area under Field Settings.

  1. Mobile Visible: As mentioned above, we changed the name of this feature. Previously it was called “App Visible”. We wanted to more clearly call out that this impacts behavior on the mobile device.
  2. Place value in…: Previously these were all presented as separate choices. We wanted to group these together to help folks understand that the behavior for each is somewhat similar. You are placing the value entered in the field in the areas listed.
  3. PDF & Web Label: Previously this was called “Report Label”. No one really knew what the “report” was, though! The report is the PDF and the label would show up on the web view, too. So we wanted to make this clearer.

Field Settings – Standard PDF

The Standard PDF is the default design that all GoCanvas Apps use initially (Although this has started to change, too!). Some of the controls in the App Builder impact behavior on that Standard PDF. Previously this was not clearly communicated to our users. It is even more confusing now that we have the PDF Designer.

So we created a new section under Field Settings called “Standard PDF”. Any controls in that section impact the Standard PDF ONLY. You will find this under any field that has controls that only impact the Standard PDF.

Top Controls

We moved the buttons that were previously on the top left up higher to create more space inside the editing area. The buttons are now on the right and are higher. You’ll also notice a very slight change to the “Add Screen” button.

PDF Designer

You will also find some “Tool Tips” throughout the PDF Designer to help folks understand how things function.

Top Controls

We changed the buttons around to match what is now in the App Builder. These buttons are also found at the top right instead of the left.

And we moved the Auto Layout controls to the left side.

Feedback

Phew! That is a lot of stuff! Please tell us what you think! You can send feedback to feedback@gocanvas.com anytime. We love, love, love hearing from you. Tell us what YOU want GoCanvas to do to save you even more time.

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About GoCanvas

GoCanvas® is on a mission to simplify inspections and maximize compliance. Our intuitive platform takes care of the administrative tasks, freeing our customers to focus on what truly matters – safeguarding their people, protecting their equipment, and delivering exceptional quality to their customers. 

Since 2008, thousands of companies have chosen GoCanvas as their go-to partner for seamless field operations.

Check out even more resources

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TekPak Inc. Mobilizes Their Manufacturing Line and Saves $121K

worker in a manufacturing bakery factory

How TekPak Inc. Mobilized Their Manufacturing Line and Saved $121K 

The Background

As a packaging and manufacturer of everything from deodorizers to medical-grade equipment, TekPak had a paper form for everything. The ability to produce so many things was leading them to accumulate stacks and stacks of paper forms that could not be properly filled out and reviewed on a daily basis. This was resulting in a ton of inefficiencies occurring within their manufacturing process, especially in the areas of Safety, Operations, Engineering, and Quality Assurance. These are the same areas that Ryan Hutson, Technical Services Director at TekPak, wanted to focus on improving when he first met with the Senior Mobile Consultants at GoCanvas.

The Problem

Ryan Hutson needed GoCanvas’ help in streamlining the process of 5 different departments including Safety, Operations, IT, Engineering, and Quality Assurance. These 5 departments shared the same common issues. These issues included the inability to view and analyze data in real-time, the inability to properly organize and manage documents, and having no adequate way to track and review employee time.

The Solution

GoCanvas worked with the TekPak team to begin creating dynamic mobile forms and processes based on their old paper copies. An important part of this process was the implementation of “Workflow“.

This functionality of GoCanvas gives TekPak the ability to have one employee fill out a portion of a form on their smart device and automatically send it to their supervisor’s device for review/approval. It also can be used for employees working at stations on the manufacturing line who are inspecting products. This helps speed up the transfer of information without sacrificing accuracy. Employees no longer have to write everything on a clipboard, leaving their station, and track down a supervisor. Now everything is automated for them right on their tablet.

TekPak also utilized the “Folders” functionality of GoCanvas which allows them to easily manage, organize, and assign data both for their employees and their back office staff. When employees sign into their mobile devices, they just click on the folder of the department that they are assigned and fill out those specific mobile forms. No confusion, no mistakes. The back office can also retrieve, analyze, and export data on these department or workgroup folders as well!

