Only those who continuously optimize their processes on the construction site will enjoy sustainable success. This likewise applies to the electrical installation industry. A well-coordinated IT landscape can support this. In order to reduce maintenance costs and increase productivity, those responsible at Burkhalter Gruppe decided to centralize the IT systems and commissioned the current VOLTA team to develop a new, marketable industry solution.
The project aimed to fulfil the following specific objectives:
- simple, central operation and maintenance
- host and location independent, high-performance usage
- project, document and customer management in one application
- connection to existing ERP system
- multi-client capability (authorization-controlled access to companies and branch offices)
- intuitive usability (allowing for different user groups and skills)
Overall technical project management was assumed by the current VOLTA team. Throughout the entire development period, this team worked closely together with the technical experts of Burkhalter Group. Over the course of regular meetings, requirements were collected, evaluated, prioritized and then implemented by the VOLTA team in an iterative process.
One of the most important milestones was achieved with the certification of the new solution by the industry associations CRB and VSEI (today: EIT.swiss). At this point in time, the solution already covered the entire process from tender invitation and report entry to invoicing, and was connected online to Soreco’s ERP system Xpert.Line. Using this connection Burkhalter benefits from permanently up-to-date financial and calculation data.
The customer project has gradually resulted in the industry solution VOLTA, in operation since 2013 at several large and small electrical companies throughout Switzerland. VOLTA is constantly being further developed and supplemented with new functionality.
Meanwhile, VOLTA not only provides a connection to the ERP Xpert.Line used by Burkhalter Group, but also offers connections to ERP systems such as SAP and Abacus, to financial accounting systems such as SAGE, Topal or bexio or to the SharePoint-based collaboration tool Seamless.