Lisa Robinson, Assistant General Manager from Abseilers United was kind enough to give us a run down on how the whole business benefits from using JGID in Daily operations and admin in a busy Rope Access company.
From Lisa : We’re an Industrial Rope Access company with up to ten abseilers, window cleaning services. Building maintenance, height safety.
So where the guys that basically hang off in the high residential buildings or commercial high rise buildings.
I’m Lisa Robinson I’m the assistant general manager at Abseilers United One of the biggest challenges for business like ours is scheduling.
It’s imperative that the staff know where they are, what job they are on daily. How do we communicate this to them?
JGID is a reference point for our whole business in terms of how we run the business. From the first inquiry, we put the contact details in there and do a site inspection if required.
We send the quote, the quote gets accepted and becomes a job, once it’s a job. It then comes onto our job que in JGID, and we literally just drag that job then into our calendar. Once it’s in the calendar, it becomes our reference Point for the staff, clocking in, clocking out once they’ve completed the job, and then that then gets invoiced, the invoice then connects with Xero, which is our accounting software.
The great thing about it is its mobile enabled They have a mobile app on their phone they log in individually to that, and they see where they’ve got to be for the day. And then when they leave the job, they clock out.
And then from that they can create what’s called a worksheet and that makes it easy for us, as a business and for myself, is that we’re not relying on paperwork here and the worksheets are checked against invoices.
And then when we come time to invoice the client, we can then see how many hours was on that job. What the profitability was.
I usually like to put the enquiries in as soon as they arrive and, I would usually call and follow up on that inquiry First, qualify them the actual job and the lead, and then I will put it straight into JGID And then, that is sitting there for our estimator. To, give him a call, arrange the site visit and from there, we can go along and create a quote, this streamlines the process because once we have a quote there that then becomes invoice.
We can all log into jgid regardless of where we are. I mean, we’re an abseiling business We’re not sitting in an office all day, so it gives me the option to work at home. Our estimators on road our abseilers as on the job, and we’re all connecting with one piece of business management software, which is JGID.
We can see at a glance where everything is There’s no paper, were totally paperless. We have no cupboards We have no filing cabinets and all the data is stored in that one central place securely.
I’ve noticed through social media groups that I’m on where running a small business Most of the issues that people have is the time and energy that it takes to do all the paperwork. I guess for me the kick and I get out of JGID is just being able to put all of our customer details and just have the power of knowing all who are clients are being able to export that data and to get excited about putting in new entries.
So for us, new businesses is great. But being able to just type in all those enquiries into the one central database that’s just gold for me, I love that!
“Look over my shoulder” with a business health check example in JGID and then a dive into a real live account .
Presented to a small group of business owners, Andre Quin from JGID –
Takes us through a five minute Business Health Check using the Dashboard to see the bigger picture of a business quickly.
Andre also speaks about the latest offering of JGID called the “MyPA Service” provided by a team of highly qualified remote administration workers who can help our clients utilise JGID to its full potential and get the reporting Data that every business owner should be able to review within minutes every month.
Under government legislation, PCBU’s must ensure they are managing the risks to health and safety. In fact, they have a dusty of care that they must identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to risks to health and safety.
A duty holder, in managing risks to health and safety, must—
(a) eliminate risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable, and
(b) if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety—minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
Can the right software make it easier for PCBU’s to manage the risks to health and safety?
Absolutely it can!
Because JGID is accessible any where and any time, your team know where to go, what to do, what to bring and who to contact.
It can be utilised with automatic scope of works, tool picklists and JHA’s / SWMS’s via the mobile interface make downtime on site a thing of the past. And best of all, no more countless, long text messages every night telling workers where to go the next day. It’s time to enjoy your evenings again!
We first met the CEO of Eve Consulting, back in early 2014-15. Deborah has over a decade of business management experience in the industrial rope access and working at heights sector and is the current Secretary of the Working at Heights Association of Australian and a former member of the IRATA International Health and Safety Committee. She holds multiple qualifications in the field including IOSH Rope Access Manager, QMS Lead Auditor and KONG PPE Inspector.
As the former General Manager of three IRATA Member Companies and a current independent consultant to the wider working at heights and industrial rope access community, Deb has a huge amount of exposure to various QMS in use by companies in industry.
We’re thankful she took the time to review our software!
It’s been a little bit of time since I’ve written a mini-blog of sorts, and what better way to kick start a new one than by talking about one of my favourite things in the Rope Access and Height Safety world – Equipment!
From small organisations, through to multi-national entities – I believe that all are capable of improving their operating systems whilst continuing to deliver quality and innovative services, develop existing capabilities, and ultimately expand the scope of services offered to new and existing clients.