The Outcomes

Since fully deploying Canvas almost 2 years ago, TekPak completed over 48,000+ mobile form submissions and reduced their paper costs by almost $7,000 annually. GoCanvas has given the supervisors like Ryan Hutson at TekPak the ability to not only receive accurate and timely information from their employees on the manufacturing line but also have the ability to view and create real-time reports. These reports are critical for keeping up with quality control and assurance standards and reducing mistakes that could cost the company thousands.

In all, TekPak has developed over 50+ mobile forms using the no-code, drag-and-drop form builder. They have been able to take almost all their process mobile with GoCanvas, which has led to a 50% increase in productivity and a $126,210 annual Return on Investment.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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Sierra National Asphalt Increases Productivity by 50% with GoCanvas

Sierra National Asphalt Increases Productivity by 50% with GoCanvas Mobile Forms

Overview 

  • Industry: Construction, General Engineering
  • Location: California, U.S.A.
  • Website: Visit Here

Quick Facts

  • Saving 845 hours annually in productivity
  • Eliminated $4,160 in annual paper costs
  • Seeing a $50,000 Return on Investment

The Background

There is a popular saying that goes “time is money”, and nothing is truer when it comes to the Construction industry. For Sierra National Asphalt(SNA), and their asphalt and engineering experts, they realized they were losing hundreds of hours on a monthly basis due to inefficient data collection processes. This was turning into longer projects, which resulted into more expensive projects, and resulted in a loss on their bottom line. With GoCanvas mobile forms, the SNA work crews are now able to collect and transfer their daily reports right from the work site. Resulting in fewer lost forms, quicker processing of reports, and virtually zero data re-entry by office staff. More time, more money.

The Problem

When the GoCanvas team first met with Sandee Pierce, Administrative Director at Sierra National Asphalt, the goal was not to sell a solution but to understand what parts in the process were breaking down and how they could be made more efficient. The Senior Mobile Application Consultants worked with Sandee and her team to map out a success plan that included fixing the areas in which they were losing valuable time, increasing the speed of billing and invoicing, and increasing the visibility of data across all departments.

The Solution

The GoCanvas mobile platform that was customized for SNA included a dual Timesheet and Daily Report application. This allowed the field users to record both their time and the activities completed on their specific job site.

Sierra National Asphalt took advantage of Canvas’ Reference Data feature by connecting their internal Project, Material, and Employee lists directly to the mobile application. This allows their users to simply select values from a drop-down instead of manually typing data into each individual field. This has significantly cut down on inaccurate, misspelled reports being sent back to the office.

And now, when a report is completed on the field user’s mobile device, all the information is automatically submitted to the office and stored in Sierra National Asphalt’s secure Canvas cloud database for immediate review by the office staff.

“The Supervisors do not have to go to job sites to track down and collect time sheets [anymore]. The reference data and validation tables have reduced the errors that previously caused corrections by the supervisors and office staff,” remarked Sandee Pierce. “Output reports have reduced the time it takes to enter time data into payroll.”

The Outcomes

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the old saying. With the automation of their frontend data collecting and backend reporting, Sierra National Asphalt has recouped over 845 hours in productivity annually since implementing GoCanvas. They’ve cut out over $4,000 in paper costs and saw a full return on their investment in GoCanvas within the first 6 months of deployment.

With the right platform and support, SNA was able to implement a system that is now managing their data, increasing their productivity by 50%, and making them money.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

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Karl Storz Saves $115k by Switching to GoCanvas

manufacturing man using a tablet in a factory

How Karl Storz Saved $115k by Switching to GoCanvas

Check out the GoCanvas Case Study!

The Background

Karl Storz – Endoskope, founded in 1945 and headquartered in Germany, is a global manufacturer and distributor of endoscopes, medical instruments, and devices. For the past 70+ years, Karl Storz has been servicing the healthcare industry across the globe with their top-of-the-line medical equipment.

The Problem

But like any company that has been around for almost 8 decades, Karl Storz found themselves holding onto some of the processes of the past. The most problematic of these processes was the act of collecting data with paper. Paper was causing them to run into issues including hours being spent on data re-entry, slow invoicing times, lost or unreadable forms, and the inability to retrieve reports in real-time.

