Berkshire-based Francis Construction is migrating to RedSky’s latest software. The two main attractions are the Invoice Register and stress-free hosting.
Francis Construction is a family-owned construction business dating back to the early 1900s. It embraces new and traditional construction methods, has an in-house Joinery Division and completes projects in the education, residential, restoration, leisure, health, commercial and retail sectors.
The company has been a loyal customer of RedSky for more than 20 years. When asked why, the Financial Controller replied: “When the construction market regulatory landscape changes, RedSky is able to adapt. Other IT companies aren’t as aware of what’s going on in construction.
“The migration has been on the cards for some time. It’s something we really needed to do, to maintain our competitive advantage. We want to make sure that we have the best technology for the construction market, maximising productivity so that we can compete effectively. And to achieve that, we need to migrate to the most up-to-date RedSky system available.”
The prospect of using RedSky’s Invoice Register to streamline the Accounts Payable process was a big attraction for the Accounts team, because more and more suppliers are sending invoices to Francis Construction by email. These invoices will now be received directly into the Invoice Register, so there will be no need to print them out – and the ability to email documents directly from the system will further reduce paper consumption.
Francis’ Financial Controller sees many plus points in migrating to RedSky’s latest system: “The big advantage is the ability to email remittances out immediately, so that people don’t have to wait for them. It’s a great way to provide transparency for our suppliers, as well as for us. Also, we’re looking to remove paper and not spend so much time and money on printing, folding and posting – the costs for all that certainly add up and we want to become greener.”
RedSky will be hosting the software, which is a source of great relief to the Financial Controller: “We’re not IT experts, we’re a finance team. Being hosted by RedSky is a stress-free solution for us that takes away the unknown: they’ll do any updates for us automatically; the back-ups are done automatically; and if anything goes down, they’ll fix it.
“We did a cost analysis: the first option was to get a new server and host it ourselves; the second was to be hosted by RedSky. The costs were pretty much on a par with each other over a two-year period, so hosting was a no-brainer for us, to take away all the stress.”
The availability of information was another important factor in the decision to migrate to RedSky’s latest system: “As with any construction company, our project sites are remote from the head office. Rather than contacting the office, we want everyone on site to be able to find information remotely and quickly.”
To find out more about RedSky’s construction-specific software solutions, click HERE or telephone 44 (0)20 3002 8700. Middle East customers telephone 971(0)4 362 5106.
