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Campion Homes achieved huge efficiency increases with Access Coins
Scottish homebuilder Campion Homes is an award-winning family-owned business dedicated to building quality homes across East Central Scotland.
After turnover doubled across a year-long period, its existing systems were unable to support continued stable growth, and the business was operating with far too many spreadsheets. Campion Homes chose Access Coins to achieve a single source of truth that integrates every aspect of the business.
Business size
Medium
Industry
Homebuilder
Product
Access Coins
Challenge
- Existing systems unable to support continued growth after turnover doubled
- Spreadsheet-based processes identified as a bottleneck
- An outgrown contract costing system needing huge amounts of manual intervention
Approach
- Chose Access Coins after a thorough selection process
- ‘Big bang’ implementation replacing commercials, finance and payroll
- Homebuilder-specific package of software, workflows and implementation services
Results
- Over 1,000 hours a year saved on tasks such as payroll processing and subcontractor payments
- 1.5 days saved every working week on weekly payroll
- A single source of truth across the business
Results At-A-Glance
- Time saved: Over 1,000 hours saved across the year on administrative tasks such as payroll processing and organising subcontractor payments
- Faster payroll: Weekly payroll processing saves 1.5 days every working week, unlocking over 600 hours a year and freeing the payroll assistant to focus more time on HR
- Subcontractor payments: The surveying team has more control and visibility over subcontractor payments, saving the finance team an estimated one day a working week
- Single source of truth: Multiple spreadsheets and systems replaced with a single, easy-to-use solution accessible to a variety of users
- Paperless finance: The finance team converted seamlessly to a paperless way of operating
- Lean team: At the height of the pandemic, Campion Homes ran the business with a reduced team of only 10 people and 6 directors
Outgrowing spreadsheets and inflexible systems
Susan Jackson, Joint Managing Director of Campion Homes, realised that a major change was needed to support further growth of the homebuilder, one which would transform not only their current construction technology but their overall processes. It was critical for them to achieve a single source of truth to integrate every aspect of their business, identify margin savings and gain reliable insights.
Campion Homes had gone through a significant growth period, with turnover doubling across a year-long period. As a result, Campion’s teams were facing major technological challenges, as their existing systems were unable to support their objective of continuing stable growth.
Not only were their existing core commercial and finance solutions inflexible, they had also outgrown their contract costing package, and huge amounts of manual intervention was required. Campion Homes also needed the ability to identify business insights – specifically around generating accurate reports ton identify margin improvements.
''We were a business that was operating with far too many spreadsheets.''
Susan Jackson, Joint Managing Director, Campion Homes
With the expert guidance of an IT consultant specialising in construction ERP software, a thorough selection process culminated in choosing Access Coins as their construction technology partner.
A ‘Big Bang’ implementation, ready from day one
A ‘big bang’ approach towards the Access Coins implementation was planned. This involved the replacement of existing systems alongside the development of new business processes and workflows, which posed a major challenge for the delivery team.
A successful implementation would rely not only on the technology working smoothly but ensuring that all users had relevant training to ensure the solution was being used confidently.
Rigorous planning was applied to ensure both new processes and relevant training were in place for the live date to ensure a seamless transition from the legacy systems to Access Coins.
''Throughout the solution design process many of the Campion Homes team ‘bought into’ the new solutions – so we were really pushing against an open door.''
Roger Vaux, Access Coins Business Development Manager
Joint Managing Director Susan Jackson worked with the core project delivery team, which included both Campion Homes’ Director of Surveying and Head of Finance. They were tasked with leading the change across the company with clear messaging about why it was happening and to establish with wider teams that this was a joint effort - and everyone was in it together.
Training was a top priority – with attendance being non-negotiable. The initial focus was on commercials, finance and payroll as these three systems were all being entirely replaced by Access Coins integrated solutions.
Learning from construction technology experts
Implementing Access Coins has given Campion Homes the opportunity to rationalise how they operate and make positive changes to their workflows.
Campion Homes used a homebuilder-specific package of software, workflows and implementation services which includes configuration settings and predefined tables created by the construction technology experts at Access Coins.
Campion Homes have benefitted from these sector-specific configurations designed to help standardise, simplify and automate their processes.
''Why would we not learn from the experience of construction technology experts? If there is a better way of doing things and Access Coins is showing us the way then we should do it that way. ''
Susan Jackson, Managing Director, Campion Homes
As part of these changes, the surveying team now have more control and visibility over subcontractor payments, which has provided the added benefit of saving time for the finance team – currently estimated at one day a working week.
As a result of this new process, Campion Homes have restructured their budgets, as well as rationalising contract costings with a much more straightforward approach than previously.
Achieving leading cashflow forecasting functionality
Campion Homes were particularly impressed with Access Coins cashflow forecasting functionality, alongside the comprehensive range of applications built for managing the entire construction lifecycle.
''We pride ourselves on the significant level of choice which Campion Homes offers to customers, these are one of our key USPs, so management and data analysis of these is really important to us.''
Susan Jackson, Managing Director, Campion Homes
Over 600 hours a year saved on payroll
In the first year of using Access Coins, Campion Homes achieved huge time savings. The delivery team tracked a severe reduction in time taken to process weekly payroll, saving them 1.5 days every working week. This efficiency has allowed the payroll assistant to focus more of their time on HR, adding more value into the business.
With the implementation of Access Coins just across their payroll systems, Campion Homes have unlocked over 600 hours a year.
Achieving a single source of truth across Campion Homes
Since the implementation of Access Coins, Campion Homes have achieved their goal of a single source of truth across the business.
Replacing multiple spreadsheets and systems with a single, easy-to-use solution, with an intuitive interface accessible to a variety of users has had a huge impact on their homebuilding business.
''One source of the truth, that’s what a construction ERP is all about. Data goes into Access Coins once and is accessible across so many different parts of the system by a variety of users.''
Susan Jackson, Managing Director, Campion Homes
Access Coins enabled Campion Homes to operate in such a way that anybody interacting with them during that period would not have noticed any difference – enabling them to give out the clear message that Campion Homes is still very much open for business.
At the height of the pandemic, Campion Homes were able to run their business with a reduced team of only 10 people and 6 directors. Prior to Coins they would have been unable to operate with such a small team, saving them money during this difficult period.
''I would say that we would have struggled badly without Access Coins during lockdown. Web-based access to the system allowed us to work remotely from each other and be fully aware of what others have been doing. Access Coins also forces a more standardised approach which allows us to pick up on the work of others more easily.''
Director of Surveying, Campion Homes
The finance team have also seen the benefits of remote working using Access Coins. During the lockdown period they have been able to seamlessly convert to a paperless way of operating - with Coins being integral to that move.
This will have long-term benefits with the finance team planning to continue this new paperless way of working into the future – a change which could have taken months to achieve - but with the support of Access Coins has been easy to implement.
''My absolute goal is that Access Coins will support business growth without us having to employ more people as we now have the capacity to manage more. ''
Susan Jackson, Managing Director, Campion Homes
