Case study · Winter service · Nationwide UK

Nurture Gritting: 3,000+ visits per night, run on one system.

Nurture Gritting is a division of Nurtures Landscapes Ltd, dedicated to providing a comprehensive gritting and snow clearance service for a nationwide UK client base. The service runs from 1 November to 31 March each year, extendable to the end of April if required, while the sales team operates year-round to make sure clients are prepared before the winter start date. Since launch the operation has grown from 500 to 800 callouts per night to well in excess of 3,000 visits per night.

The challenge

Excel had run out of season.

Growing the gritting business organically on the back of an existing Nurtures Landscapes customer base, Nurture Gritting recognised early that an embryonic operation could not scale exponentially on Excel spreadsheets. The Master Gritting Database had grown to a size where simply keeping the details current was a huge administrative task. On top of that, the sales team needed standardised processes and paperwork across the country. A systematic, professional approach was necessary.

Following a couple of key personnel changes, the leadership team came back to a software partner they had worked with successfully at a previous employer. They needed a partner that could respond quickly and efficiently to a business expanding at pace.

The solution

A bespoke platform, built with the team rather than for them.

The rapidly changing operation meant the sales and service teams had to be part of the design from the first meeting. Working on Nurture Gritting's premises, an initial brainstorming session mapped current processes and, more importantly, the future vision for how a system needed to work with the business as it grew. Each team was involved in scoping and detailed specification, contributing to the discussions and challenging assumptions as a devil's advocate would.

The back-office change centred on streamlining the import of a Met Office weather file. With a few additional processes around job completion, that alone saved a huge amount of time and let the team plan better throughout the day. Access to client data was rebuilt so both sales and operations could see the same site information in real time, with an easy-to-read view scoped to what each team needed for its daily tasks.

For the sales team specifically, a comprehensive quoting tool was built around a pricing algorithm that required minimal input from the salesperson. The output was a standard, corporate-consistent proposal for any prospect or existing client's coming winter requirements. Once accepted, that proposal converted automatically into an annual contract for signature. Receipt of the signed contract flipped a site from pending to live, allowing gritting jobs to be scheduled against it.

For the operations team, the concept of a preferred engineer let jobs be auto-allocated onto the scheduler before the day starts. Regional teams then work by exception, drag-and-drop when a job needs to move, rather than planning every route from scratch as they had done manually.

The final piece was a comprehensive billing structure driven by regional templates, integrated bidirectionally with SAP. Client SAP codes are captured in the platform, an export function delivers the correct fields to SAP, and information returns from SAP back into the gritting system so both records stay aligned.

“Nurture Landscapes asked our team to provide a bespoke system to run an £8M gritting and snow clearance operation. Throughout the process the whole team have been exceptionally proactive and professional in their approach. Whilst our timescales were tight, they ensured that the brief was fully met whilst additional change requests were also incorporated at even shorter notice.”

Nik Tozer, National Gritting Manager, Nurture Gritting

Ongoing partnership

A Client Portal that adds real value, not just history.

Across the winter seasons since go-live, the operation has continued to grow and add new markets, with the platform extended each season to cover the new processes. A key addition was a Client Portal. Where most industry portals let a client view historic site attendance and little else, Nurture wanted a portal that added real operational value for its own customers.

The portal ships with the traditional reporting piece, plus the ability for pre-selected clients to directly cancel planned visits and request additional or new visits. A "weather watch" service was added so pre-selected clients can see the forecast for their area and act on a client-demand basis, rather than sitting on the phone to operations.

Key business benefits

What changed for Nurture Gritting.

• ✓Significantly reduced timescale to import the Met Office weather file.
• ✓Jobs dealt with on an exception basis only, rather than planned from scratch each night.
• ✓Improved scheduling, significantly reducing the time needed to allocate resources.
• ✓One simple system showing the key information every discipline needs, without switching tools.
• ✓Professional pricing and sales process ensuring a consistent, corporate approach across every client conversation.
• ✓Quote proposals converted directly into annual contracts, ready for client signature.
• ✓Bidirectional SAP integration ensuring accuracy of data between the operational platform and the finance system.
• ✓A Client Portal that lets pre-selected clients cancel or request visits, and see forecast conditions for their site, without calling in.

“This project has been a real partnership, and a close relationship with all the team has been fundamental in the success of the system. We will continue the development for years to come as Nurture's gritting division grows, backed with a company and system that we trust to deliver on our ever changing needs.”

Nik Tozer, National Gritting Manager, Nurture Gritting