Horizon Platforms Case Study


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    Customer Details

    Horizon Platforms provide hydraulically operated equipment to enable safe working at height on a rental basis throughout the UK. This service is delivered throughout the north of England from their two operating centres, situated in Wakefield and Warrington and to the rest of the UK via a network of approved suppliers. They also sell new and used platforms together with the provision of service, maintenance and repair packages.

    Horizon also deliver formal training courses to ensure rental customers are able to operate access equipment in a safe manner.

    The Brief

    • To train key staff in the creation of dashboards in Excel taking data from an SQL Database and Sage Line 50, currently being managed by an external company that develops, markets and supports the Syrinx Rental and Asset Management software package.

    Delivery

    Our trainer, Noel Clarke, met with a representative of the external company who were managing the Horizon’s SQL database together with the Managing Director, Ben Hirst.

    This meeting was convened so that we could get an understanding of the data and how it was supplied and used in order to design and deliver a series of customised IT training courses to meet the brief of the company.

    Subsequently our trainer created a manual outlining the basic principles of developing dashboards using Excel, together with additional course material.

    We then delivered a series of focused, customised courses for key groups within the company as follows:

    • 1 day database structure & SQL training.
    • 2 days Excel Training including PowerPivot focusing on the type of tools & functionality commonly used to create effective dashboards.
    • 2 days of Dashboard Training:
      • Day 1 – Basic principles of dashboard design
      • Day 2 – Development of dashboards based on company data.

    Outcome

    The company is now able to create their own dashboards in-house without having to rely on external companies. This will enable them to be able to load the data onto SharePoint at some time in the future and share information throughout the different company locations.