Business Pilot has launched a new feature developed in response to customer feedback, giving installers greater visibility and control over commercial, multi-site and multi-phase projects through a single customer record. The feature makes Business Pilot the first CRM in the glazing sector to give installers a dedicated way of managing both retail and commercial projects within a single platform.
While many CRM platforms are designed around retail installations and commercial project management systems are often geared towards large-scale construction projects, Phases has been developed specifically to support installers operating across both markets.
While many installation businesses continue to focus on retail work, growing numbers are securing larger contracts spanning housing developments, apartment blocks, commercial offices and multi-product installations. Managing these projects through traditional CRM systems can create administrative challenges, reduce visibility and make operational planning more difficult.
The new Phases feature has been created to address those challenges, providing installers with a structured way to manage complex projects while maintaining visibility and control across every stage of delivery.
“This has been a commonly requested feature from customers managing larger commercial and multi-site projects,” explained Ryan Schofield, Product Director at Business Pilot.
“As installation businesses grow, many begin taking on a mix of retail and commercial work. Historically, they’ve often had to choose between systems designed for residential installations and software built for large-scale commercial projects.
“Phases brings those two worlds together, giving installers the visibility and control they need for larger contracts while continuing to support their day-to-day retail operations.
“Whether it’s a housing development, apartment block, commercial office project or a contract involving multiple product types, the challenge is maintaining control while keeping day-to-day operations efficient. Phases has been designed specifically to solve that problem.”
The new functionality allows businesses to divide large contracts into clearly defined operational segments, giving project managers greater visibility of progress across individual phases, plots, buildings or product deliveries while maintaining a single commercial relationship at contract level.
Administrators can enable the feature as required and configure custom project types to suit their own workflows. Projects can then be split into specific operational segments and labelled according to the needs of the contract, whether that’s Phase 1, 2 and 3, individual plot numbers or bespoke delivery stages.
Once a project progresses from enquiry to order, each phase can be managed individually, allowing teams to track progress, allocate resources and monitor the status of different elements of the contract from a single screen.
The feature has been designed to maintain the simplicity that Business Pilot is known for. Companies that do not require multi-site or multi-product tracking will see no changes to their existing workflow, while those managing larger commercial projects can unlock advanced project tracking whenever required.
“One of the key priorities when developing this feature was flexibility,” Ryan continued.
“We wanted to create something powerful enough to support larger commercial and multi-site projects while remaining straightforward for businesses focused on retail installations.
“That makes it particularly valuable for companies operating across both sectors, because they can manage everything through a single platform rather than adapting their processes around separate systems.
“Project managers need clear visibility of what’s progressing, what’s awaiting survey and what’s ready for invoicing. By allowing actions to be managed at both project and phase level, businesses can maintain complete control of larger contracts while reducing administration and improving efficiency.”
