Creating streamlined and joined-up workflow

Each week, we speak to a technology or service provider to remote businesses, to understand what their technology does and how it’s helping remote businesses manage their remote teams or work more effectively.  This week – Richard Dale of Flowlens takes to the spotlight:

In plain, simple, understandable terms – what do you offer and how does it help, what problems do you solve?  

Flowlens is cloud software for small-medium equipment manufacturers, that reduces manual effort across sales, inventory, manufacturing and after-sales service. SMEs often have lots of spreadsheets and disjointed processes causing delays and costly errors. Flowlens streamlines these into one joined-up workflow, plus it integrates with Xero, Quickbooks and Sage 50, meaning no rekeying of data.

Flowlens customers spend 40%+ less time on admin, turn orders around faster and sell more, simply by being more organised across their lifecycle:

Give us a bit more detail and/or a specific example of a company using your solution and how it helps them

GWE who manufacture voltage optimising equipment. Having previously used Sage 50 and spreadsheets to manage their sales, stock and manufacturing business processes, GWE migrated to Xero and Flowlens. Their investment in Flowlens and Xero has transformed how they do business. The time they used to spend reconciling data across different spreadsheets and manual systems with the old accounts package has been saved. Their processes are now digital, connected and seamless, helping double sales at GWE, whether we’re working from home, the factory or on the road. Visit flowlens.com to watch a case study on GWE.

Why do businesses working remotely, in particular, need this?

Working remotely makes it easy to get out of alignment with colleagues. Flowlens creates a ‘single version of the truth’ meaning that everyone is working off the same data – the same order book, stock levels, job lists, customers etc. Information about customer and supplier activity is available without having to call or message colleagues, meaning less interruptions to their work, and faster responses.

How is your solution different, what sets it apart?

Flowlens takes the sales, manufacturing and after-sales processes of a business and brings these into one place. This means the business has a total view of the customers, without needing to look at different systems and spreadsheets to find information and speed up the order to cash process. Because it’s cloud based, it works anywhere, on any connected device, so it’s flexible.

Who are your customers? 

Flowlens focuses on small-medium sized equipment manufacturers, across sectors such as industrial equipment, electronics and electrical engineering, agricultural machinery, construction and advanced manufacturing systems. Learn more about why we fit SME manufacturing businesses: https://flowlens.com/small-business-management-software/

What do your customers particularly love about you?

Customers love our customer service, and focus on working with them to get used to Flowlens, and get the system setup to suit their needs. They also appreciate our (sometimes brutal) honesty, and that we’re not afraid to ask ‘stupid’ questions.

What does it cost/what’s your pricing model?

Flowlens starts at £150/$200 per month for 3 users, and we offer volume price breaks, as well as Onboarding Services Packages designed to help customers get up and running on the system quickly and efficiently.

And, finally… what’s your prediction on the future of work?

Work should become more about adding value, than doing tasks that systems are better suited to handle. The more people live with technology in their home life, the more they demand it in their working life. Who knows, we may even work fewer hours but produce better quality outputs because we aren’t stressed out looking for information and chasing our tails!