In this eBook, Re-flow explores how companies have improved their business processes by onboarding Re-flow’s award-winning field management software
Re-flow is an award-winning field management software provider based in Exeter, Devon.
Aiming to unite the office and remote sites, our comprehensive system brings all crucial
field management functionalities under one umbrella. Including digital job sheets, task
scheduling, asset management, digital forms, team communication and more, Re-flow is
actively streamlining the field operations of hundreds of firms nationwide.
Having firmly established ourselves within the construction, civil engineering and rail sectors over the past several years, Re-flow is now one of the leading field management software providers within those industries. The system is poised to solve common problems, including issues with efficiency, siloed systems, poor auditing, compliance and cross-team communication.
Designed with the mobile application as a foundation, the system’s development was guided by feedback from field users. Thanks to this, Re-flow is uniquely intuitive, offering
ease of access that ensures a seamless adoption process both on-site and in the office.
Reflow’s field management software comes equipped with a set of fully integrated, powerful features that are constantly being improved and expanded upon, enabling businesses to:
- Put their team to work with detailed digital jobs
- Plan ahead and assign resources with scheduling, events and tasks
- Â Keep teams current and informed with team communication
- Improve auditability, compliance and health and safety with a digital form functionality
- Create custom forms to regulatory standards with the powerful form builder
- Manage plant, vehicles, and personnel with asset management
- Streamline manual processes with workflow automation
- Use live data to identify opportunities and strategise with returns and reports
- Capture, sign off and track with location, time and date tagging on all data
- Track your workforce and become more reactive with live user tracking
- Get paid quicker for completed projects with quotes, billing and invoicing
- Seamlessly integrate Re-flow into a larger system using out-the-box connectors.
Industry heavyweights including Colas, M.V. Kelly and BMI are using Re-flow to digitally transform their operational processes, increasing profitability, streamlining tedious administrative tasks, mastering HSE management and achieving more sustainable business growth.
What are the benefits of field management software?
Utilising Re-flow allows businesses to evolve their processes and digitally transform
their business. Adopting the field management software brings several key benefits that help firms stay productive, safe and growing sustainably.
Stay Current
Real-time job progress and data submission allows managers and teams on the ground visibility of what’s been completed, what’s required, and the operatives, equipment and assets assigned. Instant access to live information enables reactive, data-driven decisions in the field.
Enforce Compliance
Our forms are unique, feature-rich and powerful beyond collecting data. They enable you to use logic to enforce process, enact compliance and harvest high quality data from the field at all times.
Plan Ahead
Use list views to eliminate spreadsheets and deliver detailed ad-hoc reports. Review and filter data in real-time, whilst utilising calculated form information to extract crucial insights that let you identify the challenges and opportunities ahead for your business.
Master Health & Safety
When safety is at stake, you need a system that can keep up. Increase auditability with digital forms that leave no room for cut corners and instantly communicate with the relevant parties to record and resolve incidents efficiently.
Communicate Instantly
Re-flow’s messaging, notifications and automation systems ensure your team communications are instant, frictionless and reliable. No more fragmented messaging apps, e-mails and chasing phone calls. It’s all done through the app.
Eliminate Manual Processes
A comprehensive, user-friendly digital solution means you can ditch cumbersome paperwork and fragmented, legacy systems. Lift the burden of tedious admin work, manual form completion and more – giving you and your team the time to focus on the work that matters.
Case Study: M.V. Kelly
M.V. Kelly is an award-winning construction and civil engineering company specialising in infrastructure, groundworks and associated building services. With head offices situated in Solihull, the firm serves a vast geographical area through a network of regional offices
located in Stafford, Bromsgrove, Northampton, Oxford and Coalville.
Established in 1995, M.V. Kelly has distinguished itself as a leader in their industry during over two decades of operation. Amassing overwhelming success and cultivating a strong core dedication to consistency, high standards and maintaining an elite workforce, the company holds a near unrivalled reputation in its field.
What was the challenge?
With thousands of personnel across the country undertaking various works on a mass scale, the business was facing a true whirlwind of work. With operations built on a legacy system, paper and manual processes, works could proceed, but there was certainly potential for evolution.
With less bottlenecks in data and streamlined communication, M.V. Kelly could improve the data flow and efficiency of their site and operative records. Information between sites and offices, from job sheets to safety forms, were completed on paper and relayed physically.
