According to the latest figures from Business Micros, the industry is pouring time and resources into updating and enhancing its software at record rates.

Calls to the company’s support team based at Penpont in Scotland are said to be 9% up this year compared to 2021 and 20% up compared to 2020.

Business Micros says that the majority of these calls are program requests from customers who are adding new product lines to their manufacturing set ups or machine enquiries when they are investing in new saws and CNCs.

There are also growing numbers of customers calling for support in updating costings and pricing and making the most of efficiency focused features such as materials batching modules.

Jude Knowles, Business Micros’ head of operations, commented: “If you take these calls as a barometer of what’s happening in the industry, then there’s clearly plenty of growth and diversification going on as fabricators invest in products and machinery; but also a renewed determination to increase efficiency, which of course is what our EvoNET business management software is all about.

“Our core market for both EvoNET and our Evolution manufacturing and processing software is PVC-U fabricators. Calls were increasing in 2021 when the market was booming, and fabricators needed their software to help them to do more, and that has continued throughout 2022 when there have been signs of a tightening in the market and it has become more about optimising what our customers already have – in order to save on costs and protect margins.

“80% of our customers have a level of support contract with us because it gives access to our expert team on the phone, online or in person when they want to add functions or features to make the most of their software,” she continued. “Only a tiny proportion of our support team’s time is spent solving problems for customers or fixing errors though – it’s all about helping them to use their software more effectively and get more value from their investment.

“We have different levels of support available depending on customers’ requirements. Some need online help with data changes, whereas others choose to have regular virtual meetings with us so that they can continually hone their software to make sure it keeps pace with their business.”

Business Micros claims to have the ‘biggest and most experienced’ support team in the industry, more than capable of handing the 1,200+ calls a month it is currently receiving.

Jude added: “The resources within the Business Micros Group mean we can always scale our support to match demand. We have dedicated experts on hand for any type of request – whether that’s something simple like adding a new colour or hardware option or something more complex such as setting up a new machine link.”