Reading-based VGL specialises in cut vinyl displays for vehicles, buildings and retail stores. Particularly strong in the retail market, the company counts a number of major high-street brands as customers.

Vism was installed and rolled out through the company earlier this year, replacing various existing systems.

VGL installation project manager Richard Brown said: “We offer a full range of installation and fitting styles for projects both large and small.

“Until recently we used Dropbox to communicate install information to our installers.

“This system had become unwieldy and inefficient, particularly as folder trees built up quickly, resulting in installers and VGL co-ordinators spending lots of time clicking through multiple folder layers until they found the right place.”

VGL was also using Dropbox to receive and store photos, documents and other information associated with the installation sites.

“There was no clear notification that completion photos had been uploaded, which meant we had to continually check the Dropbox folders to see if pictures were in there and then keep chasing the installers if they weren’t,” said Brown.

“Similarly, there was nothing to let installers know when additional documents or other information had been uploaded by VGL.”

Brown added it had become clear that a system that would provide more thorough communication between co-ordinators and installers would provide VGL with numerous productivity and efficiency benefits.

“This was particularly important for communications from installers to co-ordinators to ensure that we knew exactly when the job had been signed off by the customer and that completion pictures were taken and properly stored.”

The company selected Vism following a period of market research.

“We had a good look at Vism and felt that it was an easy to use system that could comfortably handle the key requirements we were looking for,” said Brown.

He added the implementation process “went very smoothly” and that 100% of the company’s installation work is now booked using the system. Clients are now receiving completion photos and on-site sign-off confirmations the moment jobs are fully completed by the installers.

According to Brown this has “dramatically improved the customer service level of the install department at VGL, making us much more responsive and able to give the customer the information they need”.

The system also enables VGL to store and instantly access all of its client data, including site contacts and addresses.

“This saves us a huge amount of time because we used to have to manually track down this information each time installs were booked,” said Brown.

“Vism is a great system that has had a hugely positive effect on our business and will continue to do so as our business and the software develops.”

Vism managing director Dan Tyler added: “One of the things that we had on our roadmap for the end of this year was to spend some time building a new subcontractor module.

“Because of VGL’s keenness to be involved in that particular module, we ended up bringing the development forward by about eight months, and we completed and launched it two weeks ago.

“This allows them to interact with other installation companies that use Vism software – they can essentially subcontract a job straight across to them and the two companies can collaborate and manage everything together and involve the third-party installers as well.”

Last year VGL bought a Durst P5 250 HS hybrid roll-to-roll/flatbed, configured with white as a printing colour.

The circa £15m-turnover business also operates a raft of other Durst printers as well as various machines from Inca, Fujifilm and HP among others.