Company:
Civic Engineers
Sector:
Structural and Civil Engineering
Location:
Manchester, UK
Website:
Rapport3 modules used:
Project Costing
QA
Newforma Integration
The Client
Civic Engineers are an award-winning civil, structural and transport engineering practice focused on having a positive impact on the environment and enabling people to lead happier, healthier lives. Their team delivers projects across the UK that help create and transform buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities, bringing significant economic, social, and environmental benefits to those places for all that live, work, and visit there.
We spoke with James Bruce, Director at Civic Engineers about their experience using Rapport3 over the past two years: “Civic Engineers have an established reputation in delivering great sustainable work and have won very large projects over the last two years. This increased demand required us to grow and bring in people who can help us deliver these projects. We now have double the number of licenses since starting with Rapport3.”
When asked why they needed a new system James continued, “We were conscious that we needed a system that would support the business and that was scalable. Rapport3 seamlessly supported our increased demand and growth. When we took on Rapport3 we invested fully, switching how we monitor our projects and deliverables. There is no top end to Rapport3, it is scalable overtime.”
The client
We spoke with James Bruce, Director at Civic Engineers about their experience using Rapport3 over the past two years: “Civic Engineers have an established reputation in delivering great sustainable work and have won very large projects over the last two years. This increased demand required us to grow and bring in people who can help us deliver these projects. We now have double the number of licenses since starting with Rapport3.”
When asked why they needed a new system James continued, “We were conscious that we needed a system that would support the business and that was scalable. Rapport3 seamlessly supported our increased demand and growth. When we took on Rapport3 we invested fully, switching how we monitor our projects and deliverables. There is no top end to Rapport3, it is scalable overtime.”
The Client
We spoke with James Bruce, Director at Civic Engineers about their experience using Rapport3 over the past two years: “Civic Engineers have an established reputation in delivering great sustainable work and have won very large projects over the last two years. This increased demand required us to grow and bring in people who can help us deliver these projects. We now have double the number of licenses since starting with Rapport3.”
When asked why they needed a new system James continued, “We were conscious that we needed a system that would support the business and that was scalable. Rapport3 seamlessly supported our increased demand and growth. When we took on Rapport3 we invested fully, switching how we monitor our projects and deliverables. There is no top end to Rapport3, it is scalable overtime.”
Requirements
When asked how Rapport3 compares to systems used alone beforehand, James answered: “Before Rapport3, we used Sage Core Time as a finance tool to input data, relying on spreadsheets which were prone to crashing making the internal project process drawn out and time consuming. Directors would manage and control these to try and avoid multiple access, but this would limit access to the project team."
James continued, "Rapport3 and its integration with Sage allows individual project leaders to manage their projects at the project level with control of their respective data. Now we are in control of project performance with greater visibility helping to inform our wider strategic vision and bigger picture.”
When asked about the move from Excel spreadsheets to a fully centralized project management system, James answered: “Rapport3 allows our data to be used across project management teams, with reporting tools like PowerBI helping them to analyze data and inform strategy. Rapport3 is the best place to input all data for projects for our teams, having PowerBI represent our information in such graphic and intuitive reporting is really informative and valuable to us."
James talked us through their approach to Change Management at Civic Engineers when introducing a new software: “Rapport3 was a big change for a lot of people who are now using it. Previously people only had to fill in their timesheets, they weren’t able to easily access the data for projects. It was a big change for how we ran projects the business. We did a lot of upfront work before we went live with training, so people understood what we were doing and the impact that this would have on what they had to do to support that.”
James continued: “In the past our spreadsheets across teams didn’t work together, making it hard to assign specific people to specific roles on projects. Rapport3 has enabled us to see labour planning and our resource workload in one place. Rapport3 has facilitated us to work across teams and studios more efficiently."
When asked about their migration process to Rapport3, James commented, "we made sure our billing plans and timesheets were perfect and then adopted labour planning, this helped manage the onboarding of the software from a people perspective to introduce the software overtime. The key to our success is incrementally implementing different aspects of rapport3 and explaining how it will benefit the team, so they understand the value to their projects and teams.”
Requirements
When asked how Rapport3 compares to systems used alone beforehand, James answered: “Before Rapport3, we used Sage Core Time as a finance tool to input data, relying on spreadsheets which were prone to crashing making the internal project process drawn out and time consuming. Directors would manage and control these to try and avoid multiple access, but this would limit access to the project team."
James continued, "Rapport3 and its integration with Sage allows individual project leaders to manage their projects at the project level with control of their respective data. Now we are in control of project performance with greater visibility helping to inform our wider strategic vision and bigger picture.”
When asked about the move from Excel spreadsheets to a fully centralized project management system, James answered: “Rapport3 allows our data to be used across project management teams, with reporting tools like PowerBI helping them to analyze data and inform strategy. Rapport3 is the best place to input all data for projects for our teams, having PowerBI represent our information in such graphic and intuitive reporting is really informative and valuable to us."
James talked us through their approach to Change Management at Civic Engineers when introducing a new software: “Rapport3 was a big change for a lot of people who are now using it. Previously people only had to fill in their timesheets, they weren’t able to easily access the data for projects. It was a big change for how we ran projects the business. We did a lot of upfront work before we went live with training, so people understood what we were doing and the impact that this would have on what they had to do to support that.”
James continued: “In the past our spreadsheets across teams didn’t work together, making it hard to assign specific people to specific roles on projects. Rapport3 has enabled us to see labour planning and our resource workload in one place. Rapport3 has facilitated us to work across teams and studios more efficiently."
