NEWS AND VIEWS

Robert Woodhead Ltd enjoy the benefits of Union Square for Construction

Morgan Sindall and coinsRobert Woodhead Limited delivers public and private construction projects across a range of sectors, including conservation, refurbishment and repairs and maintenance for clients across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. 2013 saw Robert Woodhead Limited increase its turnover by 16% off the back of a strong summer, in which they also secured over £18m of contracts for 2014.

With a growing number of documents, drawings and emails being created and archived across the business, Robert Woodhead realised there was room for improvement. Collaborative working was proving difficult as the company struggled to share information and trace the history of different documents. Site managers were unable to access documents directly, which created a delay as information was sent and received between individuals often in hard copy.

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Having implemented different systems to manage information over the years, the company decided to review its whole approach to collaborative working. This search led Robert Woodhead to Union Square, as Finance Director, Hilary Cheshire explains: “We were already familiar with the Union Square system, having investigated the company’s information management system some years ago. Revisiting the software, we were really impressed with some of the product development that has taken place. The fact the system is so comprehensive, offering efficiency savings across a number of management functions, was what sold it this time round.”

Union Square for Construction is a leading knowledge management software in the construction industry, storing project information in one central repository against projects, organisations and contacts.

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“The system covers everything we need from document & drawing management, to email storage. The system includes automation to ensure things get stored and traced properly and everyone has visibility of key business information” says Hilary.

Robert Woodhead has installed the system and is working on a few areas of customisation with its Union Square project manager. The company had an internal launch of the system back in June 2013, following an internal communication campaign to raise awareness and drive visibility of the project.

“The benefits were clear, and we were eager to get up and running. The key benefits realised were the removal of duplicated effort, time savings on day to day tasks and a decreased exposure to risk” Hilary concludes.

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