How The Surprenant Group increased productivity at the office by 20% and gained better traceability of pesticides used.

Tell us briefly about your company and what you offer…

The Surprenant Group is a family-run business operating in pest management, fumigation, and bird control since 1987. Fueled by natural growth and certain acquisitions, the Surprenant Group has successfully built a team of around fifteen people over time to meet the industrial, commercial and residential needs of our clients.
 
75% of our business is in the commercial sector.

Our teams provide responsive, high-quality service and support for our clients under contract (in the event of a service call, arrival time is within 24 hours). We are confident in the value we offer and are not looking to become a low-cost service provider.

Why did you choose the Praxedo solution?

Our main issues involved transferring information within the company. We wasted a lot of time and used way too much paper conducting various transactions. Before Praxedo, we would use our Apple calendars to manage our appointments and all of our reports were paper-based.
 
Managing monthly client inspection visits was tedious as technicians had to go in to the office every week to get information, and sometimes we’d have to wait several days for the reports to be ready.
 
We were looking for software that could gather all work order information in one place and increase the efficiency of daily operations.

We found the Praxedo software easy to use, easy to configure and highly modular. The software also integrated with our QuickBooks Online accounting software, which was a huge added benefit.

Who uses the Praxedo solution and what features in particular?

From an office standpoint, we use the web platform to enter the various instructions related to client work orders. We also use it to view, approve and send work order reports. The platform gives us real-time access to information from the field and displays each technician’s location on their routes, throughout the day.
 
In addition, we have technicians out on the road who use Praxedo regularly. By logging on to the mobile app, technicians can access daily schedules, vital information related to various work orders as well as the history of each client to be visited.

What are the main benefits of the Praxedo solution?

After just a few months of using Praxedo we have been able to see numerous benefits.

• We can quickly access all work orders in real time. This facilitates the circulation of information between technicians and the central office. Praxedo enables office staff to work remotely, which is very convenient in light of the pandemic. And, the saved history function allows us to search for information and reports super quickly.
• We’ve sped up our invoicing process. Before Praxedo, with paper records, we were only able to generate invoices a week or so after the work was completed. Now, we can invoice on the same day!
• We’ve also reduced paper use in the company by more than 60%. Unfortunately, some of our clients still require us to produce printouts of reports on occasion, otherwise we would have gone 100% paperless.
• We’ve reduced the amount of technician calls to the office by approximately 40% since all client information can be accessed through the Praxedo mobile app. These technicians can now view instructions, a description of the previous work performed and client information in real time. Office productivity has increased by almost 20%.
• Now that we’re using electronic forms in Praxedo, we can control the quality of reports because they are standardized for employees across the board. The information we need is always available since we’ve made certain fields mandatory.
• We’ve also improved the traceability of products and quantities used for our clients since the details can be entered directly into the mobile app. In this regard, the city of Montreal has just passed a new ruling about pesticide use on one’s own land. Starting on January 1, 2022, pest management companies must keep an annual record of the quantities of insecticides and other rodenticides used for monitoring purposes. With Praxedo, we’re already prepared to meet this requirement! Plus, we can easily generate annual reports in just a few clicks with its advanced search function and provide any data needed for an audit.

How do you envision the future of your partnership with Praxedo ?

Now that all of the people involved in the service process have assessed the software, the next step will be to integrate it with our accounting software.

Since Praxedo also handles integration and configuration for complex organizational structures with several branches, we have no doubt that this application is going to facilitate our company’s growth in other areas.

Finally, we’re going to implement automatic communication scenarios with clients (sending automated reports, for example).

If you had to summarize the Praxedo solution in 2 keywords, what would they be?

Speed: The software speeds up the transfer of information between our office and the technicians.

Ease of use: It is not only easy-to-use, but it also facilitates the management of our daily tasks and activities.