When working with the team at Karl Storz, it was important to fully scope out the process and departments that were being most affected by the slow data collection methods. It was recognized and decided that the Project Management team was being the most affected in their daily work lives and needed a better way to manage/complete their inspections, checklists, and customer-facing documents.

Overall, we identified that the biggest challenges that Karl Storz was facing included the ability to properly manage projects, processing client invoices in a timely manner, and having the ability to review/share reports in real-time. To address these issues, it was important to develop a platform that would encompass all the processes and functionality that were currently missing from their paper-based process. This would include the implementation of features like Dispatch, App Folders, Reference data, and more.

The Solution

A little over a year ago, Karl Storz went live with GoCanvas in order to replace the out-dated data collection processes that were stunting the growth of their business. Karl Storz chose GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for businesses, because of the platform’s ease of use, superior features, and excellent account support. This has led to a mass adoption of mobile technology throughout the business and a full deployment of GoCanvas to their facilities.

“We are getting documents completed faster and more accurately (with GoCanvas)”, remarked Ericka Flores, Karl Storz.

The Outcomes

Since implementing GoCanvas, Karl Storz has seen a huge impact on their organization. With their process now digitized, Karl Storz is now saving 3 hours per workday by using GoCanvas. With those extra three hours per day, operators can now spend time focusing on things that will make the company more money! And since all the information is collected on their mobile device and automatically transferred to their secured GoCanvas cloud database, there are no longer lost or incomplete forms. Managers now retrieve and review forms in real-time, and invoicing can begin right away. 

  • Increasing Organization –  Karl Storz has created over 15+ different mobile processes since fully deploying GoCanvas. To help their employees complete the right forms, Karl Storz has utilized the “App Folders” functionality of GoCanvas to help organize everything. They can name these folders by process or project, and place specific mobile forms in these folders to access when they are on their mobile devices or the website. And on the backend, they can now search and export data based on each folder.
  •  Increasing Productivity –  Since implementing GoCanvas, Karl Storz is now able to track everything within their business. Everything from inspections, checklists, industry compliance forms, and even customer acknowledgment reports have been turned into mobile forms that can be filled out and shared right from their mobile device. In turn, this has decreased the time it takes to capture, share and analyze all this data on a daily basis. Overall, it has increased their productivity by up to 34%.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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Llewellyn Smith Increases Productivity by 50% with GoCanvas

A man wearing a hard hat at a job site digitally updates his team in real-time using a tablet.

How Llewellyn Smith Uses GoCanvas to Increase Productivity by 50%

Llewellyn Smith logo

The Background

Llewellyn Smith, founded in 2002 and based in England, has provided on-site technical monitoring of energy efficiency measures in households throughout the UK for almost 15 years. With their dedication to sustainability and productivity, they began looking for a way to solve issues they were running into caused by paper.

The Problem

Prior to finding GoCanvas, all of their day-to-day data collection was being done on paper. Everything from home inspections, site surveys, technical monitoring reports, and even health & safety inspections were all done with pen and paper. This was causing issues not only with the field technicians who were wasting countless hours manually filling out these paper-based forms but also frustrating the office personnel who would have to wait hours(if not days) to receive the final paperwork and re-enter the data into their databases. Llewellyn Smith needed a complete solution that would make the lives of both their office and field crews streamlined and more productive on a daily basis.

The Solution

Prior to finding GoCanvas, all of their day-to-day data collection was being done on paper. Everything from home inspections, site surveys, technical monitoring reports, and even health & safety inspections were all done with pen and paper. This was causing issues not only with the field technicians who were wasting countless hours manually filling out these paper-based forms but also frustrating the office personnel who would have to wait hours(if not days) to receive the final paperwork and re-enter the data into their databases. Llewellyn Smith needed a complete solution that would make the lives of both their office and field crews streamlined and more productive on a daily basis.

