Podfather Supports Launch of New Industrial Services Division at DGS
Overview
DGS Service Solutions, established in 2013, is a provider of outsourced security, cleaning, and facilities management solutions. The company serves a variety of customers, including shopping centres, offices, factories, and retail outlets across Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The company's newly launched Industrial Division focuses on specialist operations such as window cleaning, gutter cleaning, high-level cleaning, power washing, and industrial deep cleans. Headed by an Industrial Services Director, this division went from a standing start in early 2024 to an established team serving clients across Northern Ireland, quickly securing major contracts with retail customers and municipal councils.
Challenge
When setting up the new Industrial Services division from a standing start, DGS needed to meet high client expectations regarding customer experience and reporting transparency from day one. Managing mobile operations without a digital tool presented clear operational risks for the newly formed team.
- Legacy methods required an over-reliance on paper delivery notes or worksheets to track jobs, creating slow data loops.
- Administrative staff faced a heavy burden when manually processing customer reports and invoices after jobs were finished.
- Providing immediate verification to end-clients who might not be physically present on-site was difficult without real-time tracking data.
Solution
DGS implemented Podfather's electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) functionality within its new industrial services workflow to capture time-sensitive field data digitally. Operatives run the system on standard smartphones and mobile devices to access job sequences and record critical details directly on-site.
The software tracks operations in real time, enabling field teams to log precise metrics including who performed the task, where it took place, and when it was completed. The platform is also being integrated directly into the company's corporate bidding and tender processes to clearly demonstrate their advanced customer reporting capabilities to prospective clients.
Results
The deployment has successfully digitised the customer journey for DGS, eliminating traditional paper worksheets and reducing the administrative burden associated with processing customer reports and invoices. Time-sensitive information has become instantly accessible across the entire company, keeping back-office support staff, finance teams, and management perfectly aligned.
Through the mobile app, operatives capture date, time, and location-stamped photographs and signatures to create comprehensive evidence of work undertaken. This transactional data can instantly be shared with end-clients in a format that suits them, while allowing customer services and accounting teams to immediately access job records to handle client queries and accelerate invoicing loops.
Having used Podfather in a previous position I knew what it could deliver us in the way of customer reporting. The Podfather ePOD app is easy to use, easy to integrate and easy to customise. With just a few clicks we can capture detailed information of who did what, where, and when, and this can instantly be shared with the end-client, who may or may not be onsite, in a format and delivery method that suits them. The information is also instantly accessible by our customer services team who are the first port of call for any customer queries and our accounting team to inform invoicing.
Jason Allen
Industrial Services Director, DGS Services Solutions
