We helped a Yorkshire utilities supplier reduce admin time by 70%

The Challenge

Heneghans is a family business run by two brothers who have a forward-thinking view of how construction projects should be managed. Based in Yorkshire, the company work in civil engineering, house building and utilities. In 2019 they had become a victim of their own success, winning a large contract to plan and lay fibre optic cables for a major telecommunications company. This would double their workload within months.

Heneghans implemented stringent processes supported by spreadsheets, telephone, ordinance survey maps, paper forms and email. But as worked ramped up, the spreadsheet admin alone was becoming too much of a burdon; one of the directors was spending almost two 4 days a week in Excel. They needed to find a way to scale to meet the demands of their contracts.

It was clear that an end-to-end digital solution would be the answer, but this was something they had never attempted before. They were worried that moving from paper to digital would reduce their flexibility and lock things down too much. They were proud of how they implement rigorous processes and tweak them to offer a more efficient service to their customers.

It took them almost a year to refine their vision and finally approach software companies to help turn the vision into a working solution. They quickly learned that they needed a lot more than an app; they needed a complete end-to-end platform. And, they needed someone who was happy to cope with changing requirements as they evolved their own business processes. Because they didn't have a lot of experience in managing software projects, they also needed someone that they could get along with and trust to deliver.

The Results

We helped Heneghans create a platform that is streamlining how fibre-optic installation surveys are completed. It greatly reduces the administration of estimating and billing their jobs, and has helped Heneghans to take on much larger contracts with national cable networks.

• 70% reduction in admin work surrounding the quoting and billing of work
• 50% increase in on-site productivity of digging gang
• A digital work solution to remove paper from the quoting process
• iPad ordinance survey app for surveyors
• Back-office management tools to streamline billing
• Product converted to a SaaS to be sold to competitors in other territories