The Outcomes

Even though Llewellyn Smith was located in the United Kingdom, GoCanvas worked with Dafydd and his team’s schedule to develop an implementation plan to guarantee success no matter the time zone. The goal was to deploy the GoCanvas platform across both the IT and Safety departments in order to upgrade the outdated paper processes within these key areas of operation. Challenges included the slow collection times of invoices, the inability to quickly track/search customer documents, and the inability to generate reports in real-time. In order to address these challenges, GoCanvas went about creating a platform of mobile forms that encompassed Llewellyn Smith’s current data collection processes of surveys, inspections, checklists, and audits into one single database.

Llewellyn Smith has seen a complete transformation in the way they collected, share, and analyze data. Not only does the office receive and analyze reports as soon as the field techs complete them, but they now have a searchable cloud database for all their documents. This new streamlined way of collecting, sharing, and storing data is saving them close to 3+ hours per day. They are now able to reinvest that time into scheduling more appointments that make them more money.

Since implementing GoCanvas 3 years ago, Llewellyn Smith has seen massive benefits across their entire organization:

  • Real-time Data – Today, Llewellyn Smith captures almost 400+ paperless reports weekly with GoCanvas. Every report is automatically filed in their online cloud database, and a PDF copy is sent to each field technician’s assigned supervisor for review. This has reduced the total number of hours spent on travel, manual data re-entry, and reporting by over 1,000+ hours yearly.
  • Increasing Productivity – With over 60+ mobile forms created in their lifetime with GoCanvas, Llewellyn Smith has definitely recognized the benefits of going paperless. Since going paperless over 3 years ago, Llewellyn Smith has seen a 50%+ increase in productivity and a net savings of over $400,000.
  • 1,105 Hours in productivity saved annually.
  • $7,098 saved in paper costs per year.
  • $139,828 yearly return on investment.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

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Improving Your Manufacturing Workflow With Apps

Have you ever wondered how manufacturing companies like Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Intel, and Nike remain at the forefront of their industries? These companies obsess over optimizing their manufacturing process. To create and maintain a near-flawless workflow…

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Wastewater Processing: 8 Tips to Make Your Manufacturing Site More Sustainable

When it comes to wastewater disposal, manufacturers can place a significant strain on municipal water systems. The lack of proper waste management leads to sanitary waste, particularly in metropolitan areas’ water supply.

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How a Fortune 100 Retailer Saves Over $1.7M Annually with GoCanvas

Major Retailer Takes the Step to Eliminate Paperwork One Store at a Time

Overview 

GoCanvas Apps Used

  • Facility Walkthrough Checklist
  • Auto Door Safety Check
  • Daily PM Checklist
  • Time Tracking Log
  • Fire Sprinkler Checklist
  • Pressure Washing / Sidewalk Inspection

Highlights

  • 2,000+ users across North America
  • Over 100 custom mobile apps created without IT
  • Manual data entry eliminated
  • Average of 3,400 hours saved weekly across all stores
  • Zero IT involvement

The Background

This retailer, which we will keep anonymous due to competitive advantage concerns, consistently ranks in the top 50 on the Fortune 500 and holds a market cap that exceeds $40 billion. This is a company that is consistently competing against some of the largest companies in the world and constantly looking for an edge in the market.  They approached GoCanvas about developing a mobile-based tool that their store supervisors could use to inspect all aspects of their stores including merchandise displays, loading docks, HVAC units, and parking lots.

The Problem

Previously each store used paper-based checklists and inspection reports that staff were required to manually complete 5 times daily. This paper-based process was not only slow, in terms of actually filling out the data, but it was also not conducive for quickly collecting, sharing, or analyzing the data. The store managers would have to collect all these paper forms, hundreds of them by the end of the week, and re-key all this information into their database management systems. Conservatively, this was taking each store manager 2 hours per week to do this redundant work.

The Solution

The major retailer chose GoCanvas in order to streamline their many weekly and daily task lists. Thousands of organizations leverage Canvas’s cloud-based, Android/IOS/Windows-based platform to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps.

The retailer chose the GoCanvas platform based on how dynamic and customizable it was. There was no large upfront investment, and the retailer was able to build their own apps and have them deployed within a couple of weeks. With GoCanvas, subscribers have the ability to design their own apps using the no-code, drag-and-drop builder. For those who prefer not to build their own, GoCanvas provides over 20,000 pre-built business App templates to choose from in their Application Store.

