News

Bringing logic to the world of business

March 2006

Moving from a highly successful career in construction to one in ICT is not an obvious move for any entrepreneur.

But it was precisely the experience of seeing how ICT can improve efficiencies and save time within the construction industry that spurred David Weaver to take this leap of faith.

It was a big decision to make. As the brainchild behind the Building Services company, CSW, David was already running a highly successful business supplying mechanical, electrical and environmental services to the likes of Vodafone and P&O, turning over more than £5m a year.

Operating in a very labour-intensive and heavily repetitive paperwork-based environment, it was ICT that helped CSW to set itself above the competition.

David says: “Every year we would invest more than 20 per cent of our profits in ICT, and the results were phenomenal.

”One of our solutions for a contract costing and accounts system saved us around £50,000 per year. Other ICT investments enabled all our site engineers to work as though they had the resources of our main office at their fingertips; this radically changed the amount of time it took to respond to clients and on-site demands.

“In addition, by continually delivering efficiencies in our projects we were able to achieve a turnover of more than £100,000 per employee.”

Recognising that ICT could address similar issues in companies across the construction industry, David closed the door on CSW and set up Logical Minds, bringing together a team of specialists in project processes and project management to help businesses in sharpening their processes to deliver their projects more efficiently.

He says: “With my knowledge as a client, contractor and consultant, I have had first-hand experience of the different needs and frustrations of the many varied partners in construction projects. As a project manager, I could never accept the logic of having to deal with the same problem over and over again in project-driven businesses when there are so many inefficient processes, paper-based or otherwise, that can be streamlined with effective process solutions.

“Proposals, procurement, completion, billing, health and safety, reports and contact management are all areas where ICT can bring greater control, transparency and, most of all, efficiencies.

“But it is a lack of communication and synergy between offices and sites that remains one of the most costly and time-consuming problems for construction firms, with many still failing to use process solutions that can allow both on-site and office teams to work as one.”

David claims that it is not lack of ambition that prevents many construction firms from achieving greater efficiencies, but a lack of time.

Logical Minds makes the time for the client to achieve these efficiencies by bringing four key time-saving benefits to the table:

1. Understanding of project-driven environments.
2. Specialism in project process solutions.
3. A project delivery framework, which brings together knowledge and existing solutions tailored to each client’s requirements.
4. The ability to integrate and work with the client’s existing Microsoft & Sage investments.

David says: “By adopting this approach, we can create on-demand process solutions that really sharpen the delivery of our clients’ projects. Just as importantly, the client gets the solutions to the agreed time, specification and budget.”

To find out more about Logical Minds bespoke software solutions, call their commercial director Stuart Bullock on 0113 236 1199 or visit www.logicalminds.co.uk.