CC Sep-Oct 2023

CASEstudy
She added: "The trial was an
opportunity to stress test both the app
and the hardware. Allowing people to
feel the kit and see it in use was an
important part of convincing the site
managers and senior team to embrace
the change."
AN AUTOMATED EXPERIENCE
One of the main benefits of the
software has been the automatic alerts
and dashboard reporting. "Because
information is in real-time, we have a
much better view of what is happening
on site and can remain agile,"
explained Sarah.
"For example, we can now identify
quickly whether we're overspending on
site, and if a site slows down we can
easily assess what labour we've got
and how we can move things around
to speed things back up again.
"We can access the right information
in a timely manner and inform the
construction and commercial teams
what their labour costs are for each
day. This enables them to really drill
down into the detail and review their
workforce costs and numbers. We also
get new starter alerts the moment they
are added to the system. It means that
payroll can set them up straight away
without having to wait for paperwork -
speeding things up significantly.
"We have removed a large manual
element of our processes, freeing up
time and reducing the potential for
data input errors. It has significantly
sped up the payroll process and
alleviated pressure on those
responsible for it, saving a day's worth
of time having to input the information
manually. There are inevitably always
some tweaks that have to be made
manually, say if someone forgets to sign
out, for example, but the information is
gathered and updated automatically.
"That gives our team at head office
capacity for more strategic tasks. And
on site, our managers can spend more
time managing projects, building
relationships with their teams, and
ensuring that quality standards are met."
An additional benefit of Causeway
Donseed is that it can also be used to
manage training and accreditation. As
Sarah explained: "Our training records
had information stored across multiple
spreadsheets. We had to manually
check our records to see which
courses and accreditations were
expiring, but this is now automated,
making it easier to book courses as
and when required.
"You can upload the relevant
documents and certificates to people's
profiles too, keeping everything in one
place. This helps with workforce
planning and is one less thing for site
managers to worry about, as the
software does it for them."
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
OTHER FIRMS
When asked what recommendations
she would give to other companies like
Tamdown when trying to digitise their
processes, Sarah said she would
encourage them to take advantage of
all the expertise available to them from
their chosen provider.
"The training and ongoing support
we've had from Causeway have been
invaluable to us as we've adapted to a
new way of working," she said. "Being
such an early adopter of this
technology meant there were inevitably
some minor hiccups we had to iron out
in the initial stages, but the Causeway
team was always on hand to help us
navigate these."
ACHIEVING COMPANY BUY-IN
In terms of securing buy-in from all
levels of the organisation, Sarah said it
hasn't always been a smooth journey,
particularly in terms of cultures and
dealing with lots of different site
managers with different opinions.
But now, her colleagues can see that
her and her team want to work
alongside them, not against them. She
said: "We've had some great feedback,
particularly from people that joined
Tamdown from a more traditional
construction company. They have
given praise in terms of how we're
pushing to move towards that real-time
reporting and that reduction in
administration - allowing our site
managers to do what they do best and
not be in an office dealing with
paperwork all the time.
"It can be hard to implement new
systems, as people can
understandably have doubts; change
can be scary, but I think the key thing
is to be confident in pushing through
that cultural barrier."
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September/October 2023 25