Increased visibility, clarity and speed are just three of the many benefits that Swift Brickwork Contractors Ltd will gain by migrating from RedSky’s AXiM legacy product to its cutting-edge ERP solution.
Essex-based Swift Brickwork Contractors Ltd (Swift) has been with RedSky for around 20 years. Financial Controller James Sargeant joined the specialist contractor 18 months ago and is delighted that the company will be migrating to RedSky’s latest system.
“AXiM is an old, legacy product that’s no longer being developed by RedSky,” he said. “The main reason for the migration is to improve Finance team operations. Our accounts payable processes are labour intensive, so we’re keen to make them more efficient. I’m also looking forward to being able to ‘drill down’ quickly to the live data on the system.”
Digitised accounts payable processes
James has decided on a three-phase roll-out. Swift is hosted, so Phase 1 will be the migration from AXiM to the ERP solution – this will be a straightforward ‘lift and shift’ task, implemented and managed by the RedSky team.
Phase 2 will include three integrated RedSky modules that will be used by the Finance team: Purchase Order Processing (POP); Invoice Register; and Workflow and Approvals. Together, these will digitise and streamline Swift’s entire accounts payable approach.
James said: “Currently POs are being raised outside the system. Once we’ve migrated, we’ll be using RedSky for all our processes and will have complete visibility of our financial commitments. Information silos and workarounds will be eliminated because everyone will be working with live system data and we’ll have one version of the truth.”
Swift will also be implementing Workflow and Approvals, to create a digitised, streamlined and paperless approvals process. The Finance team will be able to track the progress of each digital document through the system, so will be able to take prompt action if a ‘bottleneck’ arises.
Digitised payment authorisation rules will make a massive difference. James said: “We’ll set up the system so that a RedSky user can raise a PO up to a certain limit, but beyond that amount it’ll need to be signed off digitally by an authorised signatory.
“If the authorised signatory is on leave at the time, the system will automatically send the PO to another authorised signatory. Everything will be controlled within the RedSky system. It’s going to be more accurate, consistent and robust than our current approach.”
Simplified reporting
James describes reporting on AXiM as rather “clunky and convoluted”. Much of the work has to be done outside the system, which is far from ideal. That’s why, as part of Phase 2, the company will also be implementing Business Analytics.
The Finance team members will use Business Analytics to produce reports at the touch of a button, based on the live data in the system. James will arrange for several people to be trained in how to set up and run a wide range of reports, ranging from sales and retentions to contract costs.
Phase 3 of the business transformation programme will see James encouraging non-Finance departments to start using the new system. He’ll also be overseeing the implementation of role-based dashboards for use by senior team members.
James said: “I want to get the wider business using the system more, so they can drill down to information and generate reports from the system directly, rather than relying on the Finance team as a conduit.”
About Swift Brickwork Contractors Ltd
Swift Brickwork Contractors Ltd has earned a strong reputation for delivering a wide range of high-quality masonry services. The company has more than 30 years of experience in producing brickwork, blockwork, architectural masonry and stonework solutions, both pre-cast and hand-set. In 2021 it won the prestigious UK Specialist Brickwork Contractor of the Year Award.
To find out more about RedSky’s construction-specific software solutions, fill out our Contact Form, email us at hello@redskyit.com or telephone 44 (0)20 3002 8700.