A GoCanvas Senior Consultant worked personally with the retailer to make sure they were familiar with and comfortable with implementing the platform. The best part about the GoCanvas platform is that there is no complex coding or IT knowledge needed. Many companies, including retailers, are turning to internal “citizen developers” to create their GoCanvas apps without the need for the IT department! This helps to speed up deployment and not have to bog down internal resources with unnecessary projects.

The retailer conducted a six-month pilot program of GoCanvas with a small pool of their facility technicians. The pilot was a success, showing boosts of 25% – 45% in both productivity and data capture accuracy. Based on these results, they proceeded to expand the program across North America and to more than 1,700 stores.

The Outcomes

Today, with over 2,000 technicians using GoCanvas throughout the United States and Canada, GoCanvas is used exclusively for all retail store inspections. Each month, the retailer captures and stores over 70,000 digital records using GoCanvas and has saved just over $72,000 by eliminating write-offs. This does not even take into account the elimination of costs such as ordering paper forms, printer ink, filing and storage fees, and wages for data entry staff.

Now with GoCanvas, all the data collected from their 1,700+ stores seamlessly integrates with the retailer’s business intelligence software, Tableau. And since there is no need to re-type everything into the system anymore, they save an average of 3,400 hours per week globally. Since implementing GoCanvas just under two years ago, the retailer has seen gross productivity savings of just over $ 755,000.

Impact

  • Real-Time Access to Data – The retailer takes all the data collected across their 1,700+ stores and has it pushed into their Tableau business intelligence database instantly via the GoCanvas API so that there is no wasted time. This saves them on average 3,400 hours per week in lost productivity globally. 
  • Rapid App Development & Deployment – With Canvas’ easy-to-use drag-and-drop app builder, the retailer was able to customize their platform and get their pilot group started in a couple of weeks! From there they have built over 100+ different apps to serve the needs of their thousands of locations. This has led to the retailer completing just over 270,000 digital records in just under 4 months. 
  • Technological Flexibility – Previously, the retailer had to work through the IT department in order to make any major changes that involved technology. Now, with GoCanvas, they don’t have to! GoCanvas gives them a platform where they can empower “citizen developers” within the company to develop the platform to fit the needs of the various departments. No coding or IT department time is required.

[Update 5/5/2016] Based on further reporting and analysis of the data, it was found that the retailer is saving on average 2 -3 hours of productivity in each store weekly. Across 1,700 stores, paying their facility technicians an average of $10 – $15, this breaks down to savings of $36,000 a week. Across 52 weeks, this equals savings of just over $1.76M annually!

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

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Trucking Company Saves $750k Automating Field Operations with GoCanvas

Man on tablet in front of a moving truck.

How This Trucking Company Saved Over $750,000 by Automating Field Operations

Canvas Case Study: Trucking Company

The Background

This trucking company, which chose to remain anonymous for competitive reasons, has a deep history of providing transportation services for the Oil & Gas industry in the United States. They began the search for a mobile solution due to their overall lack of real-time reporting and inability to track the 24-hour activity of their trucks on the road.

The Problem

Prior to GoCanvas, the trucking company suffered from many of the same issues that plague others in this industry. Slow, lost, untraceable paper forms were making their day-to-day operations a nightmare. Paper forms were not reaching the office 2,3, or 4+ days after the driver had filled them out. Sometimes drivers would neglect to fill out certain forms because they were so time-consuming to complete and turn-in. This resulted in the managers at the trucking company having very little visibility into the status and condition of their trucks, as well as the inability to make proactive decisions within their business because the information was being transferred so slowly with paper.

The Solution

When the trucking company approached GoCanvas almost three years ago, they were looking for a solution to their data collection and sharing needs. A Senior Mobile App Consultant worked with the trucking company to identify the holes in their current process and create a success plan to address those issues.

