P&L Software – developers of the industry-standard Integrated Waste System (IWS) – have been given ISO accreditation in recognition of their levels of support and training. The accreditation comes as they reveal new training facilities and a new three-tiered maintenance package to help users get even more out of their powerful software. P&L are the only waste-management software developers to be awarded ISO accreditation (ISO 9001:2000). “The ISO accreditation is a proud event for all our staff,” explains Director Julie Emery-Priest. “Not only are we the only waste management software house to specialise in waste — now we’re the only ones with ISO accreditation. It means better service for all our customers. Councils and companies who are also ISO accredited will understand the levels of service and support to expect.”

New training facilities

As part of that service, P&L have hugely expanded their training, developing a specialised in-house customer training facility. “IWS is extremely powerful,” explains Julie, “but its power and range of features can mean that some users do not tap the full potential of the software. So we’ve developed an in-house training unit to show customers what IWS can really do for their business. We’ll be offering a range of one and two-day courses, allowing small groups of users to drill down into the software and see exactly all that it has to offer.” The centre is fully air-conditioned, and equipped with the latest pop-up desking system and Digital Laser projectors. There is also a cafe-style area for relaxation and refreshment.

New maintenance packages

Along with the training centre, P&L have also launched a new three-tiered range of maintenance packages, allowing users to select exactly the right level of support for their business. The standard level of support already offers upgrades to software and access to the 24-hour software support helpline, but now users can choose ‘silver’ or ‘gold’ levels of support, which also offer on-site consultative visits from P&L’s technical experts. The Silver level provides for one annual consultative visit, while the Gold level offers three. “A consultative visit can bring up all sorts of issues,” explains Julie. “We’ll analyse and optimise the user’s system, but we’ll also help customers to use the software to its full capability and even advise them on putting together new and better system and administration procedures. We want to give the best possible service to our customers – because we believe that we offer the best software.”

ENDS

CONTACT: Julie Emery-Priest, +44 (0)1865 370722

NOTE TO EDITORS

1. P&L Software Systems Limited is based in Kidlington, just north of Oxford.

2. P&L Software Systems has specialized exclusively in waste management software since 1987– and with the largest installed software base in the UK, is recognized within the country's waste industry as one of the major players in waste management software. Since 1996 P&L has also been developing materials brokerage software to integrate with the waste paper industry's needs.

IWS is the most widely used waste management software in the UK today. But recently it's been facing the challenge of being put to the test by Grundon - the UK's largest privately-owned waste management company.

"We operate from 15 sites and have operations ranging from quarrying to recycling, domestic kerbside waste collection to clinical incineration. We are also involved with building and running a waste to energy incinerator," explains Steve Short, IT manager for Grundon.

"We wanted to replace our in-house VAX based Traffic system and move to a Windows SQL based system. We spoke to the major players in the industry, shortlisted and finally chose P&L as our preferred supplier. We needed a system that we felt could grow with us and be adaptable to our diverse business."

With its robust architecture, wide range of features and well-established history, IWS can be installed for most users 'out-of-the-box' and can fit in with the way that they are already operating.

"We didn't see the need to change what we did too much because the system worked for us," said Steve. "We haven't had a major upheaval in the way we do business."

Not that there haven't been some challenges - most notably because partnering with Grundon meant porting the software to the SQL platform.

"We were the first IWS SQL customer which was new for P&L and that has caused some issues," explains Steve. "But most of those issues were resolved during the testing phase of the project, "When things have gone wrong, we try to work with P&L to correct the problems, rather than just jumping up and down and shouting at them. I'd rather have a partnership like that."

ENDS

CONTACT: Julie Emery-Priest, +44 (0)1865 370722

NOTE TO EDITORS

1. P&L Software Systems Limited is based in Kidlington, just north of Oxford.

2. P&L Software Systems has specialized exclusively in waste management software since 1987– and with the largest installed software base in the UK, is recognized within the country's waste industry as one of the major players in waste management software. Since 1996 P&L has also been developing materials brokerage software to integrate with the waste paper industry's needs.

P&L Software have linked up with Grundon — the largest privately owned waste management group in Britain — to provide waste management software in 5 sites along the Thames Valley. The sites have a wide range of facilities including domestic and trade waste, materials recycling, composting and incineration.

Grundon have chosen P&L’s Integrated Waste System to replace their own in-house system. Significantly, P&L have rewritten the IWS to run under the SQL (Structured Query Language) programming language. SQL (pronounced 'sequel') is the most popular computer language used to create, modify and retrieve data from relational databases. Over the last two decades, SQL has grown into the standard computer database language and is at the core of the database products from such major companies as Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM.

“Moving IWS to SQL has been a goal of ours for some time,” said P&L Managing Director Peter Gardner. ”It means that the system can be used by a wider variety of customers, so we’re looking forward to making IWS even more accessible and available.”

Over the past 60 years. Grundon waste collection services established a reputation for reliable and efficient operations, so it was unsurprising that they looked for the same qualities in their software. With its robust architecture, wide range of features and well-established history, IWS could be installed for Grundon almost ‘off-the-peg’.

“Obviously there was some work to be done in porting the software to run under SQL, but otherwise the software already included the range of features that Grundon needed,” Peter explained. “One of the strengths of IWS is that it’s already industry-proven. It covers all the necessary legislative requirements and comes with a huge list of features. All the user has to do is choose which modules are right for their own situation and they can get to work straight away.”

ENDS

CONTACT: Julie Emery-Priest, +44 (0)1865 370722

NOTE TO EDITORS

1. P&L Software Systems Limited is based in Kidlington, just north of Oxford.

2. P&L Software Systems has specialized exclusively in waste management software since 1987– and with the largest installed software base in the UK, is recognized within the country's waste industry as one of the major players in waste management software. Since 1996 P&L has also been developing materials brokerage software to integrate with the waste paper industry's needs.