With hundreds of employees working on numerous construction and engineering projects across the UK at the same time, Briggs & Forrester needed to prioritise transparency, accountability and efficiency.
Autodesk Construction Cloud has delivered exactly that. Teams reported up to 84.7% more time-efficient processes, improved collaboration across departments and seamless integration with existing Autodesk tools.
Briggs & Forrester began life in Northampton, UK, in 1947. Today, it’s one of the country’s leading building services engineering companies, turning over more than £270 million annually. Briggs & Forrester Group consists of three subsidiary companies, Briggs & Forrester Engineering Services, Briggs & Forrester Living and Briggs & Forrester Special Projects. The firm’s portfolio spans mechanical & electrical building services installation across a range of sectors including residential, pharmaceutical, industrial, housing, commercial and education to name a few. With circa 700 employees, Briggs & Forrester is proudly an employee-owned business.
As Digitalisation and Innovation Manager at Briggs & Forrester Engineering Services, Grayham Roper is tasked with finding and implementing the right digital tools to boost and sustain business performance.
“One of our key challenges was simply finding information and reviewing drawings and documents for approvals and authorisation quickly,” Graham explains. “We were looking for a solution to cut down those timescales and improve accessibility. We found that with Autodesk Construction Cloud.”
Mechanical Supervisor Sam Dowling had experienced these challenges first-hand while leading teams on construction sites. He recalls daily safety briefings where each team member was required to sign one or two paper-based forms, as well time taken to find physical drawings, raise issues and track processes like snagging.
“We were using a lot of paper,” he reflects. “All of that needed to be collected and stored, which really mounts up over the course of a project.”
When teams started to use Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), tablets replaced sheets of paper, and the additional benefits of digitising multiple processes quickly became clear.
“Because we can access the drawings in ACC, if we've got any queries when we're in a specific apartment, we can go straight onto the cloud and see if there's any clashes or any issues,” says Sam. “As-built Exports allow us to see if there's been a drawing change. And the Issues tool lets us pin an issue to the drawing so that people at the office can see what needs action.”
In the past, the snagging process could be especially time-consuming. After identifying snags, they needed to be reported, dealt with and signed off. Keeping track could be challenging. But since using Autodesk Construction Cloud, Briggs & Forrester’s teams have seen the process become 50% more time efficient.
Sam highlights one specific feature in which photos can be added to drawings and pins, along with tags that automatically alert the relevant team member to the query or action they need to address. “The workflow is improved because people can access it through the cloud and it's instant.”
"Using Autodesk Construction Cloud helps hold people accountable, so if there are outstanding issues we can add a timescale or due date, and even add watchers who can be subcontractors and higher management. That way, we can make sure the job's done on time and efficiently" says Sam Dowling, Mechanical Supervisor, Briggs & Forrester Living.
Simon Drinkwater, Midlands Regional Director at Briggs & Forrester Living, works on large-scale residential construction projects involving multiple stakeholders and teams. For Simon, Autodesk Construction Cloud has already changed the game. “Going from paper to digital has really streamlined the way we operate,” he explains.
But it’s not just about speed. Adopting ACC has given Briggs & Forrester a common language with clients and stakeholders.
According to Simon: “Autodesk Construction Cloud has really helped us catch up with the clients who already use all the products, and it aligns what we're doing more closely with them. The interconnectivity is great. Everybody knows how the systems work, so that integration into our business and into our clients’ businesses has been successful.”
A further win for Briggs & Forrester has been the ability to integrate Autodesk Construction Cloud with other Autodesk products to create a powerful suite of tools.
Grayham Roper explains, “For us, Autodesk products like Revit, AutoCAD and Navisworks were already business-as-usual tools that we’ve used for many, many years. We’ve also been using BIM Collaborate Pro and we're now able to join those products up with the ACC products in one platform. ACC has become our common data environment.”
Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of Autodesk Construction Cloud’s ability to unite tools, teams and processes is the enhanced accountability it brings. As a single source of truth with real-time collaboration, an audit trail is established from the moment a project starts.
Simon Drinkwater sees this as a crucial enabler for keeping projects on track: “That audit trail gives us accountability right the way through the project, for instance, a drawing coming in from a third party can be seen by the clients immediately, go into our document control system at head office, and passed through the relevant people for review, sign off and approval. Everybody can see exactly what stage it's at.”
Grayham Roper agrees. “Accountability is important, and not just for Briggs & Forrester staff. We employ a lot of subcontractors, and are sometimes employed as a subcontractor to main contractors. The accountability piece is about making sure people are aware of their role and the work that needs to be done.”
As a result, site inspections are now 84.7% more time efficient, thanks to a click-and-submit form that can be completed in seconds on ACC.
Since using Autodesk Construction Cloud as the digital home of its Engineering, Living and Special Projects companies work, Briggs & Forrester has seen widespread adoption across its teams. There is even a growing acceptance of technology from those who traditionally have not engaged with digital tools—and increasing excitement about what comes next.
Simon Drinkwater recalls an employee of 44 years who was initially wary of switching from paper to tablet. However, with some quick training and a little practice, the long-serving supervisor became a confident convert to Autodesk Construction Cloud.
Grayham Roper also sees growing appetite from other parts of the business for transforming processes with Autodesk: “We now have people from site teams and other departments coming to me to explore how they can change the way they work and improve processes in their departments and on-site.”
One example is Briggs & Forrester’s commissioning teams, which have removed the need to create Excel trackers by adopting the Issues tool to flag and track potential compliance issues.
Another example is the acceleration of health and safety reporting with Autodesk Construction Cloud, from several days per month to almost instantaneous, thanks to Power BI. And there is plenty more scope still to be explored.
“We've come to rely on Autodesk Construction Cloud as a tool to deliver project work,” says Grayham Roper. “Now it’s embedded in our business, and we've just signed a new three-year contract. We're in this for the long, long term and we will be looking at more ways that we can use it.”
But it’s not just about products for Grayham and his team. “I think it's important to have a strategic technology partner at our side as we go through a business transformation, and Autodesk has got that experience. We can see their roadmap; we can see the tools that they are going to roll out and it helps us understand how that will impact our business and how we can plan for the future.”
Learn more today about what’s possible with Autodesk Construction Cloud.
