Eurovia: Taking the Northern Construction Arm Digital with WebContractor
In 2018, Eurovia’s Digital Construction Manager, Philip Reid, introduced WebContractor to the business’s northern construction arm, Northern Contracting.
Hoping to digitise ways of working and cut unnecessary admin time, Philip confirms the programme goes above and beyond this service.
Saving an estimated 60 days in two years for Philip and his admin assistant alone, WebContractor has allowed for a simple and fail-safe method of managing subcontractor requests for payment, whilst freeing up Quantity Surveyor time for higher value tasks.
Background
Eurovia, a subsidiary of VINCI, develops mobility solutions designed to enhance local economic competitiveness and strengthen social bonds by designing, building, and maintaining transport infrastructure and fostering urban development.
The process is simple, the benefits are tangible – there’s no room for error with WebContractor, it takes away the admin tasks, email chains and spreadsheets and implements so many valuable elements that make our team’s jobs easier and the payment process smoother.
Safety precautions such as notifications and reminders are in place, so payment and response deadlines are never missed, no one needs to be chased. The second we or a subcontractor make a change, the other party is notified – it allows the two entities to create a strong working relationship, as the whole application for payment process is take care of with no worries for either party.
Philip Reid
Digital Construction Manager | Eurovia
The Challenge
With Eurovia's ethos to always be the local provider - the business has a reputation to uphold with the local companies and communities it serves. Burning time and money processing applications for subcontractor payments, the company wanted to introduce a new, digital way of working to modernise the northern construction arm.
The Solution: Introducing WebContractor
From the outset, the Eurovia team picked up WebContractor with ease and reaped instant benefits. The online solution introduced a transparent, end-to-end management process, which cut admin and enabled the team to spend saved time on much more valuable company tasks.
Taking away the stress, risk and potential complications of manually dealing with Applications for Payment, WebContractor allows subcontractors to easily upload their applications to a platform where the Eurovia team has complete visibility of the entire process.
Everything is in one place and everything is taken into account - WebContractor automatically notifies the appropriate team member at the right time, so they can action their task. Anyone from the team can access it so it doesn't matter if someone is away, things can't be missed and therefore, nothing has to be rushed through. It cuts the time and risk presented by the old-fashioned model of spreadsheets, paper print-outs, hand signatures etc. - it's allowed us to move to a digital way of working and saved months of our time so far.
The platform takes into account the legalities and industry requirements, such as the UK Housing & Grants Act compliance. It minimises senior team time in the approval process and cuts out the risk of human error. Moreover, the platform offers huge benefits with many people currently working from home, providing a shared space that the whole team can access and saving time visiting sites for signatures and approvals.
Philip Reid
Digital Construction Manager | Eurovia
The Feedback
Alongside daily emails and reminders to update you on the status of payment applications, WebContractor offers a central Dashboard and complete reporting tools, allowing Eurovia’s central finance team to see the exact position with liabilities across the business.
Philip added: “Without WebContractor, payment applications from subcontractors can be a really long, stressful task for our highly qualified team of quantity surveyors who have a lot of other things on their plate. Since implementation, the team have found this way of working a lot smoother, putting their time to better use rather than chasing payments and updates, constantly burning hours on unnecessary admin tasks. Overall, it’s made our business much more cost effective.”
Eurovia Quantity Surveyor, Verity Pointon, comments: “It really is so handy, you can access information such as PO numbers, or even look back at previous orders that have been raised by a certain subcontractor. Orders and increases are kept on top of, nothing can get lost like it often can in emails, I am extremely happy with the system.”
The training required is minimal, but the team at Eurovia and WebContractor dedicate time to getting new subcontractors on board, ensuring they’re familiar with the platform ahead of it going live. With only positive feedback from all users so far, Northern Contracting’s simple process has worked smoothly and allowed the team to step up digitally and enhance their working model. So much so, Eurovia is now looking to roll out WebContractor group-wide – so the entire company can enjoy the benefits.
