CUSTOMER STORIES

April 15, 2020

Harvey Water Softeners

Leading UK water softener company saves £1 million with custom app.

Industry

Manufacturing

Solution

A custom app built on the FileMaker Platform saves the UK's largest water softener company £1 million annually.

Benefits

Replaced paper forms for the field sales team, used by more than 300 employees across manufacturing and customer success to streamline operations.

The custom app in Claris FileMaker automates manufacturing, inventory management, lead management, customer service, sales, installation, and more.

After moving to Surrey from Cornwall, United Kingdom, more than 4 decades ago, Harvey Bowden and his wife were dismayed by the higher mineral content of the water due to the limescale that surrounded their new home. They purchased a water softener and were thrilled with the results – and inspiration struck. Since then, Harvey has been solving people’s hard water problems through his Surrey-based company, Harvey Water Softeners, selling compact, under-the-sink water softeners.

As the company started to grow rapidly, Harvey realized their current way of operating was no longer going to work. Using 2 separate systems for service and sales proved to be clunky and time-consuming.

Fast forward to 2001 when Guy Halligan joined the company as IT manager. He hadn’t been exposed to the Claris FileMaker Platform before, and he found it intriguing. Guy persuaded the company to upgrade to a newer version of FileMaker and introduced FileMaker Server to host solutions - that’s when it all came together. “FileMaker has been the driving force behind our rapid growth ever since.” He began building networked custom apps from scratch and has been developing apps for the company ever since.

"For me, FileMaker is my de facto problem-solving toolkit. With every iteration, it has delivered improved features that make my day-to-day job easier."

Guy Halligan, Lead FileMaker Developer, Harvey Water Softeners

Using Claris FileMaker, Harvey Water Softeners has been able to:

  • Save an estimated £1 million annually in development and operations.
  • Integrate all elements of the business, from tracking automated test equipment results to connecting with financial institutions for income processing.
  • Grow under-utilized revenue streams with apps to enable selling directly to customers.
  • Process daily workflows of the mobile workforce in real-time, driving growth and efficiency in a cost-effective way.
  • Overcome governmental compliance challenges by implementing a customer preference center that was isolated from the main system.
  • And much more.

Download the complete case study to learn more about how Claris FileMaker is helping Harvey Water Softeners to experience exponential growth and efficiency.