Case Study: Plowman Craven reduces up to two days per week in admin

The challenge

Plowman Craven is a leading Chartered Surveying company offering a broad range of professional measurement services. They needed a project management solution that could integrate with Access finance software, which they had been using for over 10 years.

"We have never had any problems with Access Financials. It's been a robust and very solid finance package, and the support from Access has always been first class," said David Norris, Technical Director for Plowman Craven.

The company was using Microsoft Project Enterprise for project management, spreadsheets for resourcing and a bespoke system for timesheets. Integration between the systems was complex and slow.

"Cumbersome performance across the systems led to people not inputting information correctly, so our reporting wasn't reliable," said David. "MS Project was too big and cumbersome to carry out the basic project management functions we needed."

In addition, working with three software vendors was also an issue. "If we updated one component, we didn't know if it would impact other components."

Seeing was believing

After seeing a demo of Access Financials Operations at an Access user event, the company was convinced it was the right solution. "We then visited some of Access' customers, who gave us good feedback and a positive view on the software," says David.

Access Financials Operations offers a wide range of productivity tools, and because it's designed to integrate with Access Financials, information easily flows between the two systems.

Delivered on time and on budget

"We started the project in June, and we went live in mid-October. There are not many IT projects that go live on time to the day and on budget to the pound - but this one did, so we were pleased," said David.

The results

"Our project administrators are doing things in minutes that used to take them hours, if not days with the previous system" says David. "Setting invoice milestones used to take hours, and now it can be done in a few clicks."

Instant access to information

As information is fed into the system, it's updated instantly. Because Access Financials Operations is web-based, project managers have full access to all business information from their homes or in the office.

"Before, we would have to wait 24 hours for management information, and our pipeline reports were manually produced on a weekly basis," said David. "Now, information is updated dynamically in the dashboard. This gives us a better indication of our upcoming workload."

Clear view of resources

Managing projects is easier using Resource Scheduler.

"With Access, we can plan our resources much more effectively than when we were using spreadsheets. Our project teams have their own resource pool, but we share resources across the business. The system gives us global visibility of all the resources."

Significantly reduces admin

Since implementing Access Financials Operations, Plowman Craven's productivity has dramatically improved.

"One staff member saved two days a week in admin."

Easier to enter timesheets

Access' consultants customised a workflow form to make inputting timesheets faster. "Timesheets are now pre-populated with project, sickness or leave information that's pulled from Resource Scheduler," said David. "The information is more accurate compared to before when staff were entering timesheets based on their recollection of what they did the previous week."

Replaces spreadsheets

Prior to implementing Access Financials Operations, the company used a spreadsheet as a central database for its contacts.

"We were never sure if contact information was complete, up to date, or if we were targeting the right people for campaigns", says Janet. "Now, with all the contact details stored and updated in one place, it is easy to retrieve and segment all contact data.

One system from one supplier

"We've reduced costs because we're working with one supplier, and if we want to upgrade the system, we can do it very simply through Access," says David.

Plowman Craven decided to add Access Payroll to its solution. "We were outsourcing our payroll. We prepared the information in Access Financials and sent it to the payroll provider who charged us a fee," says David. "By bringing that in-house, we're going to save a considerable amount of money."

The perfect solution for staff out in the field

Plowman Craven also found that Access Mobile was ideal for them, as staff can enter and approve information such as timesheets and expenses through a smartphone or iPad. "It's going to make a huge impact because we're very mobile with our business," said David.