When asked about their migration process to Rapport3, James commented,
"we made sure our billing plans and timesheets were perfect and then adopted labour planning, this helped manage the onboarding of the software from a people perspective to introduce the software overtime. The key to our success is incrementally implementing different aspects of rapport3 and explaining how it will benefit the team, so they understand the value to their projects and teams.”
Requirements
When asked how Rapport3 compares to systems used alone beforehand, James answered: “Before Rapport3, we used Sage Core Time as a finance tool to input data, relying on spreadsheets which were prone to crashing making the internal project process drawn out and time consuming. Directors would manage and control these to try and avoid multiple access, but this would limit access to the project team."
James continued, "Rapport3 and its integration with Sage allows individual project leaders to manage their projects at the project level with control of their respective data. Now we are in control of project performance with greater visibility helping to inform our wider strategic vision and bigger picture.”
When asked about the move from Excel spreadsheets to a fully centralized project management system, James answered: “Rapport3 allows our data to be used across project management teams, with reporting tools like PowerBI helping them to analyze data and inform strategy. Rapport3 is the best place to input all data for projects for our teams, having PowerBI represent our information in such graphic and intuitive reporting is really informative and valuable to us."
James talked us through their approach to Change Management at Civic Engineers when introducing a new software: “Rapport3 was a big change for a lot of people who are now using it. Previously people only had to fill in their timesheets, they weren’t able to easily access the data for projects. It was a big change for how we ran projects the business. We did a lot of upfront work before we went live with training, so people understood what we were doing and the impact that this would have on what they had to do to support that.”
James continued: “In the past our spreadsheets across teams didn’t work together, making it hard to assign specific people to specific roles on projects. Rapport3 has enabled us to see labour planning and our resource workload in one place. Rapport3 has facilitated us to work across teams and studios more efficiently."
When asked about their migration process to Rapport3, James commented, "we made sure our billing plans and timesheets were perfect and then adopted labour planning, this helped manage the onboarding of the software from a people perspective to introduce the software overtime. The key to our success is incrementally implementing different aspects of rapport3 and explaining how it will benefit the team, so they understand the value to their projects and teams.”
The Solution
James commented on how Rapport3 has helped with recruitment: “With Rapport3, we can break our overall teams into different disciplines that might be working across projects, enabling us to see what’s coming in future workloads. This helps us inform what is required on specific projects, meaning we avoid overload on specific teams. This also gives better foresight for who to recruit in the future and has helped with sharing resources across teams and different studios.”
It is great to see that Civic Engineers are happy with our customer experience team. “Feedback from our team using Rapport3 at Civic Engineers has been overwhelmingly positive. It has improved the way that we work and helped us ensure we are using our time effectively.”
James continued, “From a director’s view, our teams are working more efficiently with Rapport3 allowing them more time to work on the engineering side and less on inputting data. Rapport3 is great as our team don’t have to make new project folders and add new people as it’s all coming through from Rapport3.”
When asked about their previous system. James emphasized “Our previous system was quite basic, clunky and difficult to maneuver, it wasn’t accurate enough to make the decisions that we needed to make, making it hard to communicate internally. By giving the project managers control over the data, our information has become more accurate, helping to inform out strategic decision making.”
What Is your secret to success, for anyone who is just starting out with Rapport3?
“Our secret to success with using Rapport3 was explaining the ‘why’ to people, and what the benefit would be to them, and the team, of having Rapport3. Explaining what Rapport3 will enable them to do with WIP, labour planning etc. before going live, was crucial to our success with Rapport3."
The Solution
James commented on how Rapport3 has helped with recruitment: “With Rapport3, we can break our overall teams into different disciplines that might be working across projects, enabling us to see what’s coming in future workloads. This helps us inform what is required on specific projects, meaning we avoid overload on specific teams. This also gives better foresight for who to recruit in the future and has helped with sharing resources across teams and different studios.”
It is great to see that Civic Engineers are happy with our customer experience team. “Feedback from our team using Rapport3 at Civic Engineers has been overwhelmingly positive. It has improved the way that we work and helped us ensure we are using our time effectively.”
When asked about their previous system. James emphasized “Our previous system was quite basic, clunky and difficult to maneuver, it wasn’t accurate enough to make the decisions that we needed to make, making it hard to communicate internally. By giving the project managers control over the data, our information has become more accurate, helping to inform out strategic decision making.”
What Is your secret to success, for anyone who is just starting out with Rapport3?
The Solution
James commented on how Rapport3 has helped with recruitment: “With Rapport3, we can break our overall teams into different disciplines that might be working across projects, enabling us to see what’s coming in future workloads. This helps us inform what is required on specific projects, meaning we avoid overload on specific teams. This also gives better foresight for who to recruit in the future and has helped with sharing resources across teams and different studios.”
It is great to see that Civic Engineers are happy with our customer experience team. “Feedback from our team using Rapport3 at Civic Engineers has been overwhelmingly positive. It has improved the way that we work and helped us ensure we are using our time effectively.”
When asked about their previous system. James emphasized “Our previous system was quite basic, clunky and difficult to maneuver, it wasn’t accurate enough to make the decisions that we needed to make, making it hard to communicate internally. By giving the project managers control over the data, our information has become more accurate, helping to inform out strategic decision making.”
What Is your secret to success, for anyone who is just starting out with Rapport3?
