Funerals, refurbishment, and tree planting

Eric's plan was to complete the building works, get settled into the new offices and afterwards, look to replace the aging computer and funeral management software.

However, the old computer system gave up the ghost in the middle of the refurbishment. This was not at all desirable, but luckily the new back office was complete and so Eric called Eulogica Ltd to ask about getting a new system up and running.

'We have used funeral management software for well over 10 years and it has been a great benefit to my business', remarks Eric who has been in business for over 50 years. 'However, the old system was inflexible and some of the documentation produced really needed updating. My plan was to get the refurbishment work complete and then I would have time to thoroughly go through what changes I needed with regards to a new funeral management software system. But Eulogica Ltd have been very flexible in getting us back up and running very quickly. Once we had more time to spare we then looked at what changes we required and called Eulogica back to implement these changes.'

The Eulogica process began by looking at the existing documents and to find out if they needed to be amended and updated. Eileen Rodgers, who looks after most of the administration side of things at Eric Eyre Funeral Service says, 'We were rather apprehensive about a new system, as we had used the previous software for well over 10 years. It was a big change for us but the training sessions given by David Wright from Eulogica helped us along very smoothly.'

Upon completion of all the building works, a re-dedication service was organised. Among the attending dignitaries were Councillor Graham Oxley, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and his wife, and also the NAFD Yorkshire Area President Mr Brian Taylor. The premises were officially opened by the BIFD National president Mr Simon Lewis. Simon's wife Martine accompanied him and following a tour of the premises she was given a demonstration of the new Eulogica installation. Martine made a comment that she thought the system looked great and would like it installing in her office too..!

Following the opening of the new premises, Eric has decided to donate, by way of sponsorship, “A gift that grows” - a tree to the South Yorkshire Forest, for every funeral he undertakes. To help with the administration of this sponsorship, the Eulogica software has now been tailored to allow information required by the South Yorkshire Forest to be entered along with the funeral arrangements. It is then simply a matter of printing off a Eulogica report for sending to the South Yorkshire Forest. Hence the administration work is kept to a minimum. This is a simple example of how Eulogica can be tailored to suit an individual funeral director in the day to day running of their business.

Back in the office, Eileen Rodgers finishes, 'We did need to make a few support calls to Eulogica in the early days just to remind us of various things and point us in the right direction. So far though, this is the only support we have required and we haven't had any real problems with the software'.

The photograph shows Eulogica's Client Support Manager David Wright and Funeral Director Eric Eyre outside the new entrance to the funeral home.