CVD iQ Upgrade

Clyde Valley Drilling Limited (CVD) based at Motherwell have implemented an upgraded iQ Foundations system from Quarterback
Systems (QBS) to benefit from the functionality that iQ provides to sub-contractors with a mobile workforce.

CVD are the largest concrete cutting contractor in Scotland and work throughout the UK on projects for main contractors in the construction industry, as well as providing services to the nuclear decommissioning market.

Their previous iQ Nova system helped CVD produce over £250k per year in operational efficiency and cost control measures. This has
undoubtedly helped the company maintain its position in the concrete cutting market.

We asked CVD Managing Director Owen Barrett about iQ:

What were the Issues?

“CVD has relied on our original iQ Nova system since 2005 to schedule work, store documents, record operational costs and asset movements.

The Nova system was dealing with all the main issues that companies like us face. However, that system was designed for CVD and used procedures that were better suited to an office than working from home or out on the road seeing clients.

We were also looking at having to upgrade the servers to cope with the extra storage space we needed after nearly four years of use, which is now expenditure we don’t have to make.”

Why Upgrade to iQ v3?

“We needed to get on to the new iQ, because it offers all of the suggestions that we have made about usability and functionality in the old Nova system.

It’s a continually upgraded product with many users so there’s a reduced service charge for support and add-ons. All our documents are stored on an offsite server with more capacity than we will ever need .”

What are the Benefits?

“The implementation of the new iQ system has given CVD enhanced functionality and fully web enabled access for contract managers on the road, to produce quotes and browse documentation. We also have increased visibility of site costs and equipment repair history.

With all our business critical information and documents now stored on iQ servers in a secure data centre, we have a large element of our disaster recovery plan covered.”

How was the Implementation?

“The data migration to the new system was carried out over a weekend and enabled us to switch over seamlessly on the Monday morning. Minimal training was required for the staff as they were already familiar with the old system.

Operational and process issues with people using the new system were all dealt with by one to one refresher training and some developer time to tune the reports to my requirements.

It went live on the Monday and by Wednesday everyone was saying that it was better than the old one.”

What next for CVD?

“Despite the current economic climate our daily workload remains steady, with a number of high value long term projects ongoing and more waiting to start.

We are focussed on providing a quality service, that is what our clients want and we will respond to their feedback by expanding into different areas to meet their requirements.”

Owen Barrett
Managing Director
Clyde Valley Drilling Ltd
Coddington Crescent
Eurocentral
Motherwell
ML1 4YF
www.cvdltd.co.uk

We asked CVD staff about their new iQ:

Scheduling

“The new Whiteboard is just brilliant, it’s really fast and accessible from anywhere I am so I’m not tied to a desk in the office or to having a VPN connection setup on my laptop.

We can allocate holidays and unavailable periods in a few mouse clicks and the satellite tracking interface is much quicker.

The job creation wizard is great because it saves me time, takes away duplication for the admin team downstairs and makes it easier for invoicing the work.”

Les Barrett – Logistics Manager

Part Tracker – Inventory

“We have been using this version of Part Tracker for about 6 months, so we had it setup and working before the rest of the company went across to the new system. It’s on a server on the internet but it’s even faster than when it was on the box in our comms room here.

Our barcode guns still work the same way and I can move plant and equipment from location to location in this one faster because the guys worked with us to make it easier to operate.

Quarterback have put in the shortcuts we wanted for updating consumable stock, recording PPE issue and tracking small items between drillers.

It’s made a big difference to tracking of repairs and retips with a page that does smart searches if the barcode has been damaged.

We have nearly 30,000 items and components as well as the PPE and consumables and without Part Tracker I don’t think we could do what we do.”

Kevin Gordon – Stores Manager

Clients, Contacts & Documentation

“The new way to search for people and documents is much quicker and it’s easier to find the person you are looking for. The files are easier to see and much quicker to display.”

Bill Gordon – Contracts Manager

“The Quote report has all our sent quotes and tenders in one place with follow up dates and a rating system for whether we think we are going to get it, so therefore we chase those ones harder. But the main point is that no quote gets lost in the system and all are followed up.

John Carswell – Contract Manager

Remote Access to Information

“If I’m in the car accessing it through the laptop it’s easy to get phone numbers or email addresses with a couple of clicks. The whole thing has been compacted into one window, where previously we had to log in to two places with the VPN connection.”

John Carswell – Contract Manager

“I can access iQ from wherever I am: office, house, car, hotel. It’s just as fast in the office as it is anywhere else.”

Garry Downie – Contract Manager

Jobsheet Reconciling & Storage

“The way to upload jobsheets is quicker because they made the search part easier. The email logger now has this built in so I can also save jobsheets straight from the fax to email attachments. I think that saves me about 20 minutes a day.”

Emma Hill – Administration Assistant

“There’s a report which lets me see in detail what jobsheets are missing, which companies they are for and who needs chased to send in their sheets. This has cut the amount of missing or delayed worksheet issues to almost nothing.”

Bill Gordon – Contract Manager

Valuations and Invoicing

“Building valuations and invoices was always fairly easy in the old system, but in iQ its really point and click, there’s a builder wizard and the templates are easy to update to give different layouts. Sending them out is a case of click-click and it’s gone by email.”

Andrea Graham – Assistant Quantity Surveyor

“We can actually put a value on our jobsheets in the office or in the house if we’re pushed for time.

I don’t have to be at my desk to start the billing process, or review the numbers that are going out.”

Bill Gordon – Contract Manager

“Our ability to review the work carried out is more of a collaboration now with everyone able to field questions from the surveyors and our clients with a total access to the original information from quotes and saved site variations.

It’s all in one place, easy to use and it gets the cash flowing quicker because of that.”

Stuart Robertson – Senior Contract Manager

Quote Builder

“The old quote builder could be slow to work if you were on the road and making up a quick quote for someone onsite. Now it’s like night and day.

It’s like a shopping basket, you add some items, quantities and information. Then press two buttons and the client has their quote in about ten seconds by email.”

John Carswell – Contract Manager

“Quarterback have built a quote builder that is specific to a diamond drilling contractor. It does areas, depths and length by depth. We can automatically add required equipment rates and extra terms and conditions specific to the job that is being quoted.

All our job categories and operation types are loaded with default rates and these have variables for quantity, so it recalculates the price based on the depth, diameter and substrate being quoted.

There is also an easy way to include method and risk statements with the quote if those are needed. It saves time and makes all our quotes look the same.”

Garry Downie – Contract Manager

Within the current economic climate CVD look set to weather the storm with increased control, flexibility and efficiency using next generation scheduling, asset tracking and document management from Quarterback’s iQ system.

Clyde Valley Drilling Ltd
Coddington Crescen
Eurocentral
Motherwell
ML1 4YF
www.cvdltd.co.uk