An easy tool that connects site to office
Matt realised that WhatsApp and Excel, good as they are, are not made for construction. The different digital tools he and his colleagues were using simply weren’t suitable for the purpose of managing such a time-critical project. So Matt set out to find what he calls “The WhatsApp for construction”.
Based on a recommendation from a friend, Matt decided to test out the real-time progress reporting and communication platform offered by LetsBuild.
“I was introduced to the platform on Wednesday and decided it was great. We got it set up on Thursday. I briefed the team on Friday. We were using it that weekend and we got great returns.”
Fast forward two weeks and Matt had already seen an increase from 60% to 85% in the percentage of scheduled activities completed on time. Over the next three months, the project went from being 5 weeks behind schedule to being on time. And Matt has calculated that he is saving on average €5,000 / month because materials are delivered at the right time, decisions are made faster and he has fewer disputes with his subcontractors because everyone is working on the same platform.
“LetsBuild saves us time because it automatically generates reports for the information that is in the system. So we have definitely seen the benefit and it means that people have more time to get an idea of what their job is and deliver safety on site.”
In spite of his management’s concerns with introducing a new digital tool to rail workers when their existing tools were “good enough”, the site teams were trained in just one day and kicked off already the next day on site. GenieBelt has been proven to be an extremely easy tool for construction teams on site to use. On the WAML project, it only took VolkerFitzpatrick three days to get GenieBelt up and running.
Matt Ghinn further elaborates on the importance of user interface and how teams need to be able to work with simple reporting tools.
“It’s all about the user interface because if it’s difficult to use, people just throw it away. If it’s easy to use they’ll pick it up and run with it and we jointly benefit with better data delivering a better project outcome. We just told them to do it on one platform. And they just picked it up.”
Effective collaboration with subcontractors
With the help of LetsBuild’s on-site planning and progress reporting product GenieBelt, VolkerFitzpatrick has full visibility of the project, which has led them to work effectively with their subcontractors.
“We often had subcontractors arriving on site and not getting any work done because the previous tasks haven’t been completed. With LetsBuild and their product GenieBelt, we have visibility of project progress. So if there is going to be a delay, we let them know a week beforehand,” says Matt Ghinn.