“We are able to constantly adjust to our environment with GoCanvas”

Trucking companies, big and small, that operate in almost every industry can search from over 20,000 pre-built mobile form templates in the GoCanvas Application store, or drill down further and look specifically at mobile form templates for Transportation and Warehousing. These can be completely customized with the online, drag-and-drop App Builder tool to fit an organization’s specific processes.  Using that same tool many businesses, like the trucking company, elect to build their own mobile forms from scratch. They decided to incorporate features like checkboxes, digital signature capture, integrated truck/parts lists(via Excel), and auto-calculations. Other features include GPS capture, image capture, barcode scanning, and more. The trucking company ultimately chose GoCanvas because of the platform’s design flexibility and quick deployment. “We are able to constantly adjust to our environment with Canvas” commented an office manager at the trucking company.

After signing up for a free trial of GoCanvas, a Senior Mobile App Consultant got to work tailoring the GoCanvas platform to fit the trucking company’s needs. Without the help of any IT resources, the trucking company was able to develop a new safety program based around the GoCanvas platform. This included the implementation of:

  • Safety & equipment based audit forms for specific departments
  • Pre-populated dropdowns for projects and employees to prevent reporting errors
  • Integration of their GoCanvas database to Quickbase

The best part is that this implementation took weeks, not months. With the use of Canvas’ powerful App Builder tool, which allows “citizen developers” to create their own apps to meet their specifications without any coding or techy language, the trucking company was able to create, deploy, and field test in just a couple weeks.

“Before GoCanvas, we relied on managers and mechanics to tell us how the trucks were performing. Today, we can report 24/7 on the conditions of the trucks.”

The Outcomes

Since fully implementing GoCanvas over three years ago, the trucking company has been able to totally change the way they do business. “Before GoCanvas, we relied on managers and mechanics to tell us how the truck was performing. Today, we can report 24/7 on the conditions of the trucks.”

With their new mobile forms, the company supervisors no longer have to chase down trucks to retrieve vehicle inspection reports. Every crew is now able to submit their daily field and truck audits from wherever they are, and their supervisor gets alerted in real-time. Their integration with QuickBase then pulls the information that was submitted from the field and quickly analyzes it to start identifying trends within the safety data. This ability to see and create reports in real-time has allowed the company to become more “proactive” when it comes to safety, instead of waiting for a major accident to happen and reacting to it.

Overall, the trucking company has seen an amazing return on its investment in GoCanvas. Their returns have not only shown up on the balance sheet but also in their daily productivity as a business.

“No longer are we waiting for the drivers to come in to report an issue. We now know ahead of time and have a solution ready to go. We went from being reactive to proactive.”

Major benefits include:

  • Improved Job Performance – Since implementing the GoCanvas platform, the managers at the trucking company have seen a 100% increase in the number of daily audits completed and received. This has resulted in the company being able to have full insight into how their drivers are performing, the real-time condition of their trucks, and the ability to make proactive decisions regarding maintenance and safety.
  • Improved Accuracy of Data  – By implementing mobile forms that pre-populate with driver names and locations, no longer are the days of receiving paper forms that are misspelled, missing information, or are illegible. By eliminating paper from these specific processes, the trucking company is saving upwards of $36,000 annually.
  • Rapid Reporting & Integration  – With the GoCanvas platform, the trucking company now receives all their daily audits on time, when they need them. They schedule automatically. CSV reports allow them to easily view what is happening on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis. They have even integrated their GoCanvas database into their existing QuickBase system to further analyze their data in real-time. A manager at the trucking company commented that “No longer are we waiting for the drivers to come in to report an issue. We now know ahead of time and have a solution ready to go. We went from being reactive to proactive.”

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

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How Plymouth Electric Saved $121k in One Year with GoCanvas

A electrician inspecting equipment.

How Plymouth Electric Saved $121,700 in One Year with GoCanvas

Plymouth electric logo

The Background

Since 1979, Plymouth Electric Inc. has been providing fast and reliable completion of all types of electrical jobs. Their professional team in Plymouth, NE is just as comfortable taking care of your home’s electric heaters as they are installing alarm systems in large commercial facilities. Plymouth Electric works across all industries to provide complete, premium quality electrical services. When it comes to perfectly completed electrical jobs, Plymouth Electric Inc. is an industry leader.

