Case study: Greenstar
Ireland’s leading environmental, recycling and waste management company uses GeoDirectory to run its award-winning operation with clinical efficiency.
Keeping track of thousands of bins
The business of dealing with household and business waste is highly complex. Greenstar has 60,000 household customers and 25,000 business customers nationwide.
The company employs 700 people at 40 sites, and its 150 trucks criss-cross Ireland daily, from Sligo down to Waterford, from Dublin to Cork. This vast fleet of vehicles then has to locate the correct bins, collect the refuse or recyclables, and deliver it to the recycling facility.
To conduct such an operation, the company has introduced cutting-edge electronic technology underpinned by the power of the GeoDirectory database.
Greenstar no longer requires its customers to sign for their refuse collections. Instead, every bin is micro-chipped with unique electronic identification to enable the truck to recognise it. The chip includes an X,Y coordinate. Sensors in the truck are then able to pinpoint the bin.
Alice Keogh, Head of Customer Services explains: “For our address database we use GeoDirectory with its X, Y coordinates. That allows us to associate the bin with the correct address, and it helps us to make sure that the bins are in the right place.”
GeoDirectory enables top marks for customer service
As well as using GeoDirectory for the complicated business of locating and collecting waste, Greenstar also uses the database to ensure smooth communications with its customer base.
Alice Keogh describes Greenstar as a “customer-service orientated company”. In November 2008, Greenstar received the Best Small and Growing Customer Service Centre Award.
One ingredient of the company’s success is its attention to detail. “As a company which collects recyclables, we need to be sure that our information is 100 per cent accurate and that we always get the location exactly right,” says Alice Keogh.
Data integration made easy with GeoDirectory
Alice says that the company initially began to use GeoDirectory to clean up its existing address data. “We had tried to clean up the data ourselves based on our own information. But to be honest, it was hit and miss.”
The data had been assembled over a number of years from a range of sources. “Although Greenstar is one of the biggest waste management companies in Ireland, it wasn’t always that big,” says Alice. “We grew our business in part organically, but we also grew our business in part by acquisition. That meant taking on other people's databases.
“But integrating different address databases can be a big challenge. Address records are kept in different formats. One great advantage of GeoDirectory is that it has allowed us to create a single standardised database.”
Address database provides a platform for innovation
Looking to the near future, Alice explains that the company is now planning to use GeoDirectory to speed up its operation: “Whenever we get an order, we can now match that customer’s address to their X,Y coordinate on the GeoDirectory database. That will allow us to direct the truck to that location via the shortest possible route.”
Alice believes that GeoDirectory has produced substantial benefits for Greenstar. “It makes it easier for us to do business with our customers and gives us the reassurance that our address data is clean. And it gives us a platform to go forward with advances in technology.”
If your business is involved in distribution, collection, transportation or communication with customers, you may want to check out the power of the GeoDirectory database – and discover just what it can do for you.
This project was completed using GeoAddress Locator.
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