Statistically, falls from heights remain one of the biggest causes of death, disability and injury in workplaces in Australia. Ensuring your organisation is compliant to its organisational policies and procedures is vital – but finding the time to manage that compliance, when clients’ needs, and projects often take priority. So many internal tasks can get dismissed or postponed to a later date. Especially when it comes to equipment inspection and maintenance.
Everyone has a duty of care to ensure the equipment they use is fit for purpose, serviceable for the task and in working order. Whether it is your employer who provides you with the gear, or you own it yourself – maintaining that equipment is vital. Vital you say Deb? Yes. Vital. Why? Because equipment can fail.
Without training in inspection, and having inspection & maintenance procedures in place, items of equipment can have faults that remain undetected for pro-longed periods of time. This may result in an increased risk of injury or harm to technicians, plant and/or equipment.
Two of the biggest issues that companies and individuals face when it comes equipment are time and money, closely followed by the availability of a competent person to perform equipment inspections.
And also … where? Where do you record your equipment details?
There’s a couple of options; variety is good depending on the scope and scale of your organisation.
Most companies start with an Excel or Numbers spreadsheet.
This is a good starting point, but it can become incredibly unwieldy, as your organisation or amount of equipment needed to be registered grows. You can end up with tab after tab of equipment classifications, changes in columns depending on information recorded, and control over the spreadsheet in terms of edits and data entry as well as equipment inspections undertaken … it can get messy. Attention to detail is needed, and that can take time.
From a spreadsheet format, we start looking at digital registers or access. A lot of companies tend to look at their existing Quality management System (QMS) first, to see how they can incorporate existing paid or subscribed services can be accessed remotely. So, this means we are still in the spreadsheet land, but now with more people involved. DropBox, Google Drive, Upvise, or OneDrive all can be utilised, but we still end up with similar problems – but often escalated because more people may have access to the register to be able to show or demonstrate to clients that equipment has been inspected recently.
It’s not really that ideal – not unless you have a dedicated person(s) responsible for maintaining that register. And that can mean more time and money than a company is willing to spend.
So, we can then start looking to cloud based management systems. These are often databases that can be accessible via a secure login. Depending on the software, you can have multiple users, this may or may not cost you more.
I’ve blogged in the past about Papertrail – a software I assisted to implement over at 5th Point along with RFID technology. It’s is alright for an exclusive (albeit expensive) software which really focuses just on the management of equipment.
Upvise is another company, but it requires a level of competency with formatting a coding, much like the back-end of a WordPress website, to get the forms fillable in the areas you require for both the creation and completion of SWMS or JHA’s along with equipment inspection fields.
JGID has kinda snuck up the list of QMS software for me over the years. It is a QMS, that allows you to not only log equipment and assets, but also contain company policy / procedures, forms and templates and essentially – the entire job pack accessible via a device or desktop. Oh, and a calendar for scheduling your clients’ jobs, your workers, all the way from quoting to invoicing.
But I am getting off topic here – I want to zoom in and focus on the Equipment. I might touch on the other parts next time.
The equipment side of JGID has become more refined in the last two years. Equipment for them can now be split into categories. And not in the “descender” and “karabiner” categories, I mean like … your actual site / equipment work packs and PPE registers through to the stock you have on hand to sell (if applicable!) and then your actual consumable inventory management.
So let’s define and explain a little bit more about some of them!
Inventory: Have all your price lists for services, materials, consumables and more in one place. It’s ALL LINKED. This means that all the way from quoting to invoicing … it is easy. Everything is saved – descriptive text, prices, notes. It is all there. Or if it isn’t – you can add it and save it for next time, because adding items is as easy as shopping in the supermarket.
Stock: JGID has found a way to track of quantities in stock with an easy-to-use stock management tool. Whenever you order, at glance compare estimated quantities vs what you have in stock. Once your orders are marked as received, your stock levels will automatically update. Stock levels will decrease as soon as they are marked as used on a job.
Registers: Aaaah… my favourite. Registers. And finally, JGID has implemented the solution you need to make the ever-delightful task of registering equipment easier. From the one primary dashboard – you get reminders when equipment inspections are due. Not only that, but it will even give you reminders when staff qualifications are about to expire.
There is something about making compliance and quality control an automatic part of your business overview that makes me happy. If it’s as automated as possible, it becomes easier to do. Instead of spending 5 hours trying to navigate a spreadsheet register, you can go through a dedicated portal that can be accessible from anywhere you have reception.
Why wouldn’t you want to make it easier? PPE and equipment inspection has always been a headache topic with every working at heights industry personnel I’ve met in the last decade. We’ve all had to deal with it in some level.
So, let’s make it easier so that you can stay ahead of the game.
Stay tuned for the next part of our mini blog to read more about the equipment control categories and JGID; or hit them up for a demo.
