I started out running a field service company, not as a software developer.
When I went looking for a work order system, I tried everything on the market. The ones that could do what I needed came with implementation and consulting fees a team of a few people simply cannot carry. The ones we could afford did not work the way a service company actually works.
In the end it was cheaper to learn to build software and build my own than to pay for any of the subscriptions. With plenty of dead ends and plenty of struggle, but what came out of it was exactly what I needed.
Along the way I arrived at the standard I still hold: administration cannot be a company's base cost. No company grows because someone spends the whole day sorting paperwork.
After the first maintenance round I knew we were heading the right way.
We sent out the due air-conditioning maintenance reminders. Within two days we had orders worth over one and a half million forints coming back, and more jobs grew out of those, because we went out to the customers, talked to them, and things started moving.
We did nothing new. The same customers, the same service. Until then there was simply nothing telling us in time that this was the moment to reach out to them.
That is the difference. Not that the work order looks nicer. That the system knows when the next maintenance is due, and says so before the customer calls someone else.
These figures come from the daily operation of GYURELL Kft., not from a customer reference. We operate Terepbázis ourselves, and we measured it on ourselves first.