Pilbeams Garage in Hailsham has just completed a full digital transformation, and we’re proud to have led it. If you’ve lived in Hailsham for any length of time, you’ll know the business by its old name, Bob Pilbeam’s. It’s one of those local names that’s been part of the town for years. People trust it because it’s always been there. Recently, the business stepped into a new chapter and rebranded as Pilbeams Garage. Behind that rebrand, and well before it, we’ve been helping the team modernise how the business runs day to day.

This is a quick look at the work we’ve done together.

The start of a digital transformation in Hailsham

Like a lot of established East Sussex businesses, Pilbeams Garage built years of success on processes that worked. They just weren’t very efficient. Invoicing relied on paperwork, and the email system was clunky and unreliable. That’s a problem for a business that depends on quick communication with customers and suppliers.

We started with the fundamentals:

• We digitised the invoicing system. This moved the garage away from manual paperwork to a digital workflow. It’s faster, easier to track, and far less prone to errors.
• We upgraded the email system. This gave the team a more stable, professional setup that could keep pace with a growing local business.

These changes made a noticeable difference to how the office ran. They also laid the groundwork for what came next.

Managing the name change, start to finish

Rebranding from Bob Pilbeam’s to Pilbeams Garage isn’t just a new sign above the door. It touches everything. Think email addresses, domains, invoicing templates, and online listings. These are small technical details. Customers never see them, but they notice fast if something goes wrong. We handled every part of the transition, so the garage could focus on running the business instead of untangling tech.

AI invoice automation: the heart of the digital transformation

Here’s the part of this project we’re genuinely proud of.

Pilbeams Garage receives hundreds of supplier invoices every single day. Staff used to read, check, and key every one of those invoices into the accounting system by hand. Add it all up, and that task ate into days of staff time. It’s a familiar problem across the industry too: manually entering supplier invoice data carries an average error rate of around 10%, according to government research into UK business invoicing.

We introduced AI into their accounting process to automate the entire thing. The system now reads, checks, and enters each invoice into the accounting software with minimal manual input. What used to take days now takes a matter of minutes.

That’s not a small efficiency gain. Staff get hours of time back every week. Errors drop. The finance process can finally keep up with the volume of a busy, growing garage. We’ve already got further enhancements planned to build on this automation soon.

“Working with My Tech Team has completely changed how we handle our day to day admin. What used to take us days now takes minutes, and that’s time we can put back into the garage and our customers.”

A digital transformation built for Hailsham and East Sussex businesses

Projects like this are exactly why we do what we do. Pilbeams Garage is a well known name across Hailsham and the wider East Sussex area. We love helping a business like this modernise without losing what makes it trustworthy and familiar to its customers. You can see more examples of this kind of work on our case studies page.

Does your business in Hailsham or East Sussex still wrestle with manual invoicing? Maybe your email system feels outdated, or a process just doesn’t scale anymore. Our technical support team would love to talk. Whether you want a full digital transformation or a single process automated, My Tech Team is local and ready to help.

Get in touch with My Tech Team today to see what a digital transformation could look like for your Hailsham or East Sussex business.