"The adoption of Gather has had a profoundly positive impact on collaboration and communication among team members involved in our construction projects"
Stuart Walker
Chief Operations Officer
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The implementation of Gather software is delivering benefits to several ongoing projects, each characterised by unique scopes and requirements. Notable among these is the Carlisle Southern Link Road (CSLR), a significant initiative aimed at connecting Junction 42 of the M6 with the A595 to the west. Cubby Construction's role in the CSLR involves the installation of a comprehensive 44km drainage system, strategically designed to efficiently manage rainwater and mitigate flooding risks. Additionally, Gather software is currently being utilised in the refurbishment of 119 lakeside apartments and lodges in Phase 6 of the Centre Parcs project at Whinfell Forest near Penrith, with a targeted completion within a 15-week timeframe.
As part of Cubby Construction's strategic approach, Gather software is progressively being implemented at various other construction sites, such as the Tullie redevelopment, DPD Exchange Hub service works and the St Mary's School gymnasium extension.
Before integrating Gather, Cubby Construction grappled with numerous challenges in their data management and project workflows. The absence of a centralised system resulted in a fragmented approach to handling project information, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies across various projects. The reliance on manual record-keeping processes often resulted in errors and delays, creating obstacles in maintaining accurate and up-to-date records for variations and claims. This, in turn, heightened administrative burdens, causing delays and disruptions in decision-making processes.
Cubby Construction strategically adopted Gather as their software solution to deliver more efficient and effective outcomes across their business. This collaborative initiative sought to consistently centralise information across projects, presenting a streamlined approach to data management. Through harnessing Gather's automated report generation feature, Cubby Construction has achieved a significant enhancement in their processes. The ability to capture contemporaneous records for variations and claims has led to a reduction in administrative burdens and a heightened level of accuracy.
Additionally, the adoption of Gather has cultivated a culture of uniform record completion, fostering accountability among team members and minimising oversights or discrepancies as a result. With secure remote accessibility to real-time data, Cubby Construction has seamlessly facilitated collaboration and decision-making between office and site teams. Consequently, the adoption of Gather has not only optimised data management processes but has also elevated transparency and streamlined workflows, boosting the overall productivity of Cubby Construction's projects.
“From a commercial perspective, the ability to ‘gather’ and collate information relating to change management is invaluable, adding photographs, written records and attaching relevant resources such as labour, equipment, and materials. In particular, the ability for the wider team to access this information at any time from their own devices has been invaluable” - Stuart Walker Chief Operations Officer
As Cubby’s portfolio of projects spans multiple construction sectors, they needed to find a versatile tool like Gather that could effectively address the distinct requirements of each. Within Cubby’s projects in the building sector, the flexibility of Gather's software has been vital in adapting to the varying paces of different projects, whether fast-paced refurbishments or slower-paced traditional construction. This ensures that fully auditable and contemporaneous records can be captured across all projects, and progress insights can be documented and compared seamlessly from each, enhancing overall project management efficiency.
Gather’s Shift Planner tool has been invaluable to Cubby’s planning teams. By using Shift Planner to prepopulate records with resource, activities and labour information Cubby have streamlined their project management approach over projects spanning different geographical areas. Moreover, harnessing the Shift Planner function within Gather has significantly improved the reporting process as by pre-populating Shift Records in advance, the time needed to complete a comprehensive site diary has been reduced by over 50%. This substantial time-saving has not only enhanced overall efficiency, it's delivered real benefits to front-line supervisors.
The implementation of Gather software has eliminated the need for cumbersome weekly paperwork, as the platform's capability to share data in real-time has connected site and office teams. This streamlined communication and data transparency between teams has contributed to fostering a culture of transparency and proactively informed decision making. In particular, Gather’s ability to automatically generate performance reports have empowered Cubby Construction’s Senior Leadership Team to make informed decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information, ensuring that projects remain on track and within budget.
Beyond this, Gather’s capability to establish productivity and output targets has empowered Cubby to transform their project management processes. Now, instead of receiving out-of-date records, the Cubby team can compare their planned outputs to actual outputs in real time. As a result, the team have been able to identify areas of inefficiency and make informed decisions to optimise resource allocation to prevent potential cost overruns, leading to enhanced productivity and lower project costs.
This implementation of Gather at Cubby Construction has also been instrumental in cultivating a culture of collaboration and enhancing communication amongst team members on multiple construction project sites. Stuart Walker, Cubby Chief Operations Officer at Cubby Construction shares ‘The adoption of Gather software has had a profoundly positive impact on collaboration and communication at Cubby Construction. Beyond simply bringing team members together digitally to consolidate records and share data, the software has also facilitated in-person meetings on-site”. These face-to-face meetings have proven invaluable as they provide a platform for team members to collaborate and present information to support commercial decisions and project plans. This integration of digital collaboration with in-person interactions using Gather has effectively elevated communication channels, fostering a collaborative environment that promotes efficient decision-making and problem-solving within Cubby Construction.
Gather’s Siteview feature has added even more value to the Cubby Construction team by allowing them to map construction progress photos in real-time, reducing costly trips to site.
With the Siteview digital tool progress photos are automatically plotted in a geographical map using GPS data which is automatically captured on images taken through the Gather mobile app. This has vastly reduced costs and saved time as the Cubby team have been able to reduce the number of manual site surveys needed to verify project progress.
Utilising the Siteview tool, Cubby Construction have successfully cultivated a data-driven approach to asset management. The Siteview tool has empowered every team member with real-time access to asset information, enabling them to make well-informed decisions throughout the project. Moreover, Siteview has provided the Cubby Construction team with an enhanced view of their project progress timeline. By providing teams with a visual representation of progress from initial survey to commissioning, project teams can gain a comprehensive understanding of the 'who, what, why, and when' for events at each site location.
Cubby Construction's adoption of Gather software across their portfolio of projects serves as a compelling example of how digital tools can revolutionise project management within construction projects. As the construction sector increasingly embraces digital transformation, Cubby Construction positions itself at the forefront of this evolution, aiming to deploy Gather software across their whole project portfolio to boost project efficiency and drive overall project success.
