Storm Auto Services is a body shop service specialist in the UK. They support hundreds of vehicle collision repair businesses across the country, helping get cars back on the road.

“Novatura has done plenty of work for us and consistently provide high-quality solutions to our problems. Their continued support has been fantastic as they resolve any issues quickly and effectively, giving me peace of mind while I manage the rest of my business. ”

Richard Yorston

Managing Director, Storm Auto Services Ltd

Storm’s customers create job tickets through a third-party portal. Within Storm, these tickets get managed and processed by their back-office team. Once the jobs are completed, customers are sent reports and certificates of compliance.

The Challenge

When we first met Storm, they were using a spreadsheet to track these tickets. This was time-consuming, and introduced some other issues:

• Manual data entry: Storm’s team had to manually input data from one portal into their spreadsheet, creating a slow and error-prone workflow.
• Manual report writing: After the data was put into the sheet, the team had to pull it back out to create reports and certificates for customers, adding to the workload.
• Communication delays: With customers waiting for reports, their satisfaction with the service was at risk.

The current system worked for now, but as Storm grew, they knew they needed an upgrade to help their operations keep up with demand.

A Streamlined Approach

In the early days, our collaboration with Storm pinpointed where the bottlenecks were in their system. Our approach was careful, making sure that we built on top of the systems that were already in place. The key thing to remember is that people ultimately drive the system, so we needed the team to have a positive experience adopting the changes.

• Automatic data retrieval: The system integrated with Storm’s third-party ticket portal, enabling staff to read and edit everything they need in one centralised place.
• Automated report and certificate population: The system could automatically generate PDF reports and certificates on job completion, eliminating the need to do it by hand.
• Improving client communications: The system handled sending these reports to customers, reducing delays and providing better visibility into email delivery.

With an intuitively designed user interface, the team became accustomed to their new workflow with relative ease. Initial feedback was very positive, with technicians noting how much time the system was saving. Management was eager to see what else we could produce. A few years on, the same system is processing 3,000+ jobs and 12,000+ emails a month. The type of volume that would been unreachable without a much bigger headcount.

A Long-Term Partnership

The story doesn’t end there. In fact, as one of Novatura’s first customers, Storm’s systems have been in development for over 3 years! We’ve been behind the scenes, acting as Storm’s software function, delivering far more than just back-office tooling. We built an Android app, did some device management work, and even re-built their website at one stage.

A key moment for Storm was recognising the potential that bespoke software could bring to the business. With Novatura taking part in the strategy and design, new possibilities opened up. Over this period the dashboard became far more capable. New additions are made all the time, so the system keeps up with the business instead of falling behind.

Continuous Improvement

Recently, we’ve updated the way we work with Storm, moving to a more agile way of working that has brought flexibility to the relationship, as well as a regular cadence of reviews and planning sessions so that we could more thoroughly align our work with their business needs.

With Novatura’s support, Storm has been able to do more than just overcome bottlenecks. They’ve seized the opportunity to digitally transform their operations, and in doing so been able to serve more customers, more efficiently, and re-allocate their savings to growth. Where other body shop networks might still be stuck using spreadsheets, Storm now runs on a connected system that gets more capable every year.

If your business is growing faster than your operations can handle, sometimes it can be hard to find solutions when you’re in the thick of it. Novatura has experience supporting businesses in need of new digital workflows. We’ll meet you where you’re at, and build on top of what you’ve already got.

If that resonates, get in touch today. We’ll get the ball rolling.