Projects Construction Company W.L.L.

Industry:

AA Grade Construction, Building and Civil Engineering, Interior Fit-outs and Refurbishments, Marine and Industrial services, Blasting and Painting, Access Scaffolding and Formwork.

Projects Holding Company W.L.L. is one of the main contracting companies in Bahrain.

Client:

Projects Holding Company W.L.L

A wholly owned Bahraini group of companies established in 1976, which now employs over 1000 people. The Group has earned a reputation for technical excellence, integrity and efficiency, and has won many awards for quality, safety and innovation in all of its divisions.

I would describe RIB in one word: Spellbinding. As the world becomes increasingly digital, RIB is the perfect stepping stone to help organisations adapt to this ever-changing environment.

Sarfaz A Khan, Business Development Manager
Projects Holding Company W.L.L.

The Challenge:

Projects Construction Company W.L.L has aspirations of becoming paperless in the near future and wanted to be confident that their process and procedures were water tight and integrated.  There is no better time to review these than when planning the implementation of a system that will integrate every aspect of the business both internally and externally from end to end.  They were also experiencing challenges in maintaining effective real time communication with their multiple sites which in turn was impacting their real time reporting and the accuracy of those reports.  As with many construction professionals, reports are absolutely time critical and a prolonged process to generate them often resulted in the report being out of date (or perhaps too late) once received to be able to take any effective preventative rather than remedial action.

Projects Construction Company W.L.L knew that improved project cost control would boost their competitiveness within the construction industry. As one of the main contracting companies in Bahrain, they manage vast amounts of data with numerous software systems, from project concept through construction operations and accounts. As such, accurate cost management was complex.

RIB business consultants have in-depth industry knowledge and Projects Construction Company W.L.L knew they would put the company’s business needs first, then identify the technology solution to best fit that need.

What they asked us to do:

• Audit the existing ERP system and business processes
• Better align its construction and technology processes for greater accuracy across projects
• Improve project monitoring to provide the construction management team with accurate data on money and time (actual versus allowable)
• Identify areas where efficiency could be improved to positively improve project outcomes
• Install two (2) new systems – Candy and BuildSmart – with minimal disruption to existing projects
• Quickly integrate the solution, with help from Projects Construction Company W.L.L employees

The Solution:

RIB analysed the business need then implemented a real-time operational and cost management solution. RIB consultants installed both Candy and BuildSmart to streamline business processes and enable real-time management of projects with seamless cost versus allowable, and financial reporting. Until this installation, the length of time taken for invoices to reach the procurement office meant it was difficult for Projects Construction Company W.L.L to effectively manage site-based costs, such as orders and deliveries. Therefore, the committed and accrual cost functionality in BuildSmart was critical.

Implementation

Our preferred solution was quick and effective. We recommended implementing both Candy and BuildSmart simultaneously, focusing on:

• Candy Estimating, Planning, Forecasting, Cash Flow, Valuations & Subcontract Management
• BuildSmart Accounts and Site costing
• BuildSmart Procurement and Materials Costing
• BuildSmart Stock and Inventory Management
• BuildSmart Plant Management, Maintenance and Costing, Yard Stock
• BuildSmart Sub-Contractor Management
• Human Resources

As part of the implementation process, the RIB team conducted live on-site training on actual data, using live software. Projects Construction Company W.L.L implemented the complete RIB solution to manage their projects from estimation to site plan and valuations through operations management with automated site costing reconciled to final account.

The bulk of the implementation of Candy and BuildSmart, as a seamless cost and operations management solution, took just three weeks with RIB on-site, with continued support from the implementation team provided remotely as required over the following 6 months.  At that point, the implementation was fully embedded and additional training fully delivered.

The Results:

Installing RIB Complete Solution has had a significantly positive impact on Projects Construction Company W.L.L productivity and cost management projects. The company has:

• Improved project report accuracy
• Improved their knowledge of project cost control
• Increased project visibility through enhanced data accuracy
• Achieved real time monitoring
• Accountability on each tier of the organization can now be easily monitored
• Control! Control! Control! The right software has given them an intimate level of understanding of budgetary amounts, quantities, rates and actual costs. Thus, bringing all the key role players in the company together, to make informed decisions, from a complete holistic view of the project costs.
• The integration of end-to-end data has meant their reporting is available as and when required and without input or processing delay.   Projects Holding Company W.L.L cite ‘access to real time project analysis’ as one of the core and fundamental benefits delivered.  Thus allowing for quick management decisions.

Overall, Projects Holding Company W.L.L are delighted that implementing Candy and BuildSmart has streamlined their end-to-end processes and made them extremely efficient as an organisation.