Case study:
Access ConQuest estimating helps Gavin Jones save “countless hours”
Access ConQuest helped landscaping firm Gavin Jones transform their estimating process, saving their estimating team time on building BoQs and resourcing trade subcontractors.
Business size
Large
Industry
Landscape, Maintenance and Construction
Product
Access ConQuest
Challenge
- With estimating teams operating on spreadsheets and countless hours being spent on manual data entry, contractor Gavin Jones needed a system capable of handling their day-to-day.
Approach
- Gavin Jones implemented Access ConQuest estimating software, including on-screen take-off capabilities and online enquiries.
Results
- Since implementation, Gavin Jones have transitioned to a cloud-hosted system, saving a significant amount of time for their estimating teams.
Gavin Jones, part of the Nurture Group, is an award-winning landscape construction and grounds maintenance company based in the UK. They offer a range of professional horticultural and landscaping services to a wide variety of clients across the UK.
As proud holders of a Royal Warrant, Gavin Jones have established a prestigious reputation built on premium-quality service, with clients including those in the defence sector and the Royal Parks.
Before approaching Access ConQuest, Gavin Jones had been using bespoke Excel spreadsheets to carry out their estimating work. They soon realised that they required a specialised product capable of streamlining their internal processes and help price their projects.
Using Access ConQuest to transform estimating processes
Gavin Jones now use Access ConQuest every day to help deliver award-winning services to their customers. Ricky Whiteman and Matt Stevens, Head of Estimating for both the North and South regions respectively, spoke about how ConQuest has transformed their day-to-day.
We previously sent out enquiries via PDF and then manually input them into ConQuest, whereas now we've started using Online Enquiries … it is so much quicker and user friendly.
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
The intuitive and familiar Access ConQuest system was a natural jump for their teams after moving away from simple Excel spreadsheets. Now, Access ConQuest is used daily to provide their teams with estimating, on-screen take-off, and trade subcontractor enquiry capabilities.
Online Enquiries saves huge amounts of time for Gavin Jones
Gavin Jones now saves countless hours a year within their team, as the Online Enquiries module within Access ConQuest allows them to resource and send out supply-chain enquires for substantially sized projects in a matter of hours.
On Online Enquiries, you can resource a substantially sized project in a few hours with another hour or two spent compiling the trade packages and assigning package specific tender drawings and documents, allowing the sending of anything from 1 to 1,000 emails with one push of a button, alongside an extensive tracking system.
Matt Stevens, Head of Estimating (South), Gavin Jones
Speaking on his experience with Access ConQuest and the Online Enquiries system, Ricky Whiteman now saves huge amounts of time. Working out of three depots to service the North of the UK from Birmingham to Glasgow, his team no longer need to do manual send-outs of PDFs or transfer data manually into their systems.
It is brilliant… I can't praise the system enough in terms of how quick it is and how it has helped boost productivity
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
Access ConQuest helps Gavin Jones be adaptable and reactive
Primarily working for main contractors and landscape architects throughout the UK, ConQuest now allows Gavin Jones to price projects within the system quickly and send them out to partners with ease.
Using Online Enquiries and ConQuest’s extensive pricing catalogue of over 10 million items, the estimating team can now reprice projects quickly should specification changes arise.
If I price a detailed wall construction and something in the specification changes, I can simply copy the line item and amend the composite to make it align with the new design, all whilst on the phone with the client to give them an accurate idea of cost in real-time
Matt Stevens, Head of Estimating (South), Gavin Jones
The team has also seen a huge improvement when it comes to soft landscape projects, during which historically they would struggle to price extensive plant lists and compare prices and specs, easily and quickly.
Now with Online Enquiries, the team can price a substantial soft landscape project in a fraction of the time. The system's flexibility ensures seamless support, whether users are pricing projects valued at £5,000-£10,000 or in the multimillion-pound range.
Cloud-hosted estimating software improves collaboration and remote-working
Prior to migrating to the cloud-hosted version of Access ConQuest, Gavin Jones used an On-Premise system. Following a mandate from stakeholders to transition software to the cloud to achieve the Cyber Essentials Certification, the teams moved to securely hosting ConQuest on the cloud.
Since migration, remote working and on-site access to the system has improved dramatically. Now, the team can access the system from anywhere and anytime providing they have an internet connection.
I think it's easier working remotely. So, if we work from home, you don't have to log onto a terminal server, which is what we had to do previously.
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
They team also discovered other benefits of transitioning to the cloud, as they can now collaborate on work much easier than before. Despite using two different libraries for estimating work in different regions, now teams can access one another’s system when the need arises.
We use two different libraries, however, we still operate on a single platform which is a massive benefit, whereas before we were split regionally with separate platforms.
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
Now the teams have more visibility across the business and are supported in working more collaboratively across regions and even connecting those in the office with those on-site or working remotely.
Colleagues in the South region can now go into the North’s (estimating library) if needed, this gives us more visibility and facilitates collaborative working when necessary.
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
Looking to the future, the team at Gavin Jones are keen to work alongside Access ConQuest to develop and improve the system based on their bespoke requirements.
I think overall Matt and I, plus both our teams, think Access ConQuest is an excellent system.
Ricky Whiteman, Head of Estimating (North), Gavin Jones
