CC2311

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-
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