Aside from the bottlenecks that come with transporting documents, paper is at the mercy of many factors beyond our control – human error, poor weather, damage and so on. Compounding that, once back at the office, information would require manual transcription. This diverted valuable time of back-office teams into completing repetitive administrative tasks.
SHE Inspections and audits were also completed through paper forms, meaning non-conformance and defects had to be tracked manually and transported back to the office where they were transcribed and logged using spreadsheet software.
Defects and non-conformances would then be communicated through various methods to individual SHE advisors, including texts, phone calls and e-mails. Although information was being returned to site and passed information onto the foreman and site supervisor, compiling audit trials became difficult due to the disjointed communication methods being used.
These processes weren’t solely to blame, however. Without a reliable solution for data transfer, contact between site and office could at times be affected by delays. With over 2,000 operatives, keeping track of changing phone numbers meant text messaging tended to be unreliable, while e-mails could fade into the background of busy on-site operations.
Forms had to be physically transported or sent as photographs and quality could greatly vary. Breakdowns in communication also meant that there was a risk of work not proceeding as smoothly as it could and office staff weren’t always working with the
latest information – meaning small issues could develop into serious problems.
The solution
What M.V. Kelly needed was a comprehensive and powerful system that can consolidate all their processes, workflows and records in one place while enabling the collection of quality, live data and streamlining cross-team communication. A system resilient enough to support the needs of over 2,000 operatives and 200 back-office staff across multiple sites and offices. That system was Re-flow.
Re-flow’s centralised store of information meant M.V. Kelly could do away with both the paper and fragmented legacy systems they had previously used to keep records. With a
scalable, cloud-based system, the vast quantities of data the company would be storing and processing on a daily basis could be reliably handled.
Accessible through the app and dashboard, filters and search functions mean specific forms can be found within seconds and staff can rest easy knowing the information they’re looking for will always be there. Being built on a sophisticated digital infrastructure, duplicate entries would also become a thing of the past. Staff can now view all relevant information including qualifications, training records, forms, job history, location and much more with the peace of mind that they have the exact data they’re looking for – all while keeping personal data secure through customisable permissions.
Lengthy manual processes could now take minutes. SHE inspections and audits can all be completed through the Re-flow app, where they’re instantly fed back to the office. Necessary information is then passed on directly to relevant parties such as foremen and site supervisors, making sure everyone stays current on incidents and non-conformities
as they happen.
Not only can important information now be communicated instantly, but it can also be tracked, meaning back-office staff know exactly when a task has been completed, who it’s been completed by and where. That’s the power of real-time data – when everyone’s in the know, work becomes safer, more efficient and more focused.
With the click of a button, all relevant parties can receive the information they need, accessible through their mobile device. When scheduling and creating jobs – drawings, PDFs, photographs and any site-related information can be attached or placed in the app’s knowledge base – accessible whenever operatives need it, without scrambling through folders in the middle of a busy worksite. When everyone has access to exactly the information they need, they can fully focus on doing the work that matters, all controlled from Re-flow’s desktop dashboard.
The outcome
Having implemented Re-flow, M.V. Kelly took the efficiency of their operational processes to the next level. Tasks such as completing and sending information now became instant, while searching for specific records could now take mere seconds. The business has seen hundreds of hours saved across all areas and roles – operatives, foremen, site supervisors, SHE inspectors and back-office staff – giving them more time to focus on the work that matters.
Manual processes have been stripped away in favour of workflows streamlined by instant communication, live data and automation. M.V. Kelly now sends 15,000 forms, 18,000
images and captures 10,500 signatures on average, every month through Re-flow, without worrying about storage or printing costs. Masses of data stored on a secure, reliable
system that operates around the clock with no downtime.
With a hassle-free system, operatives no longer see health and safety enforcement as the burdensome process it can be whenwading through paperwork. Forms are completed quickly and automatically uploaded back to the office. SHE inspections are carried out more efficiently through the Re-flow app, with foremen and site supervisors being instantly notified of non-conformance and defects, meaning risks can be addressed in a timely manner, fostering a safer working environment.
“The increased efficiencies come from various parts of our processes with Re-flow. The accuracy of the data is superior. Information is recorded in real-time and stored within an operative’s record and our KPIs are being instantly communicated back to the dashboard.