The Problem

Prior to GoCanvas, Plymouth Electric was similar to many other electrical contractors in the world today in that they did everything on paper. The use of paper was causing multiple issues in their business including inventory control issues, mistakes in recording accurate data on job sites, and hours of back-office data re-entry into their pre-existing database systems. These errors caused by paper forms were adding up serval hours per week of wasted time and productivity, which equaled thousands of dollars in lost revenues

The Solution

Last March, Plymouth Electric went live with the GoCanvas App in order to start taking back the hours they were losing due to their inefficient paper process. Plymouth chose GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business, because of the flexibility of the platform and its quick deployment structure. Beth Weishahn of Plymouth Electric commented that she
 “enjoyed that we have the ability to change and adapt our app. If something isn’t working, we can change it.”Electrical contractors like Plymouth can search from over 20,000 pre-built app templates in the GoCanvas Application store that can be completely customized with the online, drag-and-drop App Builder tool.  Using that same tool many businesses, like Plymouth Electric, elect to build their own from scratch. They decided to incorporate features like interactive checkboxes, digital signature capture, integrated customer/parts lists(via Excel), and auto-calculations. Other features include GPS capture, image capture, barcode scanning, and more.

After signing up for a free trial of GoCanvas, a Senior Consultant reached out to Beth and the team at Plymouth Electric to set up a client success call and ensure the project go off on the right foot. During this call, the team at GoCanvas analyzed the various business processes at Plymouth and identified where things could become more efficient. From there, the GoCanvas App platform could be customized to fit the exact processes identified during the success call and be tested by the entire Plymouth team!This was done within days with the use of GoCanvas’ powerful App Builder tool, which allows “citizen developers” to create their own apps to meet their specifications without any coding or techy language. The GoCanvas App was able to be created, deployed, and field tested in just a couple weeks.

The Outcomes

Plymouth Electric celebrated their one year anniversary of implementing GoCanvas in March. Over that time, they have been able to eliminate over 1,300 paperwork tickets by implementing the GoCanvas App. This has allowed them to clear up the issues bogging down their inventory reporting process and avoid wasting their in-office personnel’s time have to re-enter the data from paper back into their databases.

Plymouth also commented that the overall reduction of ordering and using paper forms has helped them save on their bottom line. Beth Weishahn commented that “Cutting paper helped save an additional $1,700 for the year.”

Since Plymouth Electric fully deployed the GoCanvas App in April 2015, they have seen a dramatic reduction in overall labor costs and increase in technician productivity.

  • Increase in Labor Efficiency – Since deploying the GoCanvas App, Plymouth has to be able to streamline their front and back-end data capture and storage processes. Now all the information comes back to the office in real-time as a secured PDF and is always available via the cloud for the technicians whenever they need it. They no longer have to right now everything with pen and paper, then drive it back to the office at the end of the day. “In fact, it’s been so efficient that we’ve saved approximately $475 per day in labor costs”, said Beth Weishahn.
  • Solving Inventory Control Issues – By using the GoCanvas App, all the data is able to flow smoothly from the field crews and into their back-office systems. No longer is there paper to bog down the process. Beth Weishahn of Plymouth Electric commented that “Honestly, GoCanvas was our solution to an inventory control problem. We went from having our work tickets as PDF’s to a real money saver in terms of efficiency and inventory accuracy.”
  • Getting Early Returns – Plymouth recently passed the one year mark of using GoCanvas and has seen dramatic returns on their investment. The savings have come from not only labor, but also productivity and material costs.
    Beth stated that “in labor cost alone our savings have been over $120k in the last year across 4 crews”.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

Best Ways to Collect Data in Manufacturing

Data analysis is the heart of any well-functioning manufacturing company. Without accurate, real-time data, manufacturing plants are left in the dark about costs, areas that need improvements, quality assurance, employee production, and so many other valuable insights.

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Have you ever wondered how manufacturing companies like Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Intel, and Nike remain at the forefront of their industries? These companies obsess over optimizing their manufacturing process. To create and maintain a near-flawless workflow…

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When it comes to wastewater disposal, manufacturers can place a significant strain on municipal water systems. The lack of proper waste management leads to sanitary waste, particularly in metropolitan areas’ water supply.

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