When faced with onboarding 65 new employees across multiple locations simultaneously, Colleen Houlker knew their manual processes wouldn’t cut it. As Group Manager Business Optimisation at Keith Andrews Trucks, one of New Zealand’s largest commercial vehicle dealerships, she needed a solution that could scale with their rapidly growing business.
“When you’re bringing on one person, it’s quite easy to manage, but we had to onboard around 65 staff all at once across multiple new branches — this would have been chaotic using our old manual processes,” explained Houlker.
This transformation represents just one piece of Keith Andrews Trucks’ broader journey from paper-based legacy systems to streamlined digital processes — a journey made possible by the Nintex Automation CE Platform.
From paper forms to digital workflows: A legacy company’s transformation
Picture a technician on a busy workshop floor needing to report a safety concern. In the past, this meant hunting down a paper form, filling it out by hand, and physically submitting it — creating delays, inconsistencies, and compliance headaches. This was the reality at Keith Andrews Trucks just months ago.
Founded in Whangārei more than 30 years ago, Keith Andrews Trucks has grown from a single dealership into one of New Zealand’s largest independent commercial vehicle networks, representing prestigious brands like FUSO, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner. But their operational processes hadn’t kept pace with their growth.
“We had several legacy systems that weren’t talking to each other,” explains Colleen Houlker, Group Manager Business Optimisation. “When we acquired three new branches in late 2023, we knew our manual processes simply wouldn’t scale.”
The acquisition meant bringing 65 new staff into the fold all at once — a perfect storm that would test any company’s operational systems. It was the catalyst Keith Andrews Trucks needed to reimagine how they worked.
Growing pains in a paper-based world
As Keith Andrews Trucks expanded its national footprint, the limitations of its legacy systems became increasingly apparent. The acquisition of three new branches brought not just new opportunities, but logistical hurdles that threatened to overwhelm its teams.
With 65 new employees to onboard simultaneously across different locations, the company’s manual processes were at their breaking point. Beyond HR challenges, the paper-based approach to safety reporting was creating compliance risks in an industry where safety standards are strictly regulated. Customer feedback was similarly scattered across emails, phone calls, and written notes, making it nearly impossible to track service quality consistently across their growing network.
The company needed a comprehensive solution — and quickly. That’s when it turned to Nintex.
Building digital bridges across the operation
With the support of the Nintex Automation CE Platform, Keith Andrews Trucks set out to transform its operations from the ground up. The transformation began where it was needed most — the employee onboarding process.
The HR team created a tailored, automated induction experience with standardized documentation and triggered digital contract signing. What once required stacks of paper and hours of manual coordination now happens with a few clicks.
“When you’re bringing on one person, it’s quite easy to manage, but we had to onboard around 65 staff all at once across multiple new branches — this would have been chaotic using our old manual processes,” explained Houlker. “Across HR specifically, we’ve created a tailored, automated induction experience complete with standardized documentation and triggered digital contract signing — significantly lightening the admin load for our HR team. It turned what could have been a massive headache into a smooth process.”
And the team didn’t stop there. They quickly identified other processes primed for digital transformation:
- Safety at their fingertips: Technicians no longer have to leave their workstations to report safety concerns. With QR codes placed throughout the workshop, they can submit digital safety forms directly from their phones.
- Customer voices amplified: Whether a customer is sitting in a truck cab or receiving a follow-up email after service, they now have instant access to provide feedback through the Nintex platform.
- Organization-wide process clarity: The team used Nintex Process Mapping to visualize workflows that had previously existed only as institutional knowledge, helping identify bottlenecks and improvement opportunities.
Safety first: Compliance made simple
For a company servicing commercial vehicles, safety isn’t just a priority — it’s essential to their license to operate. Before Nintex, demonstrating compliance was a paper chase that consumed valuable time and created anxiety during audits.
“We operate in a highly regulated industry, and we must demonstrate robust health and safety practices,” said Houlker. “Previously, our team had to locate paper forms and physically hand them in. By making it easier for staff to engage with these processes, we’re removing yet another barrier. Now, a technician on the workshop floor can scan a QR code, submit an incident or observation on their phone, and we have a full digital trail.”
The result is not only better compliance but also increased engagement with safety protocols. When reporting is easy, more people participate — creating a stronger safety culture throughout the organization.
Listening to customers in real time
Customer expectations don’t pause for business transformation. Keith Andrews Trucks recognized that while they were digitizing internal operations, they also needed to enhance how they connected with customers across their expanded network.
Before Nintex, customer feedback was fragmented across different branches and systems. Some was captured in emails, others in handwritten notes, and some was simply lost in transit.
The solution came in the form of a unified feedback system built on the Nintex platform. QR codes placed in truck cabs and post-service emails now funnel customer comments, compliments, and concerns into a single system.
This visibility has transformed not just how feedback is collected but how quickly the company can respond and improve — building stronger customer relationships across their network.
One platform to rule them all
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Keith Andrews Trucks’ digital transformation is how much of it was driven by a single internal champion … and how much value she has been able to derive from a single platform. While many organizations might deploy multiple systems requiring specialized teams, Keith Andrews Trucks found a comprehensive solution in Nintex Automation CE.
“We wanted one partner who could do it all — we found that with Nintex,” said Houlker. “Now we have a complete toolkit to map, manage, and optimize our processes in one place. It saves us juggling multiple vendors and makes it easier to scale what we’re doing.”
This unified approach means that as processes evolve and new needs emerge, the company can extend their automation capabilities rather than adopting yet another system.
The journey continues
For Keith Andrews Trucks, their Nintex implementation isn’t an endpoint — it’s a foundation for continued innovation. The digital roadmap ahead includes plans to:
- Create deeper integrations between Nintex and Salesforce, connecting customer data with operational processes
- Explore robotic process automation (RPA) to eliminate repetitive manual tasks
- Expand document generation to streamline external communications
As the company continues to grow, the standardized approach to processes and documentation ensures that new branches can be quickly integrated into the Keith Andrews way of working.
“Keith Andrews Trucks is proof that by applying intelligent, AI-powered automation to process, businesses can unlock levels of efficiency they’ve never seen before,” said Keith Payne, Regional Vice President, APAC at Nintex. “They’re showing what happens when a legacy-heavy industry leans into transformation, unlocking real results in speed, safety, and customer experience. This is process automation done right.”
From a traditional truck dealership to a digitally enabled operation, Keith Andrews Trucks demonstrates how the right automation platform can transform not just processes, but entire businesses.
