Flagship Group has developed a unique system which will transform how it manages the thousands of trees for which it is responsible.
The Group, the largest housing provider in the East of England, has replaced its time-consuming manual office-based process with a bespoke app-based solution which will free up Flagship’s team of arborists to spend more time out on site.
With 3,500 individual and 1,000 groups of trees covering an area from North Essex to North Norfolk within Flagship’s remit, the Group’s Business Intelligence Team was tasked with redesigning the process to be more streamlined. Victoria Green, Business Intelligence Developer, explained: “Our passion is delivering a great service for our customers, so we were very keen to support our arborists by designing a solution to help them work as effectively and efficiently as possible.”
Using existing software, the solution has streamlined the arborists’ workload and made requesting of tree work much easier. Through the new solution, Flagship staff can request tree works via a bespoke PowerApp, adding pictures and location to provide clarity to the arborists. The arborists are then able to assess the work via another bespoke PowerApp, identifying what resources are needed. Finally, the lead arborist can geographically manage the team’s workload effectively and the arborists can log their work using the GIS-based system, provided by ESRI.
Andy Blackman, GIS Developer said: “Our system enables us to visualise the team’s work on a map – combined with the arborist’s live location to enable maximum efficiency when assigning and recording work. This allows the arborists to amend existing and add new tree data while in the field, allowing the Group to better understand and manage our assets.”
The solution, which is unique to Flagship, offers huge benefits to the tree service which was brought in-house from January 2018. Jonny Worden, Lead Arborist said: “This new system will transform the way we operate and allow us to more accurately pinpoint the work that is required. It will mean that we are better informed before we go out on site and able to easily plan and deliver our work.”
The team are continuing to develop the solution, looking for ways to enhance its functionality.
*Anyone interested in finding out more about the solution which has been developed by the Business Intelligence Team can get in touch with Andy Blackman ([email protected]) or Victoria Green ([email protected]).