Project summary

Client: I Want Plants
Industry: Interior Landscaping & Facilities Management
Project: Maintenance Scheduling Web Application
Platform: Custom Web Application

The client

I Want Plants is one of the UK’s leading interior landscaping companies, providing commercial planting, installation and ongoing maintenance services for businesses nationwide.

With hundreds of customer locations, recurring maintenance schedules and mobile field teams, the business required a modern management platform that could replace an ageing internal system while providing a significantly improved experience for administrators, account managers and maintenance crews.

PilotBean worked with I Want Plants to design and develop a bespoke maintenance scheduling web application that streamlines operations from contract management and scheduling through to on-site reporting and issue management.

Services provided:

• Discovery & Technical Consultancy
• UX & User Experience
• Web Application Development
• Workflow Design
• Mobile Responsive Development
• Scheduling & Calendar System
• Contract Management
• Reporting & Data Management
• Hosting & Ongoing Support

The problem

The existing maintenance management system had become increasingly restrictive as the business continued to grow.

Managing customers, contracts, maintenance schedules and employee rotas involved multiple disconnected processes, making it difficult to coordinate field teams efficiently and provide real-time visibility of maintenance visits.

The business needed a modern platform that would retain the functionality of the existing system while significantly improving workflows, supporting mobile users and creating a scalable foundation for future enhancements.

The solution

PilotBean designed and developed a bespoke web application tailored specifically to the day-to-day workflows of I Want Plants.

Following an extensive discovery phase, the application was delivered using an Agile development process, allowing functionality to be introduced in structured iterations while incorporating regular client feedback throughout the project.

Intelligent scheduling and rostering

At the heart of the application is a powerful scheduling system that allows administrators to manage recurring maintenance visits, one-off jobs and employee rotas from a central calendar.

The interface provides multiple calendar views, making it easy to organise maintenance schedules, assign crews, move visits between dates and monitor upcoming work across every customer location.

Rather than simply recreating the previous system, workflows were redesigned to reduce administration and improve productivity for office-based teams.

Customer and contract management

The application provides comprehensive management tools for customers, sites, locations and maintenance contracts.

Account managers can manage customer records, contacts, maintenance agreements and scheduled visits from a single platform, with related information intelligently connected throughout the system.

As the application evolved, additional contract management features were introduced to support multiple contracts at the same location, improving visibility of installations, removals and ongoing maintenance activities.

Mobile tools for field teams

Maintenance crews access the system through a mobile-friendly interface designed specifically for on-site working.

Employees can view their daily schedules, record visit start and finish times, report maintenance issues and add notes directly from customer locations.

This removes the need for paper-based reporting while ensuring office staff have immediate visibility of completed work and any follow-up actions required.

Issue tracking and workflow automation

The platform includes a complete issue management system that enables maintenance teams to report problems encountered during visits while allowing administrators to assign remedial work efficiently.

Issues can be linked directly to future maintenance visits or scheduled as separate follow-up appointments, ensuring nothing is overlooked and reducing manual coordination between office staff and field teams.

Later iterations expanded the workflow to include photograph uploads, issue categorisation and replacement approval processes, creating a richer operational record for every customer site.

Designed to evolve

Rather than delivering a fixed application, PilotBean structured the project around phased development iterations.

This allowed the initial minimum viable product to be delivered quickly before introducing increasingly sophisticated functionality including advanced reporting, data import and export tools, enhanced permissions, contract ledgers and future customer portal capabilities.

The iterative approach ensured the application continued to evolve alongside the business as new requirements emerged.

The outcome

The finished application provides I Want Plants with a powerful operational platform that supports every stage of the maintenance process, from customer and contract management through to scheduling, field reporting and issue resolution.

By replacing legacy workflows with a bespoke web application built specifically around the company’s processes, the business benefits from improved efficiency, better visibility of maintenance activity and a scalable platform capable of supporting continued growth.

PilotBean continues to work with I Want Plants through ongoing development and maintenance, delivering new functionality as operational requirements evolve.