Geoffrey Robinson goes digital with PlanRadar cutting edge quality assurance
PlanRadar has announced a new partnership with Geoffrey Robinson Ltd, one of the largest mechanical, electrical and construction building services contractors in the North East.
From October 2021, Geoffrey Robinson will utilise PlanRadar across existing and new projects for quality assurance, snagging and document control in their construction division, which was launched three years ago to complement their existing M&E expertise.
The successful launch of the construction division has enabled the company to offer full engineering and construction packages to their clients. Since making this decision, the company has gone from strength to strength, growing to more than 220 employees based across three locations. Despite being a relatively new addition to the business, the construction division can be involved in up to 12 concurrent projects.
With the celebration of Geoffrey Robinson’s 50th year of trading came the decision to proactively refresh their digital strategy. The leadership team was specifically looking for technology that would keep them at the forefront of best practice, ensuring that the highest level of quality is delivered to their clients. It was also their goal to have a tech solution that could be used across their whole business, enabling smooth collaboration between different teams.
From an early stage, it was clear that PlanRadar met the needs of the Geoffrey Robinson team and demonstrations of the platform were met with approval by all team members. The roll-out will be rapid, with the entire construction team set to use PlanRadar before Christmas, with the remainder of the company to follow in early 2022. The process will be managed by an experienced Document Control Team, who will ensure that all on-site staff has access to the latest plans, forms, documents and other information necessary for their work.
“We’re looking forward to having our entire team, including the construction and engineering divisions, working with PlanRadar,” said Neal Robinson, Managing Director of Geoffrey Robinson. “As snagging was our first priority, we were particularly interested in the ways that we can put PlanRadar into the hands of our clients, giving them the option to engage with the snagging process in an interactive way. We can already see how popular this is with clients on our existing projects. We also foresee several other benefits from the platform’s document control features and its ability to host risk assessments and other forms.”
The three largest projects which will initially use PlanRadar are in the medical sector. The Geoffrey Robinson team intend to give the facilities and asset management teams access to PlanRadar in each location, enabling them to actively participate in snagging. With the app, they can create snag tickets and add photos, videos and comments to digital plans of the building. This information is directly relayed to the responsible project team at Geoffrey Robinson, who can take swift action on any rectifying work needed.
Additionally, as the team work on a project, they automatically generate a full audit trail, including dates and timestamps. At the end of the project, a full list of snags can be automatically generated in a customisable report format and shared with the client, while Geoffrey Robinson retain a complete record of all communication.
Matt Ryan, PlanRadar’s Country Manager for the UK & Sweden, said: “Geoffrey Robinson approached us looking for a snagging solution that could bring their already excellent client relationships to the next level. Ease-of-use was key, as was providing one platform where their engineering and construction teams could collaborate. Quality assurance and snagging are at the heart of PlanRadar’s design, and we are delighted that Geoffrey Robinson chose us as a cutting-edge solution for their needs. We’re also excited to help them build out their use of PlanRadar beyond their construction division, so that they’re able to get the most out of the platform for their entire business.”
