Freedom Group

Construction and maintenance services provider

Company Overview

Freedom Group image Freedom Group, part of Spice Plc, is a world class provider of construction and maintenance services to the utility sector and industry within the UK, with key customers including EDF Energy and Scottish & Southern. Freedom operates from its head office in Wakefield and 12 offices throughout the UK, offering an extensive range of specialist services tailored towards the individual needs of its customers. These services are delivered through six flexible ‘service islands’ covering everything from routine maintenance and asset management to building entire new sub-stations, as well as consultancy on power-related projects, wind farm development, asset replacement and the repair of power transmission lines.

In addition to its people-centric culture, the Freedom Group places major importance on minimising the effects it has on the environment. The company’s environmental ethos is called EARTH LAW - Environmental Awareness Reduces the Harm to Land, Air and Water. This initiative promotes its commitment and was developed as a corner stone of its systems.

With a current turnover of £85m, the company has doubled its turnover in the past three years via both organic and acquisition routes.

Benefits

Flexibility – Dimensions allows data to be entered remotely via the internet, providing access to up-to-date information at all times. The powerful solution also provides seamless integration with third-party software, helping to completely streamline business processes.
Time savings – The totally integrated solution means there is no need to re-key data, keeping administration to a minimum and avoiding errors. The web-based functionality also means that timesheets and project management data for example can be updated online from any location.
Fully customisable solution – Individual screens can be tailored to the exact needs of the operator, with particular fields automatically pre-populated with details such as project codes, helping to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Better reporting and analysis – The Access solution provides up-to-the minute information for more accurate analysis and reporting, helping the management team to make better business decisions. The solution also helps the company deal with environmental reporting as more and more companies are becoming concerned with such issues. All of this is possible due to the transparency of data available.

The Challenge

As Freedom Group grew so did the number of business and accounting products being used by the company. These included three Sage products and Ramesys AXiM, making it difficult to extract the information that was required at group level due to lack of integration. The systems did not meet the complex needs of the company, such as reporting on profit and loss at three levels – divisional, sub-divisional and by ‘service island’.

Andrew Chaplin, Finance Projects Manager for Freedom Group, comments, “It was very difficult to make comparisons using the previous systems. It took time to pull together the data that was required by senior management for reporting and decision making purposes – the lack of real-time information was becoming an issue.

“We also needed a flexible web-enabled system for staff to fill in time sheets, absence and holiday requests, as well as the functionality for online project management, procurement and requisitioning – all through a standard web browser. This required a total overhaul of our systems and a solution that could be used across the group – we needed to streamline our business processes to ensure our continued success.”

Transforming the Business

Andrew was convinced that Dimensions from Access Accounting was the right solution for Freedom Group, following a demonstration of the software at the iTSHOWCASE and Softworld exhibitions. “We initially shortlisted three possible companies but the Access Specialist Centre stood out as a clear winner. Its professionalism was also a major factor in our decision.”

With six different service islands in the group, and 700 staff including around 300 field engineers and 120 project managers, the business and accounting software requirements were complex. The software ticked all the boxes for Freedom Group with the multi-dimensional aspect of the group’s operations being well-supported by the Access solution.

Andrew comments, “We needed complete visibility across the entire company, and Dimensions delivers that. For example, we can easily access profit and loss information for every single sub-division of every company within the group and make comparisons between them. Key information, such as group sales and top customers and debtors, is also available in real-time - all from one enquiry screen, making it easier for our managers to make decisions and deal with any potential issues as they occur.

“In addition, our month-end reporting processes have been significantly streamlined, which has been a major factor in helping us to more easily meet our stringent Plc reporting requirements.”

Andrew was particularly delighted with the flexibility of the innovative solution. “Dimensions has all the functionality and flexibility that we need to fit with our detailed business processes - and its ability to seamlessly integrate with other software such as our own job management system has been of huge value. The integration with third-party software is very impressive.

“The solution also has its own costing feature within the financial package which is crucial for the operational side of our business – other products do not offer this level of functionality,” says Andrew.

Project Management

As the business is largely project-based, it was imperative that the chosen solution would help them manage the full project lifecycle as effectively as possible. Through Dimensions, Freedom Group is now able to set, monitor and control budgets as well as track work-in-progress and bill directly from the system. Managers can allocate resources to particular projects and view the number of hours an individual – such as a design engineer, estimator or maintenance delivery driver – has been allocated to a specific activity.

It also provides complete visibility of workflows throughout the business, with approvers of budgets for instance receiving automatic alerts when action is required. As the workflow rules are completely configurable, Freedom Group can impose its business processes on the software - rather than vice versa - putting them firmly in the driving seat.

“Comprehensive project management and control functionality was crucial. Dimensions fits the bill perfectly and coupled with the solid, reliable double-entry accounting features, we have complete accuracy and audit traceability,” says Andrew.

“Our project managers really took to the system with one manager commenting, ‘I love it, think it’s great’ – the user-friendly innovative look and feel of the system has been a key factor in this acceptance.”

The screens can be tailored to individual requirements, providing just the information they need in the format they need it – selected fields can be automatically pre-populated with details such as project code, not only making data inputting more accurate but also less time consuming.

Environmental concerns

Freedom Group also places great emphasis on environmental concerns, alongside a growing number of its customers, so it is looking to the new system to help it manage the information required.

Andrew comments, “For one of our customers, we have to provide a carbon footprint report on a quarterly basis. This provides a breakdown of our expenses, monitoring how we travelled as well as the number of miles travelled. Dimensions makes it incredibly easy for us to track this information.”

Indeed, it is the policy at Freedom Group to ensure purchase orders, remittances and payroll information are all emailed to cut down on paper wastage.

“We try to print as little as possible – all payments are made by BACS. With the help of our new business and accounting system we will look more closely at how we can track the impact of our working practices on the environment. It’s something which is very important both to us and our customers.”

Future-proof

When Freedom Group was looking for a system that would be future-proof, Access was the obvious choice. “We needed a system that would stand the test of time and bring all of our existing solutions together,” says Andrew.

“In summary, the adoption of our Access solution has streamlined our business processes and delivered accurate up-to-date information to those who need it. We are confident that the system will continue to support us fully as we continue our growth plans in the coming years,” he concludes.

Comprehensive project management and control functionality was crucial. Dimensions fits the bill perfectly and coupled with the solid, reliable doubleentry accounting features, we have complete accuracy and audit traceability.