Durham Lifting
A bespoke field service management platform that replaced manual planning with real-time, API-integrated operations, saving over 1,000 hours and £22,000 a year.
Seahorse Integrations partnered with Durham Lifting to design and build a bespoke field service management platform, replacing manual processes with custom business software that integrates directly with their existing systems. Based in the North East of England, Durham Lifting are a leading provider of lifting equipment inspections, testing, and services operating across multiple sites.
Manual planning and paper-based operations across multiple sites
Durham Lifting manage lifting equipment inspections across the North East, with engineers out on site daily. Their service division had no single system connecting the office to the field. Job scheduling was done by hand with no live visibility of progress. Engineers had no central place to see their schedule, access job data, or find the health and safety documentation they needed before starting work. Timesheets were completed manually, slowing down payroll. Pre-use equipment checks were paper-based, with no way to verify compliance before an engineer left for site. Customer equipment delivered to depot for inspection or repair had no formal tracking, meaning items could go missing with no audit trail. Invoicing was slow, error-prone, and dependent on chasing paperwork. The office team spent hours every day chasing updates, re-scheduling jobs, and trying to piece together a clear picture of who was doing what.
It was a process built on spreadsheets, phone calls, and paper. It worked, but it couldn't scale, and the time it consumed was holding the business back.
A bespoke operations platform with real-time API integration
We built a custom job planning and field service management platform that connects the office, the field, and existing systems through a single interface. The software was developed specifically around Durham Lifting's workflows, not forced into an off-the-shelf tool that half fits.
For managers and office staff, a drag-and-drop job scheduling board with real-time API sync to field tablets, so the team sees job status the moment it changes. Multi-day jobs that span complex inspections are planned and tracked seamlessly. Enhanced engineer statistics give managers clear performance visibility and data-driven decision making. Planning time has been cut significantly as staff no longer need to switch between the scheduling tool and the certification portal. No more chasing engineers for updates.
For engineers, a dedicated login where they can see their allocated jobs, access full job data, and pull up risk assessments and method statements before travelling to site. Pre-use equipment checks are completed digitally, ensuring the full scope is adhered to before work begins. Every engineer saves time before every job.
For payroll and invoicing, engineers complete timesheets directly in the platform, cutting out the manual process entirely and speeding up both the payroll cycle and invoicing turnaround.
For compliance and going paperless, every pre-use check, every job allocation, every status change is logged digitally. Paper has been completely eliminated from the workflow, reducing errors indefinitely and creating a full audit trail.
For customer goods tracking, equipment delivered to Durham Lifting's depot for inspection or repair is tracked from arrival through to completion and return. Nothing goes missing, every item is accounted for, and customers have full confidence in the process.
The platform integrates directly with Durham Lifting's existing field software via API, so engineers didn't have to change how they work on their tablets. Data moves between office and field automatically, with built-in error handling and retry logic to ensure nothing is lost.
1,000+ hours and £22,000 saved annually
The bespoke software has transformed how Durham Lifting's service division operates. Over 1,000 hours and £22,000 a year reclaimed in productive time across the team. Paper has been completely removed from the process. Invoicing times have decreased. Error rates have dropped. Customer equipment no longer goes missing at depot. And overall customer satisfaction has rocketed, with a faster, more reliable service delivered from day one.
This is what digital transformation looks like for a real business. Not a buzzword, not a slide deck. A custom-built platform that runs daily across multiple sites and continues to evolve as the business grows.
Durham Lifting are based in Middlesbrough, North East England. Seahorse Integrations deliver bespoke software development and API integration for SMEs across engineering, construction, and professional services in the North East and beyond.
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