It’s a pleasure for us to officially announce Leigh Greenwood of 5th Point as advisory board member at JGID
With experience of 20+ years and an impressive list of qualifications Leigh brings a depth of knowledge to our team that is unmatched. We are honoured to work with him
With operational rope access experience spanning the last 20+ years he has undertaken projects across a range of industries around the world.
Active in the international rope access sector through his involvement with IRATA International as well as having undertaken projects across America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and New Zealand.
Leigh has extensive knowledge in the development and implementation of rope access systems, including: human resources management; equipment selection, advice, training and inspection; creation and implementation of rope access specific policies and procedures; and development of risk assessment methodologies through to their practical implementation (such as SWMS and pre-start talk processes).
Just Get It Done!
Leigh Greenwood knows Rope Access better than most.
See the video below with Leigh discussing tracking equipment with in JGID
Here we show you how to make a healthy, safe and productive workplace part of your ‘business as usual’.
A productive, healthy and safe workplace shows that everyone shares common values that make worker health and safety a priority. It means that everyone anticipates unsafe acts and corrects them before harm is done. It demonstrates that injury and prevention is a priority and everyone takes ownership of health and safety issues.
‘What we’re trying to do is to create an environment where we don’t have to think about it too much, so it’s just seamless and it becomes second nature to talk about things that relate to their health and safety.’
Paula Cormack
IOH, NSW
Once you have established the basics of a safe workplace, keep safety at the forefront of everyone’s mind by:
training and supervising your workers, and monitoring their safety
reviewing and continually improving consultation procedures
establishing an accredited work health and safety management system
‘Spending a little bit of time with another business to see how they do things is a far greater benefit than trying to come up with the solution yourself.’
SafeWork inspectors will be visiting construction sites across NSW to inspect scaffold structures, issuing on-the-spot fines and stop-work notices for failure to comply with NSW’s safety standards.
Minister for Better Regulation Kevin Anderson said there would be a zero-tolerance approach where scaffolds have missing critical parts, or where unlicenced workers have removed or altered scaffold components.
“This is the third annual scaffold compliance program we’ve conducted, and we will continue to visit sites until the industry meets the safety levels SafeWork expects,” Mr Anderson said.
In the last two years, SafeWork has issued more than 1,700 notices relating to scaffolds, including 600 scaffold prohibition notices requiring the activity to cease due to immediate or imminent risk.
“This Government is building a stronger and safer NSW, and that starts with protecting our workforce,” Mr Anderson said.
“We need to drive the message home to principal contractors, supervisors, scaffolders, site owners and managers – we will not put up with practices that put lives at risk.”
In 2021 alone, SafeWork has visited more than 60 construction sites from Tweed Heads to Ballina, issuing 96 notices including eight on the spot fines, 16 prohibition notices, and 72 improvement notices. Over the rest of 2021, SafeWork will be focusing on risks associated with formwork, concrete pumps and working at heights.
“Across the state the building and construction industry is on notice – it does not matter if you are in the centre of Sydney or in western NSW, SafeWork will be checking your scaffold and if it is not safe, we will act.”
On-the-spot fines of $3600 for businesses and $720 for individuals can and will be issued if scaffolds are not inspected by a competent person, if workers are at serious or imminent risk of falls from heights, or if unlicenced workers erect, alter or dismantle a scaffold.
“If you see anything unsafe at work, you can now report it quickly and anonymously directly to SafeWork using our app Speak Up, Save Lives.”
Nearly all national safe work codes of practice have been reviewed and updated by the Queensland Government and other states and territories, to come into effect 1 March 2021.
This is in line with a nationwide agreement in 2015 that all Australian work health and safety regulators will review the codes of practice every five years.
In consultation with industry stakeholders, the 21 Queensland codes of practice that are based on national codes of practice have been updated and approved for this state. This process ensures the new codes reflect Queensland specific legislation and laws, so that workers, businesses and the economy will all benefit.
This review was limited to technical accuracy, usability and readability—content was not reviewed at this stage. Some matters in the codes therefore do not represent a contemporary understanding of the work environment and these will be addressed with Safe Work Australia and industry stakeholders in the near future.
The following Queensland codes of practice have been approved and will take effect on 1 March 2021:
Jgid.Shop is now directly accessible via your JGID account – PLUS a very special deal
For your convenience, we have added a direct link to www.jgid.shop into your dashboard.
And we have included an extra special offer for anyone who creates an account on Jgid.Shop:
1. 10% OFF all Rope Access Equipment
2. All Rope Access Equipment come with a suitable FREE EZYiD tag or sticker
3. We will load all your items into your inventory for free – all you need to do is scan the tag when your items arrive and you’re set to Just Get It Done!
Watch the video to see how you can set up a free account, get 10% off all rope access equipment and take advantage of our FREE RFID tags with all your items purchased.
