70%

Like many in UK construction, Fourway had been relying on paper-based methods for record keeping and reporting. Information on site activities was scattered across various media and channels, including physical site diaries, spreadsheet allocation sheets, WhatsApp groups, email threads, and SMS messages. This led to poor and underutilisation of valuable insights on productivity and cost.

Fourway first trialled Gather in 2021 as a possible solution for recordkeeping. Impressed with the efficiency and consistency the record management system (RMS) brought to the pilot project, Fourway has since adopted Gather across the whole company.

Today, over 80 employees at Fourway are fully proficient in Gather. They use the platform daily on 20 different projects of varying sizes, complexity and forms of contract, including reimbursable and fixed-price contracts.

Fourway's site team has found Gather an immense time saver, reducing report writing at the end of each shift by 70%. The project office team benefits from the detailed reports Gather automatically generates, which ensures accurate progress reporting, payment application substantiation, and the actualisation of the Bill of Quantities (BoQ).

Empower employees with the right tool

The positive experience Fourway employees have with Gather keeps platform usage healthy. This translates to a consistent, reliable, accountable flow of productivity data from site to office, effectively giving the latter real-time insights on project progress.

Having an accurate, timely bird's-eye view of the project saves time from back-and-forth communications between site and office, physically searching and transporting paper records, and manually entering paper site diaries into spreadsheets for analysis. This frees up precious time for the project team to concentrate on more strategically valuable tasks, such as proactively addressing inefficiencies and communicating with stakeholders.

Using Gather, the office team can also make life easier for those on site. For example, project managers can batch plan shifts in advance using the shift planner tool, prefilling over 60% of data points required to complete records on site.

With information on shift location, lengths, expected output, resources and plant pre-filled, the time needed to complete site records has been reduced by 70% for Fourway's site leaders.

As soon as the site leader logs actual progress made that shift, Gather automatically provides them a comparison between planned and actual productivity, prompting them to provide further information on the variances.

Each project is configured to its respective form of contract. Site leaders can detail delays with reasons such as impeded access, ground conditions, and early possession call. This makes life easier for the commercial team to substantiate change.

What adds more accountability is Gather's function of uploading geotagged, time-stamped photos. Site photos are automatically included in system-generated shift reports, a much more reliable way of reporting than sharing sporadically via email and WhatsApp.

Impress clients with professional reporting

"Gather has been a game changer for Fourway," Commercial Manager Sarah Woods explains. "The system generates accurate, professional bespoke reports. We can share these reports regularly and swiftly with clients. This has truly transformed the way we communicate and collaborate with our clients."

Freed from the administrative burden of manually compiling reports, the project team can now focus on proactively optimising project progress, improving cash flow, and increasing the value they bring to their clients.

Besides bespoke reports, Fourway can also share project dashboards containing real-time site performance via workplace communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack with clients and other stakeholders.

Automate Earned Value Management

Increased capability in commercial analysis is another key benefit Gather provides to Fourway. Gather has configured Fourway's projects to align with Rail Method of Measurement (RMM). This has primed site data for thorough analysis of working hours, access, labour, plant, material, and the associated costs.

The rich, robust, structured data Fourway captures enables automatic actualisation of a detailed, accurate Bill of Quantities. The commercial team can fully understand and report on extremely detailed scopes of works without the usual administrative burdens.

The commercial team can also view site insights on their Gather Power BI key insights dashboards. This function allows them to visually explore real-time site performance and Earned Value of their projects. All in real-time, enabled by consistent, contemporaneous records jointly completed by the project and site teams.

Armed with Gather's site insights, Fourway can identify potential production problems before they arise, mitigate risks, and curb unexplained overspending on projects.

In conclusion, the implementation of Gather has proven a worthy investment for Fourway. It has saved time for employees, bolstered client collaboration and communication, and improved commercial analysis. By digitising the site reporting process and streamlining report production, Gather has helped the Fourway team to work more efficiently and effectively.