Handling with care

Linde Material Handling secured its prominent position in the Australian market by developing a strong customer focus and backing its advanced product range with comprehensive after-sales support. It was during Linde’s search for ways to enhance its support performance that the company engaged with Baseplan Software. Six years later Baseplan is central to Linde’s operations.

Linde had been exploring the idea of equipping its large field service technician fleet with an In Van Terminal system to allow two-way data communication for improved efficiency. Datalink’s system facilitates live vehicle tracking, job dispatch and acceptance, electronic paperwork completion, accurate inventory consumption records and costing.

“When we asked about software options for the IVT system, Datalink recommended Baseplan,” Linde’s former CFO Georg Bommers recalls. Georg was a key member of the Linde team that selected Baseplan in 2006.

“At the time we had an application called Scala and we had to weigh up whether to go with a new version of Scala or to choose something entirely different,” he said.

“One of the main drivers which influenced us to have a good look at Baseplan was that it had a strong rental and service focus in the product. In fact it was our understanding that was where the product originated from.

“A crucial factor in the selection process was that we wanted software with local rather than overseas support.

“We could also see an important advantage for Linde and particularly for me in my role as chief financial officer because of Baseplan’s high level of integration.

“There was no need to have other software systems hanging off it. We don’t have to have a separate rental billing system and there’s no need for departments to run their own separate spreadsheets for anything.

“From a data integrity perspective, it is very important that everything goes into Baseplan and everything comes out of Baseplan. That’s what we aimed for and we’ve found that is possible within the program.”

Although the Linde switchover to Baseplan occurred half a decade ago, Georg Bommers still recalls clearly how it took place.

“The migration to a new system is very much dependent on the preparation, the cleansing of records and all those routines that are done beforehand,” he said. “We started the actual migration on a Friday afternoon and worked over the Saturday and Sunday.

“We were finished by Tuesday lunchtime and in the big scheme of things three and a half days is not a bad effort. Successfully bringing all the assets and transactions over normally doesn’t happen so smoothly, but it went well from Linde’s side and from Baseplan’s. All our branches around Australia went live over the same weekend.”

Evaluating what has transpired since the move to Baseplan is also a source of considerable satisfaction for Linde’s CFO.

“Our expectations of the product in terms of having an integrated system with data visibility and transparency have all been met,” he said.

“Baseplan really has improved the data quality throughout our organisation. That data quality and availability has allowed our executives to make better, more informed decisions and has helped to improve the performance of Linde generally.”

One of the key trends in recent years in the markets in which Linde operates has been the strong growth of short- and long-term equipment rental as an alternative to outright purchase.

Customers are choosing these options to help them conserve capital and to provide maximum flexibility in changing market conditions. In that environment the flexibility of Baseplan has also assisted Linde.

“The equipment rental module in Baseplan does not really distinguish between long-term and short-term rental,” Georg Bommers said. “The features of the software used to handle either arrangement are virtually the same, it is just that different stakeholders within Linde Material Handling can use them to suit their own specific purposes.

The success of the solution speaks for itself, as Linde is currently implementing its third-generation solution of Baseplan.