What is Clarinspect? Summary of a new venture
Time for a summary on what we do and what we have learned from our clients. We have observed a wide range of areas - from use of mobile devices, the benefits, the hidden benefits and much more. So get a cup of tea/coffee/beverage of choice and I will tell you about our clients, what we do and what we will be doing.
Friends and business prospects often ask what Clarinspect is all about - and to tell the truth, though we have a nugget of the idea, it is through actively being engaged with our clients and observing them in action that we get a better understanding ourselves of what our business is.
When starting a new business part of the excitement (terror) is not knowing if what you are proposing to do is actually going to (a) work, (b) be of interest to clients. So long as you have metaphorical ears and never stop listening then item (b) above will be achievable.
Let's break it down.
What do clients get from Clarinspect?
We save them money. That is the immediate visceral outcome. And they save a lot. Seriously, we were surprised at how much.
We do this by removing time-wasting activities from the work-life of all staff involved in the process of audits, inspections and assessments. Beginning with the preparation of daily work, through the undertaking of the inspections or assessments on site to the document generation and reporting on their activities.
At first glance it looks like we are another 'form-on-a-device' supplier, but we know there is more to it so let's look at how we do it.
How does Clarinspect do it?
Yes, we have an App. An App though is fundamentally useless unless you can fit in with databases, business processes and required business outputs. We back ours with a cloud-based server that orchestrates the assignment of work to staff and marshals the data robustly and securely back and forth.
Remember the listening part? Good. We have listened to clients and watched how they work and altered our direction so they are accommodated, and we can still reach our strategic goals (more about this later). Having a robust and intelligent consulting approach has been key to our success. Our consultants are the face and voice of Clarinspect with the clients.
Our initial software was designed to be able to support any type of form for use in inspecting or assessing, and to be able to generate multiple reports, letters, spreadsheets or database entries for each form completed. This has been spot on what was needed.
For example when Christchurch City Council respond to a notification about a potential fire hazard they visit the site, complete their assessment, and then back at base our reporting system pumps out a letter, a notification for tenants and a notification for site owners.
When adding such automation into a business there will be changes. Changes to what people do, which manual processes are no longer needed and how people view their role.
What is the impact on client businesses?
One part of active consulting is not just doing what a client wants, but identifying what they need and what the up and downstream impacts of a system change will do.
We do this for our clients. Very often they are busy and focussed on their actual role and delivering in it - not on business analysis or change management.
There are immediate impacts due to using Clarinspect. The sudden and startling reduction in what inspectors and auditors see as wasted time - transcribing hand written notes, downloading digital photos. Our system writes the initial report for them, with photos and using their corporate templates. A vital time saving out of the box.
After a few weeks of usage the secondary benefits kick in. The inspectors and auditors are happier - they are spending their time in areas they value. With reports being produced in a more timely fashion (often within half an hour of a site visit) our Clients' customers are getting better service.
Travel time is also reduced - users no longer have to deliver notes and paperwork to the office - this is synchronised back to base.
There are other knock on effects we have seen in our Clients businesses. For one process with a client, we revised the inspection to include a photo of the issues identified. This photo went out in the covering letter to a site owner. Calls and queries about the issues dried up - the issues were unambiguous and non-debatable. This resulted in additional time being saved as the staff were no longer fielding angry phone calls.
Another aspect that was intriguing was that the inspectors themselves, in moving to Clarinspect and away from paper, were more satisfied with the product they were delivering to their customers. Previously the reports would include copies of the paper notes. Now the notes were very smart and in the words of one user 'we feel so much more professional'.
What are Clarinspect currently doing?
We are in a pre-market phase. This means we are not ready to offer the system all over the place.
We are working with a fantastic variety of clients in Christchurch New Zealand. Their business areas cover Fire safety inspection, Asbestos audit, Site Industrial Health audit, Local authority compliance (Building code, Fire hazard, Vegetation, Swimming Pools), Health and Safety (Workplace, Job demands, ergonomics), Construction (Geotechnical investigation, Site Inspection and Site H&S) amongst a few others.
Supporting this range of sectors is straight-forward as Clarinspect was designed from the outset to support any type of inspection or assessment form. The record for standing up a business process in Clarsinspect (including templating reports) was 5 hours.
To support this variety of work we consult, listen, and adapt what we do. In order to grow with these clients, and cover off more of their business improvements we are cooking the next version of the entire system. Yup, moving from a new venture to a scaleable business.
What is Clarinspect doing next?
As part of our marketing outreach we want to hear from independent practitioners and consultants in Health and Safety, Inspection Services, Asset Management, and Independent Qualified Professionals (IQPs) of all varieties. We are looking for clients to directly liaise with, but more importantly other parties who would be able to offer a professional client face for a reseller arrangement of our products.
We also want to hear from companies that have software they sell (or have bought) that requires mobile data entry direct from the field and into their system. We have an API and have already begun the integration road with one company that sells a geotechnical engineering database and software system.
We will also be making our clients lives simpler, and will continue watching them and working with them. We know that you can't just put a system on the internet and they will come - we will be actively out there talking with people and learning about what works, and mentoring when there is a reasonable fit
Post-amble
That covers most of what we are doing. As we learn more techniques and ideas for saving time and money (or even just making better use of tools already out there) we will pass them on.
Ok - back to work.
