When R&C Williams, a well-established public and civil engineering company based in Birmingham, started looking at digital field management solutions, they were hoping to address a few key issues in their business:

• Paperwork was taking up too much time and using up key resources.
• The company’s now-dated workflows were limiting their scope of jobs and reach.
• Decision-makers had a desire to level up environmental ambitions and to make company operations more streamlined.
• Delays in communication and a lack of visibility of real-time on-site progress made managing jobs difficult.

Let’s take a look at a few different areas where R&C Williams and other civils companies have used our field management software – Re-flow – to level up their operations.

Streamlined processes. Time saved. Seamless implementation of ISO 14001.

R&C Williams, along with other civils companies like M.V. Kelly and Glanville Environmental, chose Re-flow for their field management solution, and soon benefitted from streamlined management workflows – from quoting all the way to billing.

With all reporting, job packs, documentation, and site folders synced on Re-flow’s field management software, their previous admin load was eliminated from day-to-day operations, freeing up time for company decision makers to apply their energy elsewhere.

‘Re-flow’s real-time reporting has saved our contracts managers at least five hours a week,’ R&C told us in June. They can manage their projects completely from the site office, gaining real-time oversight (and peace of mind) through:

• Instantly synced forms, showing what tasks have been completed
• Photo uploads of completed work, providing evidence of the standards of jobs
• The ability to push out job changes and new documentation to site at the click of a button
• Real-time data from form submissions allowing managers to track site progress, day and night

This leads to further improvements:

• The simplification of the document control process allowing for the implementation of ISO 14001, driven by clarity over KPIs related to pollution control, ethical sourcing of materials, and net zero
• Collected data giving managers the opportunity for more robust plans for improvements across the business, whether that’s for environmental targets, or simply more profit

Optimised performance. Improved compliance.

Re-flow’s features help civils companies minimise time consumed by admin tasks and planning:

• Drop down menus autofill with plant and equipment assignments from the company database. Jobs can be duplicated and then customised for similar contracts, saving time.
• Notifications block any clashes like assigning people to jobs who lack qualifications or if they’re on holiday, eliminating scheduling mistakes.
• Centralised communication through Re-flow, leading to improved standards of communication throughout the business.
• Incident reports and similar forms triggering notifications for the relevant managers, ensuring quick response times for any issues.

‘We’ve been able to maximise efficiency, allowing time to be spent where it matters most – on ensuring the health and safety of our employees,’ R&C Williams said. ‘We can protect the environments in which we work and deliver excellent service to our clients.’

‘Health and safety procedures have become much more streamlined and efficient, enabling real time reporting of events on site to be sent straight through to our health and safety manager and compliance manager for immediate review.

‘This gives much greater control over our sites, allowing events such as near misses to be captured in detail using the digital forms, giving us optimum compliance and the ability to prevent escalation to more serious incidents.’

Environmental improvement through reduced journeys. Toolbox Talks.

With all documentation funnelled through Re-flow, like timesheets and HAVS reports, delays while waiting for deliveries and wasted journeys become things of the past.

Job information can be easily accessed on site through the app. For example, R&C Williams’ operatives benefitted from access to Toolbox Talks on Re-flow during their recent bridge restoration project over the River Severn at Ironbridge: uploaded information led to the successful identification and removal of Himalayan Balsam.

Having information available through the app, accessible online and offline on operatives’ phones and tablets, therefore has three clear benefits: businesses save time and eliminate bottlenecks, they prevent incidents occurring on site through improved compliance, and they make the most of any opportunities as they happen.

Operational efficiency made possible by Re-flow’s support and onboarding teams

‘We at R&C Williams value the collaborative support Re-flow has offered from the beginning, tailoring the system to our specific needs and culture,’ they said. The company was assigned a project manager and have benefitted from enough support from Re-flow in order to develop a close bond between the companies.

Any fears that older members of the team wouldn’t take to the software were quickly proved unfounded: ‘Learning the Re-flow system was easy for the team.’