Unlocking the future of your facility: Mandalay Technologies

Brendon Horswell of Mandalay Technologies discusses how operators can unlock long-term investment rewards through the company’s Facility Product Suite Extension Products.

As standards around waste and resource recovery change, so do the needs of operators working in the sector.

Recognising the needs of clients is critical for Mandalay Technologies, with data analysis and client facing product development forming the basis of the company’s business model.

Brendon Horswell, Head of Support and Implementations, explains that Mandalay cultivates its cloud-based products through on-going interaction with its clients.

With over 32 years’ experience in the waste and resource recovery sector, Horswell has developed a strong understanding of the industry and the specific and complex needs of individual operators.

“We work closely with our clients to help them overcome their operational challenges and develop our products in accordance with that,” he says.

Mandalay’s Facility Product Suite, for example, was developed to address a range of customer pain points.

These include lack of trust in data, poor and inadequate reporting and an inability to integrate to finance systems.

“It’s a hybrid cloud solution offering an interface to process transactions, capture data at manned and un-manned facilities and record data according to various state-based and national regulatory requirements,” Horswell says.

In addition to its core product suite, Mandalay offers a range of Extension Transactional Products, including EFTPOS integration, Image Capture, Multi Weigh, Site-Based Pricing and UAT Environment.

According to Horswell, Mandalay’s EFTPOS extension product was designed to integrate Facility Product Suite ticketing with EFTPOS terminals via a third-party product called Linkly.

This allows ticket price information to pass automatically from ticketing to an integrated EFTPOS terminal and pass the payment back to the ticketing transaction record.

“A lot of facilities have an older style of EFTPOS, where the driver drops of the material, the transaction is processed within Mandalay’s software, and then the operator has to type the amount into a pin pad,” Horswell says.

“With our EFTPOS integrated system, however, when the operator processes the transaction within the Mandalay ticketing software, they simply hit the EFTPOS button, which automatically sends the information to the pin pad machine.”

Horswell explains that the integrated system reduces the possibility of keying errors, as operators aren’t required to manually enter transaction amounts into EFTPOS terminals.

He adds that the product speeds up transactions and streamlines auditing.

“If at the end of the day a facility should have taken in $20,000 but have only taken in $10,000 through EFTPOS because someone typed in the wrong amount, there’s often no way to capture that money back, particularly if it’s an unknown client,” Horswell says.

“Our EFTPOS integration removes that risk to ensure an accurate and steady cash-flow.”

Another key extension product is image capture, Horswell says, which is designed to capture images from CCTV cameras installed at waste and resource recovery facilities.

Images are recorded at the point a weight is stored or when a transaction is completed, allowing clients to verify transactional data.

Mandalay’s clients often have a camera facing the front of the incoming vehicle that can capture the licence plate, Horswell says, and a second camera that captures the load of the vehicle.

He adds that the key advantage of image capture is the ability to resolve billing disputes using the image and location details attached to each transaction.

“If a customer has been charged for tyres, for example, and they come back to the operator claiming they didn’t have any tyres, our client can look back through the transaction history and show that tyres were in the load,” Horswell says.

The information is available through Mandalay’s Transactional Search function, which allows users to quickly find a specific transaction or set of transactions related to the customer, keyword, vehicle, ticket number or date range.

Items are filtered by site and presented in an easy-to-use table format that allows for quick processing of key information.

“Another important extension product is UAT Environment, which allows clients to set and test pricing changes in advance,” Horswell says.

Fees and charges generally increase from the 1st of July each year, and through the UAT Environment platform, Mandalay’s clients can test changes through the ticketing system to ensure pricing comes out as expected.

“This means the client can prepare pricing changes in advance and are not left scrambling at the last minute hoping the new pricing structure is going to work,” Horswell says.

Another advantage of UAT Environment is the ability to test upgrades of Mandalay’s core software program.

“We can test the new software in UAT first, so the customer can see the new version and make sure it works with their processes,” Horswell says.

Once clients are happy with the UAT test, Mandalay can upgrade the new version in production.

“Ensuring the correct processes are in place is an investment in the future and removes the potential of having to go back and fix problems after they arise.”

Future thinking is crucial for the ongoing develop of a facility, Horswell explains.

He adds that while investment in Mandalay’s extension products is an additional capital cost, the products save operational costs through streamlined processes and auditability.

“It’s a long-term investment strategy in the future of your facility,” he says.

This article is the second in a three-part series exploring Mandalay’s Facility Product Suite.

To find out more about how Mandalay can support your business, email: enquire@mandalaytech.com or click here.