AJM Healthcare upgrade to BEST V14 AR
AJs have been using Soft Options software to manage their Wheelchair businesses since 1991 and moved to BEST AR in 2008 going through V8 to V10.
In April 2024 they started the process of upgrading to BEST V14. They are currently providing Approved Repairer Services to Camden Wheelchairs in London and Sussex Community Trust wheelchair services operating out of Worthing and Hailsham.
With his previous experience from managing the South Wales Wheelchair Approved Repairer for a few years in the late 2000s, Mike Birdsall – Senior Software Developer, was the obvious choice to lead the project for Soft Options, and of course we had to include Becky Simcock with all her really relevant experience!
On July 21st Mike travelled up to London and completed the final go live preparations working from his hotel room in the Premier Inn just off Hanger Lane gyratory. Then on the 22nd he enjoyed a thirty-minute walk to the depot to begin the work of going live. At the same time Becky made her way to the Hailsham depot to be on hand to help the staff there with their first steps using BEST V14 for real.
Mike and the Team at the Park Royal depot work through Stock Management functions
Mike says:
“It was great to get back into an Approved Repairer environment and meet the Team at the Park Royal. And I really enjoyed doing the custom development to cover AJ’s very specific requirements for managing customer invoicing.”
And Becky adds:
“Visiting AJ’s for their go live was a great opportunity to catch up with familiar faces. It was good to be able to use my knowledge to support them through the upgrade on various remote training sessions as well as in person for the trial go live and go live.”
After a few stops and starts caused by circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the upgrade project got fully underway in early 2025, with a Trial Go Live in April.
4 weeks on from the go live, Soft Options continue to support the Teams in Park Royal, Worthing and Hailsham as they continue to get used to their new system.
And the final word, on behalf of AJM, goes to Daren Haynes, Regional Manager – South:
“We have recently moved onto your new BEST 14 system from BEST 10 and have been happily surprised by how much it has moved on. So many more features available now compared to the old system we were using and definitely more intuitive, although we are only using the AR element. Plenty of self-help videos attached to the system that really do help too.
The onboarding to the new system has been really smooth for the best part and the SOS ticket system for queries is very responsive in resolving these. Dave Rolph and the Soft Options Team have been, and continue to be, very supportive in dealing with some of the things we are raising while we get to grips with the new BEST 14 system.
In addition to the new BEST 14 system Mike Birdsall has done a fantastic job of creating (from scratch) an invoicing element and additional reporting that looks at streamlining the old process. I have only been using for a month but can already see that this will be a massive improvement/benefit from the old way and will eventually lead to just approving the whole month activity once defaults are set in 1 go, very impressive !! REALLY !!
If I was asked if I would recommend BEST 14 as an operating system, then it would be a definite yes.”