Arbor Tree Surgery has long recognized the importance of Electronic Data Systems, prompting us to invest in a Management Information System (MIS) in 1989. We currently use our Management Information System to share data with many of our customers. For instance, data regarding all trees trimmed for PG&E, including their locations, the type of trim done, and the hours associated with that work are entered into a database management system. We are able to perform comprehensive management reporting from this database. We further utilize the data collected by transferring it to the payroll and accounts receivable modules of our accounting system. We then reformat the data to what is required by PG&E, and transfer it to them in San Francisco, where they incorporate the data into the "Tree Talk" system. This also serves as our billing to PG&E. We have recently made the following improvements to our MIS to enhance our EDS capability. We replaced our network with all new state of the art hardware. We plan to modify our software, in the near future, to allow all our data to be entered in the same custom program that we use for PG&E. The data will then be transferred to our accounting system, allowing for single entry of data in our office. This will also enable us to provide data back to our customers similar to the data being sent to PG&E. We are beginning to investigate the possibility of using laptop, or handheld computers in the field, perhaps utilizing global positioning satellites, to collect data as we trim the trees. We hope to be piloting this within the next few months with one or two of our customers.
We look forward to working with our customers, using the tools that today's technology offers us to better manage their tree inventory, for the benefit of us both. By building a comprehensive tree inventory our customers could develop accurate trim cycles for specific geographic areas, while pinpointing exception trees that deviate from the normal cycle. We have a Management Information System that could be developed to take us both to the next level.
For more information, call us to see how our systems can work with yours!