Eliminating manual communication means nonconformances are being sent directly to site as they happen. These have been the biggest things for us.” Richard Lennon, Head of IT,
M.V. Kelly
Case Study: Norcon Construction
Norcon Construction is a Yorkshire-based construction and civil engineering company, dedicated to providing innovative infrastructure, groundworks and related building services.
Starting as a small team in the East Riding, the business has seen rapid growth since its establishment, with operations spanning across the North-East, West Midlands and the
South-East. Boasting 50 years of combined experience in the industry, the family-run business has fostered a reputation for providing superb services in domestic and commercial construction services.
What was the challenge?
Operating multiple remote sites across a wide geographical area, communicating crucial data back to the office was becoming a significant issue. SHE personnel were struggling to
effectively enforce compliance through paper forms and siloed modes of communication, while manual form delivery caused delays in rectifying nonconformances.
The company’s rapid growth and success had brought its own challenges with it. Outgrowing traditional record-keeping systems, administrative staff had to manually track large amounts of training records and qualifications. The business needed to evolve their process to match their growth with a centralised solution that could manage employee training records, skills and toolbox talks, while being able to keep track of when new training was due.
While Norcon Construction knew they needed a digital solution to streamline their processes, the software packages they had come across proved to be overly complex and rigid. Generic forms and features that wouldn’t adapt to their existing way of work would only prove effective in the short-term. The business needed a solution that had a reliable track record for fast adoption, user friendliness and flexibility – ensuring their continued growth would not be constrained as time went on.
The solution
By trading endless paper trails and fragmented, legacy systems for Re-flow’s comprehensive, digital solution, information struggles and roadblocks in working processes are instantly resolved.
Jobs, scheduling and instant communication mean job specifications are sent directly to operatives in the field. All the information needed for jobs to run successfully, efficiently and safely can be easily accessed through the app, online and offline.
When form data is instantly fed back to the office, managers can stay current and track progress of works through to completion, ensure strict compliance and harvest powerful, live data that enables building robust audit trails, customisable reports and more.
Dashboard users can view qualifications and training through a single database. When assigning teams to a job, conflicts arise when qualifications are missing, ensuring the right people are on site and works are commencing smoothly and safely. If operatives require job-specific training, toolbox talks can easily be scheduled and tracked with digital signatures that show you who took part, when and where.
Digitally transforming your working processes means transforming the way your workforce operates, too. Rather than putting up more roadblocks, Re-flow aims to make this
transition as seamless as possible. Forms can be custom built to resemble existing paper forms and field management software can be fully customised to match a business’s branding, language and working processes.
The outcome
Using Re-flow, Norcon Construction has digitally transformed processes across their entire business. Managers, supervisors and administrative staff now spend less time chasing phone calls, paper trails and missing forms. With instant access to information between the app and dashboard, cross-team communication has increased by 70%.
Now that everything can be reviewed through the dashboard, job forms, vehicle checks, and reports are available the moment operatives submit them through the app, reducing paperwork by a staggering 80%.
Administrative staff no longer spend unnecessary time searching for inspection reports, old safety forms and related paperwork. All data and records are now centralised and accessible through the dashboard, enabling the building of robust audit trails that offer detailed, granular information about on-site activities, increasing auditability by 70%.
With increased auditability and compliance come improved rectification times and health and safety management through increased reporting. HSE reporting has seen a 40% increase across the business, enabling administrative teams to stay current and reactive in the face of hazards, near-misses, plant malfunctions and more. If potentially hazardous defective equipment is found on-site, automation enables instant updating of statuses in your records, and scheduling for maintenance.
Retrospective form completion has become a thing of the past. Strict compliance enforcement and digital signatures automatically stamp forms with time, date and location on submission. The team can gain peace of minds that forms are being completed as works take place and that no corners are being cut.
“The Re-flow team have been quick at dealing with any issues I have and they’re happy to take the time to explain how I might better use the system. Overall, it’s a brilliant tool to help ensure compliance across the business and make sharing information easy. The dashboard is very simple to use, so I don’t have any issues with searching or pulling data.”
