There’s no more waiting on the phone to access customer service, with Hastings Deering’s new HD360 digital platform putting your Cat machine data, parts ordering, invoicing and credit information safely in the palm of your hand.
For a busy contractor out on the work site, spending time on the phone waiting for a customer care agent to get round to your query when you’re looking for a part or info on your credit limit is a time sink nobody needs. When you’re busy on the work site, spending time on the phone waiting for someone to answer when you’re looking for a part or info on your credit limit is a time sink nobody needs.
Hastings Deering has therefore invested in creating a digital platform, HD360, that gives its customers access to all their parts ordering, tracking, invoicing and spending information to make the admin of business management a bit easier.
We have 30,000 customers and we wanted to create a digital front door that was as frictionless as the physical front door. This is what HD360 really started with.
Hastings Deering Executive General Manager – Construction Industries Sebastian Banks says.
“Any transaction you do with us, you should be able to do through a digital application. For our customers, having to get off their machine to make a call and order a part means that they're not making money. We want them to do that at the touch of their finger, right there in the cab.”
HD360 is a digital space for customers to manage their machinery, track their spending, plan ahead for maintenance and easily track and see details about their parts orders.
“It's about making sure our customers stay productive all the time,” Banks says.
“They can easily buy a part, get an invoice and track a part. We have one and a half million parts across our network, so we’re making it easier for people to find that one part that they're looking for.
“An owner can view their machine on HD360, and they can click on buy a part and it'll take them to the related parts for that machine, which they can order and track all the way through to delivery.”
Three in one
Banks explains that HD360 is split into three sections – a customer’s assets, their financial information and an operational page focused on parts tracking. The asset page allows for GPS tracking of individual connected machines in a fleet as well as machine data such as hours worked, fault alerts, and service history allowing for an overview of maintenance needs and fleet performance.
The finance page allows a business to check its credit limits, pay invoices, and have a daily view of what is being spent, while the operations page shows part tracking for orders made.
“We'll develop further features as we progress, but we wanted to start with the simple ones to ensure that the tech sat behind HD360 was robust and secure,” Banks says.
“One of our key priorities has been the protection of customer data as this is highly sensitive business information. When it comes to the use of data, we want to ensure the customer has faith in us that we're keeping their information secure.
“The other challenge we have with Caterpillar is that there's about 15 different apps. What we've done is integrate these into HD360 so it becomes a single source sign on for any one of the Cat apps.”
Banks says that alongside of the simplicity of HD360, he is looking forward to seeing how it develops as Hastings Deering collects customer feedback on its use and what users would like to see included in future.
“Digital leadership really is about creating something and then putting something in the hands of the customer. And that's what we've done,” he explains.
“We've created a direct feedback loop from customer comments, directed directly into development. Ultimately the goal is to make people’s lives easier and having that input from our customer base is vital to achieving that. We’re one of the first to do this in the Caterpillar world.”
On the ground
One Hastings Deering customer that has been using HD360 since its launch in May is Queensland-based machinery repairer McGregor Diesel.
Based in Goondiwindi, McGregor Diesel has been undertaking repair and maintenance of earthmoving, irrigation and agricultural equipment for the past 15 years, specialising in Cat machinery.
McGregor Diesel business manager Mandy McGregor says she and the team have found HD360 to be very easy to use and an asset to the everyday management of the business.
“We order parts daily through Hastings Deering and rely on HD360 for our notifications on processed orders and orders that are still pending.
“We recently used HD360 to do an overview of our credit limit and found it useful to see our cashflow trend. It’s easy to take a look and see where you are at any point.
“It’s very easy to do a parts order for $30,000 on an engine rebuild, so if you’re watching that every day [via HD360 ] you can mark the spend.”
The parts tracking aspect of HD360 has also been useful when planning jobs for customers, she adds.
“When we’re organising the boys to go out on a job, we’ll often have a look at the app to see if a part’s been provisioned, for example. It’s a very important tool for our business. We also get a text saying when parts are being provisioned, which is pretty handy.
“HD360 overall is very easy to use, with no little training required. It’s very easy to order parts using Quicklinks which is also a great feature of HD360, with a click of a button it shows you everything.”
For more information on HD360 click here
