Costain Strives towards Real-time Commercial Assurance on A12 Upgrades with Gather
£1.2 bn
of contracted works
100+
subcontractors managed
140+
records create per months
About the project
The A12 upgrade project, which Costain has been awarded, will widen 25 kilometres of A-road between junctions 19 and 25. Connecting key ports such as Harwich to London, the A12 is expected to see daily use of 80,000-100,000 vehicles per day. Along with widening the road for more traffic, Costain will also deliver safety improvements for non-vehicular road users.
Costain has chosen Gather for commercial assurance on the high-profile A12. The overall contract value is £1.2 billion. The project includes a multitude of works ranging from road widening to junction safety enhancement.
Highlights
Transition to digital reporting Gather provides real-time insights for improved resource management on the A12 project.
Cost control made simple site insights give instant commercial visibility, fostering collaboration and tighter cost control.
Enhanced subcontractor management Gather enables data-centric communications, objective performance tracking and stronger partnerships.
Following the success of using Gather to manage site records for the maintenance of A14, Costain has again chosen us for commercial assurance on the high-profile A12. The £1.2 billion project includes a multitude of works ranging from road widening to junction safety enhancement.
The primary objectives of Costain adopting Gather as their construction record management system (RMS) are:
- Reduce human errors and inconsistencies by switching to digital site records
- Trackability and traceability of site activities and commercial standings
- Improved forecasting for better reporting
- More effective, transparent communications with supply partners
Costain has hitherto relied on paper allocation sheets to record production activities on site. This has significantly delayed information sharing among teams, departments and across the supply chain.
Operational Excellence Manager Katie Francis is fed up with the state of record management: "Our industry has been relying on paper, such as paper timesheets and paper allocation sheets. It was taking a lot of time. A lot of mistakes have been made. You simply couldn't get the information you needed when you needed it. This has to change."
Gather's intuitive interface makes capturing site records digitally easy for site supervisors, strengthening the buy-in for a smooth transition. Over 50 users have already been onboarded weeks after Gather was launched for the A12 project.
What makes Gather the best-in-class RMS is its ability to provide real-time data insights. As soon as site supervisors update production data, the whole project team will be able to see the latest trends and figures on their Gather key insight dashboards. This transparency will help project managers to proactively, swiftly identify and address inefficiencies before they impact cost or schedule.
Costain's adoption of Gather has already transformed resource management on the A12 Advanced Works. It has lightened the burden of paper, streamlined data capture, and delivered real-time insights.
"What the site data collected using Gather does for a commercial team is changing our mindset. Instead of waiting passively for problems to arise, we're actually becoming proactive in our decision making. This is because this data gives us leading indicators for where we might find potential opportunities and risks. These leading indicators allow us to prevent rather than cure. This is just a much better way to manage projects."
Richard Myers, Senior Commercial Manager at Costain
Real-time commercial visibility
For high-profile projects like the A12, every pound counts. Any delays will undoubtedly increase project completion cost. Therefore, Costain cannot risk relying on outdated methods for cost and resource monitoring.
Where Gather truly shines is delivering real-time commercial visibility. Gather delivers a dynamic, instantaneous view of resource allocation, with every logged labour hour instantly updating the platform.
This live snapshot enables proactive problem-solving. If an activity starts exceeding allocated hours, project managers can swiftly investigate and adjust resources before the budget gets impacted.
Improved forecasting
Another key benefit of switching from paper-based site diaries to Gather's RMS is better, data-based forecasting.
Matt Holding, Commercial Manager at Costain, states: "Gather gives us the information about how we're performing against the forecast, whether we're on track with our spending, and if there are issues. If we're overspending or underspending, our site records will help us to identify the issue and fix it."
Gather does so by capturing site activities structurally and consistently, which in turn allows for real-time analysis of aggregated contemporaneous records. The platform's built-in real-time project dashboard provides essential productivity insights. Costain can also export their own site data and build proprietary dynamic resource models using their preferred analytical tools.
Having clarity on site is vital to improving forecast accuracy and optimising resource allocation. This translates into better cost control, optimised productivity, and reduced delays.
Better subcontractor management
Project success hinges on the smooth, effective, objective communications with subcontractors of any scheme on the same scale as A12 upgrade. At its peak, the project team has to manage over 100 different parties.
Traditional paper-based forms, manual data entry, and siloed communications can create logistical nightmares. Gather's RMS modernises subcontractor management in five key ways:
- Automated, data-based communications: Gather works as the central platform that eliminates paper trails and streamlines information sharing between different parties. This makes sure that no party is left uninformed.
- Track and control: Project managers can gain instant insights into subcontractor performance through Gather's project dashboards.
- Better contract management: Using standardised historical productivity data, Costain can objectively assess change requests from subcontractors. This speeds up the approval process and leads to more equitable outcomes.
- Faster payments: Subcontractors can submit delivery notes and supporting documentation directly through Gather, ensuring that payments are processed as fast as possible.
- Compare and evaluate: The comprehensive site records Costain captured using Gather enables objective performance review of all subcontractors. This allows Costain to make better selection of subcontractors in the future.
Commercial Manager, Matt Holding, explains how Costain uses Gather's RMS to manage subcontractors: "All of the subcontractors are using Gather to populate their allocation sheets. With their buy-in, we can make sure that all allocation sheets contain consistent, detailed information that meets our standard. This means that both parties are sharing information and nothing is hidden away."
With subcontractors using Gather to document their work on the A12 project, all applications for change are now accompanied by proper records. All compensation events are now processed within the same week of application.
The project team was able to reach decisions on these compensation events at unprecedented speed thanks to standardised, trustworthy records. 15% were rejected on the spot because their records did not match the claims.
This results in a more collaborative, trust-based relationship between Costain and its subcontractors and suppliers. "Gather allows the management of change to be a lot more open and honest. This is key to having a good relationship with our supply chain," Holding adds.