Efficiency, Logic, and Growth: Driving Success at Huttie

In October 2025, our team paid a visit to speak with James Hutt, Managing Director of Huttie Building Services, down in Cambridge.

We were eager to visit James as his company is among one of the longest serving clients Commusoft has: they’ve been using our software since 2009!

Hearing about James’ personal experience of working with the software—not to mention the success his team has achieved across 15+ years—was exciting to see for ourselves.

From their dedicated office staff, to a huge pool of talented engineers working out in the field, Huttie has built a business that is capable of handling a variety of complex service jobs, all whilst delivering a consistently brilliant service.

You can watch their full testimonial in the video above and explore more in their testimonial, below:

Early Adoption at Huttie:

Like many engineers before him, James Hutt began his career by completing an apprenticeship. He took this on at  Cambridge Regional College, but rather than start out as a residential engineer, he focused on becoming a commercial plumber, as part of a heating and ventilation course. This was a decision that would positively impact the company he’d come to start some 5 years later, in 2007.

James reasoned that experience in commercial work—where he learnt all about installing and maintaining assets at scale—would lend itself well to residential work, too.

 My idea of that was that if you can do commercial work, you can easily do the residential work, too.

After honing his skills, James went on to set up Huttie Building Services, and pivoted to focus on winning over residential clients to get himself established.

This strategy served him well, particularly during the financial crash of 2008: he continued to provide a reliable, credible service that he would later expand by taking on more staff.

By 2009, James had a small team working closely with him. One person managed office tasks while there were 3 to 4 engineers out on the road.

However, as their work scaled, so did the paperwork…

 Pen and paper was the starting point. Followed by a Word document, an Excel document after that and then I remember doing the accounts on a paper ledger for a time.

Quickly it transpired that we needed a software system. So I started off using Sage and then Commusoft came in at about 2009.

We realised we needed a software system to actually do the running of the business. Not just accounting.

It was actually Jame’s dad who pointed him toward Commusoft, advising him to explore our software after seeing it was one one of the few dedicated software solutions available on the market at the time.

It was so logical to work with and that made a real impact on me: especially after we had a lot of conversations with Jason, [Commusoft’s founder].

Commusoft stood out as something that would work and it was not going to let us down.

From there, it turned out to be a great match.

The software was able to help James solve a whole host of issues, saving team time by streamlining job management, invoicing, customer communication, early reporting, and more.

From there, growth was inevitable…

The Need for an Intuitive Solution:

The idea of using a tool that not only worked, but was easy to use, was important to James, especially with his rapidly growing team.

Once the economic market had settled, James pursued commercial work when it was available, but this meant hiring specialist engineers to take on mechanical, electrical, and plumbing jobs.

To do this well, James not only required using a tool that was could manage a diverse range of job types, but one that would be easy for new members of staff to learn, too.

After all, it’s important that staff could hit the ground running and not be held back by a slow, steep learning curve.

From a small team of five, the team was able to grow and James found that Commusoft’s training resources, not to mention its support staff, were a huge help:

Support has always been great. But let’s say 10 years ago when we were trying to do new things and work out new systems, that’s when we need relied on the support team most.

However, it’s the seamless, intuitive nature of the software that means Huttie hasn’t had to keep relying on support.

Whilst still readily available to answer any questions, James’ team has been able to learn from one another and get to grips with Commusoft themselves. It’s become part of their own ecosystem of training:

 The good thing about Commusoft is it’s so intuitive, which has always been a very good thing.

And especially as the updates have happened over the years: the system has got bigger and we’ve gotten larger, but it’s so easy to teach yourself how it works.

As a result, not only did James tell us that Huttie now carries out roughly 70% commercial work to manage bigger jobs, but from a small team of 5, they now have 15+ office staff and 45+ engineers who are using Commusoft every day!

Together, they are using the software to:

  • Manage diaries
  • Schedule jobs
  • Send quotes
  • Invoice customers
  • Create proposals, and so much more!

Being able to see all of their customer data in one single system has made a huge impact on Huttie Building Services. In particular, to their customer service and productivity:

With all the information on the system, that’s where Commusoft really excels.

Combined with effective onboarding and on-going training opportunities, it means adoption is an integral part of their onboarding process.

James explained that there are plenty of tools and resources available from Commusoft to help them train staff in their own time, too.

 There are many helpful videos and many training areas where we can learn to do things [on Commusoft].

Features like the Commusoft Academy and our dedicated Help Centre form an important part of understanding how Commusoft works and we’re proud to see it work so well for companies like Huttie Building Services.

In fact, our team are continuing to innovate with learning opportunities, too, including the development of our impressive new AI tool, AI:den.

 Commusoft is always a step ahead in terms of technology and now using AI, it drives us forward, too.

It’s a powerhouse at troubleshooting queries from our clients, helping them to make more of the service, without taking up tons of time.

Delivering an Exceptional Service

Speed and efficiency are the core benefits that James sees Commusoft bring to Huttie Building Services.

By working in this way, the entire team can take on more work, but without the strain and stress of doing too much. It’s all about balance.

For instance, despite the increasing volume of work—whether it’s a residential visit to fix a boiler, or a commercial maintenance appointment at a local school—it remains manageable and the right engineer will always attend the right job, every time.

This is thanks to the software’s ability to track an engineer’s skillset and experience. Then, when it comes to assigning jobs, the intelligent scheduling tool helps staff to assign the best engineer to the job, even in emergency situations.

 The saving [with Commusoft] is probably on labour, by making sure people are in the right place at the right time. That’s really important.

And the same with vehicles, making sure that logistics-wise, we’re not driving around circles, which is very easy to do if you have lots of call outs.

We’re making sure that we are efficient at all times.

Commusoft lets us do that.

For their customers, staff in the office, or engineers in the field, Commusoft helps provide a flawless service that keeps everyone in the know, wherever they are.

If you’re curious to learn more about the features that help support teams in this way, choose from the options below:

The Future for Huttie Building Services

While it can take time to get to grips with new features, James has shown that intuitive software that’s designed specifically with field service businesses in mind can lead to fantastic success!

Even better, after seeing what our tools are capable of, James discussed that he was excited to unlock even more potential in Commusoft and recognised that:

Even if it’s basic form, Commusoft is brilliant, but there’s always more we can do. Commusoft is limitless.

In fact, not long after we visited, James and his team made the decision to upgrade their plan and access a suite of powerful tools within Commusoft.

From advanced reporting, to our dedicated proposal builder, and exciting features announced at Connect & Preview in 2025, we’re excited to see what they do next.

 I definitely believe that Commusoft will be a long-term partner for us.

We couldn’t agree more, James. And we’re looking forward to see how Huttie will continue to thrive!

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