Domis goes Digital with WebContractor

Established in 2017, Domis Property Group has excelled in the construction industry and expanded to be a nationwide leader in quality and value.

The company supports every aspect of the development journey, from concept to construction, and recognises the value of promoting partner relationships with organisations that share its commitment to service and passion.

Since 2017, Domis has grown massively as a business, with turnover rising to over £100 million. As well as taking on more projects, the company’s workforce has increased, directly employing 150 members of staff supported by up to 600 heads in their subcontractor network.

The impact of this exponential growth led to transactional errors in the AFP process, with teams trying to manage projects through word processing and spreadsheet applications. Finding it challenging to manage the large volume of transactions through these methods - Domis quickly realised that existing processes needed to be updated.

Senior team members’ time was being taken up with inbound calls from subcontractors chasing payments, resulting in further time being spent on sourcing the correct information. The manual process of uploading each application for payment was also time-consuming.

Domis decided to invest in a system which would provide accurate, real-time information that could be quickly authorised, to alleviate the pressures on its back-office systems and support the company in its continued development and growth.

Following a rigorous due diligence process, the Domis senior team decided to implement WebContractor. The solution came with glowing reviews from other large names within the industry using the platform and it was quickly recognised as a worthwhile investment for the business.

Effectively managing the end-to-end subcontractor valuation process, WebContractor offered Domis full transparency and gave subcontractors access to the same portal – allowing them to easily upload applications along with any supporting documentation. Subcontractors can then see where applications are up to and track the progress, helping them to better manage their own cash flow. This resulted in better relationships with their supply-chain and a much smoother process for all involved.

Chris Whittingham, Head of Business Improvement at Domis, commented: “Throughout the whole process, WebContractor has provided us with a high level of support. We have our own designated Account Manager, who gave us and our supply chain training to ensure we were comfortable with the platform.

“We also worked closely with WebContractor on our go live plan, they guided us through each stage of the process which ensured 95% of the implementation went well. Of the 5% that didn’t, they were instantly on hand to help us work through any issues we encountered.”

The adoption of WebContractor has streamlined what was previously a labour-intensive, time-consuming and manual task for the team, with improved accuracy and the increased ability to mitigate risk.

WebContractor also provides Domis with a comprehensive audit trail, giving full visibility and traceability of all applications processed through the system.

Speaking on the feedback from subcontractors so far, Chris Whittingham added: “As with any change to an operation, our subcontractors needed time to adjust to the new process. However, with the support of WebContractor and the training provided, our subcontractors were able to fully grasp the real-time benefits that the solution has to offer, with 153 of them now using the portal.”

Since using WebContractor, Domis’ processing times have dropped dramatically, as the business is managing payments quicker than ever before. The number of errors being made has been massively reduced and the team has had more time to focus on higher-value tasks.

“If anything seems incorrect, subcontractors have full visibility of their application for payment status and can raise queries without consulting our finance team. We now have an authorisation chain and structure in place to give us added visibility, which is something we need, especially as the business continues to grow. We are very impressed with WebContractor’s support and would happily recommend the software to other companies looking to streamline their daily operations.”

To further streamline the Application for Payment process within the business, the team at Domis wanted WebContractor to integrate with their Sicon construction suite and finance system.

This would allow for a seamless flow of information from the Application for Payment and approval process, through to their finance system for payment, with full tracking and recording along the way.

The WebContractor development team built the integration with Domis’s Sicon suite with the support and guidance of the expert team at Eventura. Eventura are Sicon partners and were on-hand to offer their technical expertise and knowledge of the Sicon suite during the process mapping and integration process.

WebContractor now manages the front-end process for the Domis team with information passed directly through into Sicon. Any subcontractor records and payment certificates created in WebContractor are automatically created in Sicon as well, with adjustments for CIS, retention, and discount, posted against transactions.

The Sicon platform then updates records in WebContractor when it processes payment for applications, so the information is always in-sync between the commercial and financial teams.