Jonathan Rees Davis MRICS,
Senior Surveyor at Anstey Horne
Dan: Today, we're talking to Jonathan Rees-Davies, a senior surveyor at Anstey Horne, who's delivering a portfolio of projects using ESTA. Jonathan, do you want to introduce yourself and your title?
Jonathan: I'm Jonathan Reece Davies, a senior building surveyor at Anstey Horne. I'm currently in a project management role predominantly at the company.
Dan: So what are you using ESTA for mainly?
Jonathan: We're using ESTA predominantly for the delivery and management of a large portfolio of fire door remediation projects that we're delivering for one of our key clients.
Dan: How many projects are you delivering in that portfolio?
Jonathan: In that particular portfolio, it's around 26 individual sites, each with its own project.
Dan: So they're individual contracts as well, wrapped up into this portfolio?
Jonathan: Yep, that's it.
Dan: What sort of information did the client want to receive from you regarding this portfolio?
Jonathan: The key for the client with this portfolio was twofold.
During the projects, while they're on-site, they were keen to see cash flow and how budgets were being managed throughout the projects as they progressed. At the start, we had one or two on-site, but as the portfolio progressed, we had 10 or 13 on-site at any one time. So understanding where we are in terms of valuations and what we've paid out to the contractor is quite important when the works are on-site.
As a secondary output, they wanted to know how we deliver the information generated throughout the project as a package at the end. Payment certificates, meeting minutes, all that kind of stuff—how we do that.
Dan: I assume there's probably some documentation regarding a lot of these fire doors and how that's all getting wrapped up as well?
Jonathan: Yeah, exactly. They’re keen to have it in a really succinct package that they can easily take off and share with the client once the project is completed.
Dan: How would you have done this traditionally without ESTA?
Jonathan: Probably the old-fashioned way, using multiple spreadsheets, particularly for managing the financial side of things. We would have typically used an Excel spreadsheet for that, along with traditional report writing for progress reporting to the client. It would have been done in a more old-school way, individually, with manual input every single time. That’s what we would have done if we didn't have ESTA.
Dan: So what sort of results have you seen since using ESTA, and what's been the biggest benefit from your perspective?
Jonathan: From my perspective, there are a few key benefits. Time-saving is obviously one of the key factors, particularly with the portfolio of projects we've got ongoing at any one time. We need to save time where we can, especially with meeting minutes and valuations. When we’ve got to manage a whole plethora of different projects at once, you can easily get bogged down in the admin side of things.
ESTA really allows us to get that flowing a lot quicker and easier than it would have if it was done in a more old-fashioned, pen-and-paper way. The management of multiple projects as a team is a real benefit as well. We can understand where each other’s projects are at any one time.
The notifications give us an insight into when evaluations are due or when certain specifics might be due, which allows us to cover periods like annual leave or illness more easily, ensuring no important contractual dates are missed.
Dan: So it gives you a hub where you can all work simultaneously, with all the information there, and avoid any slips or trips.
Jonathan: Exactly. That’s the key for us, keeping these projects ticking over because of the volume we've got. With all the different projects at once, it would be easy to forget an evaluation date.
Dan: That makes a lot of sense. Regarding implementing the software, can you tell us more about your experience—how you set the client up, how it was received, and so on?
Jonathan: It was a good collaborative approach with the client in setting up ESTA. We were able to show them what they would see on their client dashboard and agree on the key components they wanted to manage. It was a great way to say, "Okay, what do you want to see? What's important to you?" and adjust that to suit the particular client. So that was key at the outset—the ability to adjust the client’s dashboard to display information in a way that was important for them.
Dan: That’s perfect. You gave them your Anstey Horne portal, tailored to their requirements, and ESTA had that to report on the necessary information.
Jonathan: Yep.
Dan: What’s been the most surprising thing about picking up ESTA and using it?
Jonathan: I really like the automation and usability of the system. I particularly like that as soon as you fill in the key project setup details, everything is filled in. That’s such an ease for payment certificates, instructions, and other documents.
Once that information is in, you're just adjusting the finer details, which is ideal. That was a really nice surprise for me, and the way it works in tandem with the vault for documentation is great. The client also likes that you can put information into the vault as you go through the project, and it's pulled off at the end as part of a handover pack. The usability of the system is really nice.
Dan: How has practice changed since you started using ESTA regularly? How has that change process happened?
Jonathan: It’s all collaborative and consistent, a smooth approach to projects. With paper and Excel spreadsheets, you’re very much relying on a person to update and save those files individually in folders as they go, which makes it more difficult to manage. ESTA has allowed us to work easier as a team, particularly with these portfolio projects. It’s enabled us to drop into these projects and run them more smoothly, so the change within the practice is that it's allowed us to work more collaboratively and smoothly as a team to deliver the projects.
Dan: That’s great. I think I might have already asked this, but I’ll ask it again in a roundabout way. Your client now has the Anstey Horne portal with the portfolio roll-up. They’ve got each individual dashboard where they can see more granular details, and they’ve got the vault. How has that been received?
Jonathan: It’s well received. They’re quite keen on the whole system because they have similar projects and portfolios where they deliver multiple projects in quick succession. So having a system or platform they can log into, where they can quickly draw off key information, is ideal. It means they don’t have to come directly to us for a live update halfway through a project. They can log on to the portal and see where things are themselves, which is key for them because they often need that information for meetings and presentations.
Dan: They need that information fast, and you’re speeding that up for them.
Jonathan: Exactly. We set it up with them initially, but that information is there for them to see whenever they want.
Dan: And it probably takes a little burden off you as well.
Jonathan: Yeah, it does. It frees up some time. I do like it. Something like this portfolio feature is invaluable because I couldn’t imagine trying to do it with pen and paper.
Dan: Those little jobs where there are so many of them, but you still have to go through the same process and support them, can be a nightmare.
Jonathan: It is. Some of them are three weeks long, some are 12 to 16 weeks long, but the majority are four to six-week projects that still require contracts, meeting minutes, contract instructions, and valuations. It’s all admin-heavy, which needs to be reduced as much as possible when you’ve got multiple projects ongoing at the same time.
Dan: You’re going to save on the fee; you’re not going to burn the fee off, and the client likes it better. It’s like a double whammy.
Jonathan: Yeah. It’s efficiency for us because we’re constantly under the pump, and we need to free up to wherever we can save time, the better, really, for this kind of stuff.