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CASE study Project Connect standardises site management at Big Red Construction Big Red Construction is using RedSky's Project Connect construction software solution to improve efficiency and boost collaboration across the business. Main contractor Big Red Construction started working with RedSky in November 2021 and went live with Project Connect three months later. In summer 2023 RedSky asked Big Red's Steve Dearing, Head of Business Systems, to talk about the difference Project Connect has made. "When we first approached RedSky, it was with a view to tightening up our document control practices, to make life easier for the guys on site," said Steve. The demo was great because we were able to see for ourselves just how user-friendly the system is. It's easy to navigate, too - that was a big factor because some of our team members have better IT skills than others. "I wanted an intuitive system that everyone would be able to use. RedSky suited our business better than everything else on the market. The pricing structure was very straightforward and clear, too. It's probably one of the simplest we've seen. There were no catches or tricks in the small print." IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT Having purchased RedSky's Project Connect construction software solution, it was time to get going with the implementation. The RedSky team supported Steve throughout the process: "We originally booked a couple of online sessions a week, to work on building up our site diary document and the toolbox talk process. It was all very hands-on and I learned a lot. "As the weeks went on, I was starting to book fewer sessions because I was able to get on with things myself. But if I 20 November/December 2023
CASEstudy ever forgot something or was struggling to get to grips with an aspect of the system, I'd contact RedSky and would always get a very swift response. I can't speak highly enough of RedSky's knowledge and expertise. They often came up with good ideas about how to do things differently." DIGITISING EXISTING FORMS One of the things that excited Steve most about his initial RedSky demo was seeing how easily he could convert Big Red's own site forms into digitised versions. Before RedSky, at the start of a project a Big Red administrator would gather the forms that would be needed and print out multiple copies of each one, to keep in folders for use on site. Typically, the paper forms covered site activities like investigations, excavations and inductions as well as health and safety forms relating to things like RAMS, equipment and hoists. Thankfully this laborious, environmentally unfriendly practice has been abandoned in favour of RedSky's more efficient, digitised approach. "We have built up a library of around 20+ digitised forms and add to it whenever we need to," said Steve. "Admittedly the first few forms took me a while to complete, but now I can create a simple form in under an hour. "Setting up a new form on RedSky is actually a relatively simple task. It's just a case of inputting headings, project names, dates, job numbers and so on. Based on my experience, before setting up a form, it's well worth spending some time thinking carefully about what people may want to know about the project in the months and years to come - that might prompt you to insert additional fields so you can analyse them at a later date. "Once the digitised form has been set up on RedSky, the overall look and layout are just the same as they were on the paper document, so it won't take your teams long to adjust." SPEEDY ACCESS TO REAL-TIME INFORMATION All data on the system is digitised, securely stored and logically ordered. That's particularly important to Big Red because the company is going through a period of rapid growth. "When we joined RedSky we had just a couple of projects on the go," said Steve. "The site offices had wall-to-wall lever-arch files stuffed full of documents. And no matter how good we were at filing paperwork in a logical way, locating a document was often like finding a needle in a haystack." Two years down the line, Big Red's business has grown considerably. It currently has over 10 major live projects, lasting between six months and two years. The record-keeping requirements have of course ramped up accordingly, yet everything's completely under control on the document management front. Steve said: "Now that our project documents are maintained digitally on RedSky and stored automatically, we can locate any document in seconds. A few clicks and we're there!" That rapid access can certainly come in handy, according to Steve: "Let's say there's a health and safety incident on site involving the incorrect use of equipment and the user says they never received the necessary training. The site manager can quickly uncover the facts of the matter by checking the training records - and the equipment inspection records - on RedSky. "Or it could be that a visitor says they don't need to do the site induction because they did it a couple of months ago. Within a couple of clicks on RedSky, the site manager can access the visitor's digital record. If this confirms that more than six months have elapsed since the previous induction, the visitor will have to repeat the induction." External audits are now simpler, speedier and less stressful too. "Before RedSky, if an external auditor asked to see a particular record from three or four months ago, the chances of finding it quickly would not be high," said Steve. "But now we just search using the fields on the system and can access the record immediately." The site offices are no longer rammed with files full of paper because most project documents are now digitised and stored securely on the system. According to Steve, on a 12-month project a Big Red site would now have around 3,000 fewer paper documents. He added: "Often the hardest thing about finishing a big project is sorting out all the documents and arranging their long-term storage, which of course comes at a financial cost. We no longer have that problem. Everything is securely stored digitally on RedSky and can be accessed easily as required." STANDARDISED APPROACH BOOSTS SITE EFFICIENCY Project Connect is now being used in the same way across all of Big Red's large sites, every day. This standardised approach is proving very handy for new joiners wanting to get up to speed with company practices. It's also useful for anyone who moves to a different Big Red site or works on several sites, because they know what's expected of them wherever they are based. The primary users are the management team: senior site managers, project managers, supervisors and health and safety managers. Steve said: "Once I've set up 'the front end' of a form, the users fill it in digitally. The system automatically saves the completed form and stores it as a record. There's no additional effort needed. "Site diaries are a good example. On some large sites we have three or four supervisors. Before RedSky, they would fill in their diary on paper or email the details to head office. But each now fills in a diary on the system for their particular area of ownership and responsibility - that could be external, internal, first fix or second fix. It's much more efficient: everything's on the system in the same format and nothing gets lost. "Many supervisors open their digitised diary at lunchtime and fill in what's happened on site so far that day, including notes about site conditions (including the weather) and time- November/December 2023 21
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