Flowervision Choose Maxoptra To Help Cope With Blooming Business

LONDON, January 2014 –Flowervision chose Maxoptra from Magenta Technology to deal with the challenges they face. Being easy to use Maxoptra enabled employees to quickly improve their proficiency. The business was driven forward with minimal costs due to the web based nature of the solution.

Until recently Flowervision London, part of one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fresh cut flowers, pot plants and florist’s sundries, used to organize orders, plan and schedule jobs with one planner using pen and paper.

With a fixed time window putting pressure on the team to organise orders, load vehicles, plan routes and get deliveries on the road, coupled with an increasing customer base, this became untenable. The company needed a solution that could ensure that they could meet this challenge without compromising their customer expectations of ‘order by 10pm for 10am next day delivery’.

Flowervision chose Maxoptra from Magenta Technology to provide the solution they needed. Besides being very simple and intuitive to use thereby enabling staff to quickly become proficient, the web based nature of the solution meant that it was cost effective and scalable so able to accommodate the growth in the business. “Our priority is our customers,” explained Mitch Teitsworth, IT and Technology Manager at Flowervision. “Magenta worked with us to understand what we do so the solution provided works for our business and ensures that we could continue to improve our levels of customer service.”

The company was impressed by the technology, its seamless integration with the TomTom webfleet system already implemented by Cogs Fleet Management Ltd and the Magenta team who did their best to really understand the challenges of their business. They developed a methodology of inputting order volumes into the plan at the very last minute before loading the vehicles and a larger map.

With Maxoptra the Planning Manager can build capacity loads, upload them to the system and quickly review the proposed routes and schedules after that. Moreover, planners can make manual adjustments before printing out manifests for the drivers. Having a clear visibility of the planned start/finish time and integration with the TomTom used by Flowervision, ensures similar working hours for all drivers and minimises human errors as all the details are sent directly from Maxoptra to the driver’s TomTom PRO device. This gives drivers an opportunity to look through their route and delivery schedule any time. Vehicle location is tracked by TomTom device and sent back to the central system in real-time allowing the dispatcher to see such deviations as delays from the planned schedule, thereby enabling Flowervision to inform the customer on ETAs. The data collected can also be used for intelligent reporting which helps understand driver performance, compliance with Health & Safety regulations and areas for improvement.

Integrating Maxoptra into the business has provided Flowervision with a scalable solution that will significantly assist in supporting the business as it grows – improving communication with drivers, enabling pro-active customer service, streamlining the order planning and scheduling process, while ensuring the company continues to meet customer expectations.

Anton Dmitriev, CEO of Magenta, stated “This is further proof that Magenta’s real time dynamic scheduling capabilities and telematics experience can deliver significant bottom line benefits and are helping companies achieve their growth expectations”.

About Magenta Technology
Since 1999, Magenta Technology have specialized in developing advanced technology solutions and real-time dynamic software scheduling solutions for the transportation, medical and field service industries. We enable our customers to make their businesses more profitable by doing more with the same resources – lowering operational costs by up to 30%.

Our solutions provide customers with competitive advantage by achieving significantly higher utilisation of their assets and delivering superior customer services than currently experienced, increasing margins while enabling them to manage the complexities of an increasingly unpredictable world. Customers include Avis UK, Gist, Corporate Solutions, Coperforma and many others.

Magenta Technology is a UK-based, privately held company, with over 100 employees in the UK and Russia and forms part of the Eurovestech (EVT) portfolio of companies.

About Flowervision
The Flowervision group has 6 Cash & Carry sites in the UK, with others in France and Germany making them one of the UK’s largest suppliers of Fresh Cut Flowers, Pot Plants and Florists’ Sundries.