Richard Barker, HSE Manager, Norcon Construction
Case Study: MW Benney
MW Benney is a Torquay-based construction firm mainly serving the Torbay, Newton Abbot, South Hams and Teignbridge areas, also regularly branching out to cover towns and cities across the entire Southwest peninsula.
Since its establishment in 1910, MW Benney has embedded itself as a pillar of the local community, whose stellar reputation still thrives over a century later. Their skilled in-house workforce and deep connections across the industry have rendered their service unrivalled in quality and distinguished them as experts in the field.
The challenge
At the core of the challenges facing MW Benney was unnecessary downtime caused by tedious, administrative processes. Operatives were arriving on site while management teams were writing job sheets, keeping track of job progress was difficult due to a lack of instant communication and recording evidence lacked consistency.
The right data wasn’t being collected, and the data that was didn’t go to the right places. MW Benney’s workflows were faced with numerous roadblocks and their growth was being
hindered by the inefficiencies of antiquated paper systems. Teams were spending unnecessary amounts of time on tedious processes which was holding back the business from evolving.
The solution
Re-flow’s powerful, intuitive dashboard means that manually creating job packs becomes a thing of the past. Users can easily create jobs, assign operatives, equipment, locations, plans and more without the need for a single sheet of paper. As soon as a job is scheduled, the entire team can see the details – no more wasted time waiting around for instructions.
Administrative staff can get an instant overview of all ongoing jobs, their details and progress. Operatives using the app on-site provide the information they need – photos, GPS
location, PDFs and more. All this gets fed back to the office instantly, allowing dashboard users to stay current, informed and in control.
Strict compliance on all forms means the data being harvested will be up to scratch every single time. High quality, live data means creating reports with Re-flow becomes a breeze,
providing powerful insights that can be easily shared with clients, colleagues and stakeholders. The ability to export and share the data they want means everyone knows what’s ahead – the opportunities to take advantage of and the challenges to tackle.
The outcome
Once MW Benney adopted Re-flow, their business began to transform. With administrative tasks streamlined, the field management software enabled teams to do more with their time, bringing a 90% increase in available time across the entire business. Re-flow’s powerful reporting, data capture and forms means operatives are harvesting high quality, live data. Instant communication between field and office reduced the paperwork being sent between the two by 40% and now that contact has become greatly streamlined, communication between teams went up by an impressive 50%.
Improvements in data and reporting haven’t just been beneficial for the health of the company, but for the safety of teams in the field, too. Strict compliance and instant
communication have brought a 20% increase in auditability, meaning the business can stay on top of potential risks as they emerge, with HSE reporting increasing by 50%.
Re-flow has also provided MW Benney the flexibility and stability to grow sustainably – operatives no longer need to travel in order to collect job packs, greatly reducing fuel expenses and providing a more sustainable pathway to growth as the business expands and site locations become more widespread. More importantly, however, all staff in their
respective roles have been able to do more with their time, enabling the business to grow and thrive in a way that it never could with a paper system.
“We feel that staff morale has improved and believe Re-flow has contributed to this. Keeping up with the times and investing in software that saves them time, while using a device they already have are important.” Alex Bickham, Director, MW Benney
Case Study: Glanville Environmental
Glanville Environmental is a civil engineering and drainage company specialising in a range of services including civil engineering for drainage and sewer works, sewer rehabilitation, manhole construction, and drain and sewer installations and repairs.
Established in 1983, the family-run business is based in the South West and operates on a national level, mainly focusing on Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
Glanville has amassed a team of 200 industry professionals spread across 6 depots throughout the South West. Their large and skilled workforce enables them to undertake works of all scopes – from large civil engineering projects involving laying kilometres of pipeline to smaller domestic projects such as blocked drains and septic tank cleansing.
The challenge
Like many businesses in the industry, Glanville Environmental operated on tried-and-true paperwork systems, spreadsheets and manual processes. While it got the job done, the
operations team knew there was potential for more efficiency, profitability and growth. The next logical step was to find a solution that would optimise areas of the business that were
weighed down by repetitive tasks, data bottlenecks and legacy systems.
Aside from the desire to cut down on paperwork, Glanville wanted to increase the speed, accuracy and quality of information going to and from sites. Rather than relying on
lengthy, manual form completion and stacks of paper job packs, the team wanted expedited processes that would put their time to better use. This went twofold for remote sites.
