Forward looking restoration contractors saving time and money with Redsky IT solutions

Armitage Construction did not see itself as a particularly IT orientated business so it is surprising to see that all of its employees including those who are normally site-based, have access to a terminal in the head office where they can use Summit 1000.

“Summit 1000 has given us the opportunity to manage the business” says Company Secretary Dave Richards. The business has succeeded in showing all 32 of their staff how to use the software so that if anybody has a query about any contract, they can login and extract the information themselves, rather than ring up the accounts manager.

Summit 1000 has been developed with the smaller contractor in mind to assist them not only with their accounting, but also the collection and analysis of data. This data enables smaller contractors to produce their own financial accounts and gives them the ability to budget for future projects.

Information on contracts is available instantly, enabling staff to extract up to date and accurate information to make improved decisions on running contracts.

As Armitage Construction have found, the Summit solution is easy to use and low maintenance – perfect for the small and medium sized builder.

Established in 1874 by the Armitage family, Armitage Construction has evolved and positioned itself at the forefront of the construction and property development industries with the skills and expertise to provide traditional, professional, high quality standards to all business sectors. Clients include United Utilities, Local Councils, The National Trust to name but a few.

Contracts handled by Armitage throughout the last five years have covered a range of proportions ranging from bespoke works in the joinery department to multi-phase projects such as Chorlton Mill in central Manchester worth in excess of £7 million.

Daniel Armitage is Managing Director and descendant of the founder of the business, a business which is aiming to engage in larger developments and enhance it’s image from being a local contractor to being a significant player in construction developments. As part of this change, Daniel has created an up to date style of business management and developed a focus on modernising all parts of the business. The key was knowing the company’s financial position on a daily basis. Summit assisted in this process.

The first step to modernisation of the business was to install a new accounting system. Dave Richards said, “We were aware of other systems on the market, but I had used another RedSky IT product in a previous position and had good experience of RedSky IT, I was confident that the new product that RedSky IT had launched was the right product for us. We needed a blank canvas so that we could configure a system that would suit all of our staff from the Accountant to the Managing Director to the Builders on site.”

Dave continued: “Summit had everything we needed and enabled us to check the actual costs throughout the life of a contract up to its completion. This was a significant step forward for the company as prior to the introduction of Summit, we had to wait until the end of the project for the actual picture on costs and therefore the profit made. It is one of the best investments we have made.”

Being developed purely for the Construction market, Summit tackles all of the specific legislation and reporting requirements the industry imposes.

Dave Richards: “The CIS, tax and VAT elements of Summit are very useful. We are able to get this information instantly. All the certification data is detailed yet is really simple to understand and all of our sub-contractors can clearly see what they have been paid for.

We do employ numerous subcontractors and they often have multi-purpose contracts where we can have a sub-contractor carrying out several trades within any development. Summit helps us to manage this and allows us to pay the same sub-contractor for several trades on the one development.”

“In order to get the best results from Summit you need to put effort into planning how you want the system to report to you. Time and effort in the planning produces better results and removes any frustration that may occur once the system is up and running. Always consult with the Quantity Surveyors, Contracts Managers and Site Agents. Ask them what information would help them to manage and incorporate their requests into your planning. Summit is not just designed for Accountants, it is a builder’s tool – help them to use it!

Too many companies install a system and expect it to do everything they want straight away.

This is not possible if the system is not planned for the end user, that being the individuals who manage the business no matter what their specialisation, be it Surveyor or Builder. We invested time in training all our staff to ensure that our business processes were compatible with Summit before we went live with the system.”

Armitage Construction are now saving of around 30% of staff time within the accounts department by using Summit. This has resulted in a cost saving of in the region of £10,000 as the company now requires less resource to manage the accounting function and has been able to redeploy resources to focus on more proactive work.

130 year old Armitage Construction are an informationled business. The accounting function is no longer separate to the rest of the company, but is central to its performance and is the information hub where everybody goes in order to get accurate, up to date information.

Concluding Dave Richards says, “We have changed our company culture in order to modernise and move with the times. We are trying not to ‘do things as they have always been done’, but to grasp new technology and use it to push the company forwards.

Summit has been the catalyst for this change and has helped smooth the way for the future.

For more information visit www.redskyit.com