How Signpost saves 85% of planning time thanks to centralized scheduling

Signpost is a rapidly growing technology group focused on the digitalization of European education. They combine hardware, software, and training into a single integrated solution for educational institutions. Their Academic Hardware division is now a trusted name in supplying and maintaining laptops in schools.

Challenge

With over one million devices under contract, it is inevitable that schools will frequently have laptops that require maintenance or repair. This variability and uncertainty in demand make planning for 45 skilled field technicians very complex. With the next business day service promise, Signpost alleviates the burden on every school in their customer portfolio. This promise can only be guaranteed if the planning process is also up to the task.

Solution

Following a thorough audit of the planning processes, it was decided to abandon decentralized planning in the six regions and centralize it. Companies often quickly opt for separate decentralized planning based on intuition (a rule of thumb, for example, is to plan by province). Although this immediately provides structure and often seems efficient (‘everyone works nearby, after all’), it usually comes with a large number of side effects. 

When planning is split up by region, a lot of efficiency is lost. Technicians from different regions often end up working in the same border areas. In addition, high demand in one region is not balanced out by lower demand in another. As a result, consistency between regions quickly diminishes and the total planning time increases.

“By centralizing our planning with Movetex Services, we have increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved service for schools. We can fulfill our next business day service promise and relieve our customers of concerns.”Timothy Steleman, CTO, Signpost

Result

One planner now manages the global planning of all Signpost technicians daily, without the regions losing their identity and autonomy (handling emergencies, illnesses, leaves, dispatching to service technicians, etc.). 

With one click, all appointments are scheduled in bulk, without loss of efficiency. The key KPIs:

• Less planning time (-85%).
• Lower transport costs for technicians (-35%).
• More work done (+25%), meaning more schools visited and fewer open cases.

Planning is no longer a bottleneck but a growth accelerator for Signpost.