Operating over a wide geographical spread, it was crucial to get the entire business onto a single platform and enable all teams and depots to draw information from the same,
consolidated database. Rather than implementing a suite of disparate solutions specialised for each operational process, Glanville needed a solution that would bring all processes under one umbrella, while being powerful enough to perform each individual function as required.
Much of the software they viewed proved too ‘locked down’ and rigid for their needs. They wanted a field management solution that allowed them to be adaptable and reactive, while still enabling staff to narrow down on specific information and processes. This was one of many concerns that came when considering implementation. Overturning an established system would be met with inevitable scepticism, so the software would need to be as intuitive and reliable as possible.
The solution
With an emphasis on user-friendly design, local support and the ability to tweak the software, Glanville chose to adopt Re-flow’s field management software for civil engineering.
Re-flow eliminates paperwork through fully digitising all major operational processes. Jobs can be created through the desktop dashboard and fleshed out with PDF information from
the software’s database. Once ready, all relevant information is instantly communicated to any operatives assigned to tasks under said job.
This goes for all processes – scheduling, asset management, reporting, invoicing and more. Instant communication and centralised record keeping eliminates all the little inconveniences that come with paper, greatly expediting previously tedious processes.
In terms of accuracy, digital solutions offer an unrivalled level of precision. Forms can be custom-built to regulatory standards or chosen from a catalogue.
Once a job commences, all relevant forms will be available to complete through the mobile app. Strictly enforced fields and workflows make the operative’s job easier while feeding accurate, quality data back to the office in real-time. In addition to information being submitted by app users, Re-flow’s forms go a step further. Every form is loaded with a unique digital signature, along with date, time and location stamping.
Operatives can attach photographic evidence to forms when required, offering admin staff a
detailed overview of works on site. Digital transformation is a big undertaking. Re-flow was
developed with user feedback as a guiding principle. Re-flow’s field management software is fully scalable, enabling it to grow with a business and despite being off-the-shelf, it can still be tweaked to fit
individual requirements.
From minor aspects such as branding, language and colours to a fully fleshed-out form builder that enables users to build specific forms of any scale. With a highly acclaimed support-team only a phone call away, clients won’t be left out in the dark. Be that during onboarding, implementation and beyond.
The outcome
Following successful implementation, Glanville has been able to optimise many of their operational processes. Naturally, paperwork has been almost eliminated from the business.
On site, this has had a big effect on form completion and productivity. Digital forms make recording near misses, hazard spots and positive interventions much easier than their
paper counterpart, enabling operatives to do more with the time they’ve saved.
Complex forms which would have been unfeasible in the past, such as dynamic risk assessments, have now been easily implemented. What would have previously been a ticking exercise can now yield more insights for the office, and greater safety for the site.
High quality information is now visible in real-time. Working through stacks of job sheets weeks after completion is now a quick, daily task. Instant communication has enabled all parts of the business to keep up to date with projects and provided more time to focus elsewhere. Instead of picking up and delivering documents, for example, operatives can be allocated to other pursuits, enabling the business to become more strategic and potentially, more profitable.
Jobs themselves have also been expedited. Even with ‘out the box’ forms from Re-flow’s catalogue, the lifecycle of jobs has been significantly cut down. Basic works in the cleaning
division, such as emptying septic tanks, can often be invoiced the afternoon after the job.
Re-flow not only brings all operational processes under one roof, it also has a level of flexibility that enables the team to remain reactive and adaptable. Should clients require software-based solutions for works, Glanville is able to utilise the many capabilities of Re-flow to fill those gaps.
This has also enabled the company to improve and expand more easily. For example, should an ISO audit pick up LOLER checks not being completed correctly on a piece of equipment, the team now knows that they can go back to Re-flow and utilise the software’s tools to fix that. Should they ever encounter any issues, they know that they can count on Re-flow’s talented support team of software specialists.
“Getting information from site immediately is a game changer. It’s cut down on paperwork, and in terms of progress, I can log in and see where everything is at on site. We did a tender for a new contract a few months ago, it asked if we had a system in place to get the real-time information electronically, take photos on site instantly – and they almost didn’t believe we could do all of it, on site through an app.” James Goodman, Operations Director,
Glanville Environmental
Begin your digital transformation today by calling 01392 574002 or visiting www.re-flow.co.uk.
