BMS: Feet on the ground and cranes in the sky

IT development and ongoing sparring with a fixed partner is the IT foundation at the crane company BMS. The company is always looking for ways to make IT work smarter.

We meet the green BMS cranes everywhere, lifting wind turbines, cathedral spires and bridge sections into place. The company's largest crane easily handles a load of 1,350 tonnes.

It takes the right crane and the right operator to handle such large lifting jobs, and for BMS it is a must to have full control of everything from cranes, crews and safety to the various certificates.

"It takes a lot, because we have 50 different types of vehicles, each requiring its own certificates and training to operate," says IT manager Morten Fjellerad, BMS.

"So we have developed a tool that, among other things, shows us who can operate a given crane, who has had on the job training on it, and who holds the certificate for it."

"The whole point of the system is that our rental, booking and logistics teams can quickly and easily get a list of which employees are qualified to operate which crane."

Cranes and more

BMS A/S is an international, family owned crane company headquartered in Nørresundby with branches in several countries.

The company was originally called Byggeriets Maskin Stationer and rose from the ashes of the Second World War. Since 1953 BMS has had a crane in play in many places at home and abroad. BMS is there whether it is the spire of Roskilde Cathedral, components for power plants or large Vestas wind turbines that need lifting into place.

The company started as a crane company but is much more than that today. BMS also rents out various types of cranes, trains riggers and crane operators, manages projects and delivers complete solutions for all kinds of lifting jobs.

Gathering the processes and making it easy

BMS is growing and has taken on more jobs and more employees. That places new and different demands on operations and on the many processes that keep it all running.

"The more employees, the more things need to be automated and taken away from the IT department as manual processes."

"Needs change all the time. Our business has grown significantly in recent years, and we have more processes with more participants. So of course we have to automate as many of the manual processes as possible through IT development."

"We work constantly on simplifying our processes and synchronising our systems, so they work and automate as much as possible."

From employee list to HR platform

IT is the hub of the business and helps drive, support and automate the company's processes. BMS's IT grows with the company's needs.

So as things have changed, BMS has developed a simple employee list into a full HR platform. The platform gathers and links a long list of tasks and data such as phone numbers, management of permissions, employment contracts and overviews of certificates for employees' skills. It is fast, automatic and easy.

"The platform gives us a quick overview of who can do what. It also lets us immediately move crews around and solve a logistics challenge very quickly, because the system does the work for us," says Morten Fjellerad.

"That kind of system is really smart when you get a sick call in the morning and need to find a new employee for a specific type of job. The system handles it with ease."

"That knowledge typically sits in one employee's head and depends on him remembering who else can operate exactly that type of crane."

"At the same time we can see when each employee needs to renew their certificate."

The ongoing sparring

BMS uses Gravgaard & Co to develop its systems and for ongoing sparring on IT development and what can be optimised and automated, so the crane business is lifted even further.

"We are in constant dialogue with Gravgaard & Co about what we can do smarter. We regularly go through things together and look at how we can optimise our business."

"That dialogue has become a really good hub for a great many things."

"It is important for us that our consultant is there when we need him. We cannot hang around waiting for days when we have a problem. They understand that at Gravgaard & Co."

"When you do IT development, there are often different expectations of what the process should be and sometimes also of what the result should be. That applies both internally in your own organisation and in relation to the external partner."

"There will always be some bumps along the way that you have to deal with and keep under control. That is perfectly possible when you have a good dialogue and keep aligning expectations with each other."

Down to earth and respect

IT is important, but so are other things. For BMS's IT manager it is about putting the company's IT in the right proportions.

"Often it is about not making things more complicated than they are. Very few companies are as big as Maersk, where it makes sense in terms of size to have a lot of different systems."

"Do not buy a whole lot of different systems just because a salesperson says it is smart. Always consider whether it is really necessary and whether the company is big enough for the system to make sense."

"Keep your feet on the ground. It is so easy to overdo things because you think you are so big and important."

"I think my work in the IT department is important. But my department is not the most important department at BMS. I am not the one who keeps the business running."

"That is the crane operators who are out there operating cranes 14 or 15 hours a day. They are the ones who earn the money for us. You must never forget that. I have enormous respect for those people."

It is important for us that our consultant is there when we need him. We cannot hang around waiting for days when we have a problem. They understand that at Gravgaard & Co.

Morten Fjellerad
IT Manager, BMS A/S