Stewart Milne Group

How Stewart Milne Group Streamlined Processes Using Power Platform to Improve Working Practices.

Overview

Customer

Stewart Milne Group.

About

Stewart Milne Group was founded in 1975 and is one of the UK’s largest independent housebuilders employing over 1000 people and working with 400 subcontractors.

Sector

Construction

Org. Size

1000

Service

Technology Consulting & Delivery

Key Goals

Bespoke customised apps created to improve working practices

Central Management Hub app built to manage processes

Automated workflows built to improve processes

Creating consistency, clarity and reliability, with a system that ensured it was easy for our teams on sites was key for us. Knowing that we were working side by side to create a framework and system, tailored to the company and the way we want to work, gave all of the team huge confidence in Appetite. Our boss loved working with Appetite, their communication, their support and their care and he doesn’t like many providers!

Marina Miller | Business Systems Manager

Challenges

Stewart Milne Group faced challenges with a platform used for online forms which was hard to update as processes evolved and wanted to make better use of the Microsoft technology stack they had invested in.

The project had a short timescale for completion and the company’s small internal IT team didn’t have the time to manage it themselves due to the volume of projects in place. Having made the selection of Power Platform as their platform of choice, SMG were looking for a Microsoft partner they could trust and work closely with and had business reputation and experience. Having provided training and Power BI services for a number of years SMG, AFB were perfectly situated to support them.

Various processes managed using these online forms required some degree of compromise within the third-party subscription platform previously in use. These forms were used on housebuilding sites for processes such as home inspection reports, snagging lists, and post-completion reports. These forms and their associated processes needed to be updated to better fit with current best practice and to simplify related work such as monitoring and logging completion of snagging list items and generating / storing PDF copies of reports whilst reducing admin overhead and manual entry. The business was tired of the duplication in those forms, they were clunky and repetitive.

The key challenges they faced were:

Ability to be used offfsite on sites and the data to syncrhonise into Sharepoint.
Limitations within the current solution.
Difficulty in developing the current solution as processes evolved Ensuring the solution was easy to use and access for teams on site with limited IT knowledge.

Solutions

Following a design thinking workshop, we proposed establishing an automated system using SharePoint and Power Platform services.

The solution included:

Various Power Apps applications for the recording of different forms of home inspection reports and snagging lists, including recording checks and outcomes, allowing the user to upload photograph evidence of snagging items and assign them to the appropriate contractor, and capturing Site Manager, Quality Manager and Customer signatures as needed using touchscreen signature functionality.
One central hub app through which all the process-specific apps could be easily accessed.
Automated workflows built with Power Automate to generate and store a PDF document displaying in an uneditable format the report at various stages – i.e. on completion of the walkthrough with Site Manager sign-off of the identified items for resolution, and finally on completion of all items on the snagging list with customer sign-off on the property.

Outcomes

Stewart Milne Group is soon to launch a fully automated, mobile device friendly suite of apps to allow on-site staff to undertake completion and post completion reports on properties soon to be or recently handed over to the customer, to capture and store signatures from the appropriate individuals, and to generate a PDF copy of each report in SharePoint for future reference. These solutions use SharePoint and Power Platform services, resulting in the following benefits:

Apps customised for Stewart Milne Group ways of working and organisational best practice.
Improved practices for snagging lists on properties preventing delays and mistakes, and ensuring customer satisfaction and productivity.
Accelerated processes, including touch screen sign-off and tracking completion of snagging list items.

Who We Help?

Whatever, your situation we can help you to de-risk and accelerate your M365 adoption.  

For Owners

Small team? At capacity? Don’t know where to start? Work with us and always be in the know with data at your fingertips. Save yourselves the stress so you can digitally transform your organisation and processes. Hold on to and develop talent. Identify areas for more efficiency. Stay secure and compliant and move the business forward.

For IT

Juggling with strategy and small in-house team? With a specialist partner like us we can help simplify management, achieve compliance and guide you on best practice governance and strategy, keeping data secure whilst giving people access to the insights they need.

For Finance

Overseeing a global business? Let us help you go from data to insight to action. Free up cash flow by identifying efficiencies, removing legacy systems and removing bottlenecks. Increasing real time visibility, measuring metrics, mitigating risk and achieving better compliance and transparency.

For HR

Worrying about upskilling or reskilling your talent pipeline to meet changing technology needs and digital skills shortage? Let us help you to boost productivity, knowledge sharing and wellbeing in remote workers. Deliver a best-in-class employee experience from onboarding to offboarding. Provide better access to employee voices to guide, transform and evolve.

Sectors We Have Worked In

With experience and clients across a wide range of sectors and industries, we understand the challenges you face.

Energy/Renewables 

We have core domain experience in this area, providing solutions that have transformed the way our customers manage their businesses and use their data to extract maximum value. 

Construction 

We know how important it is to support construction companies who want to rapidly digitize their processes to support off site workers and remove manual processes, avoid delays, and drive project efficiencies. 

Professional Services 

We have been trusted by customers to streamline and secure operations and develop bespoke responsive apps within Microsoft 365 to increase productivity and deliver differentiating services.

Transport & Travel 

We understand the pressure to streamline operations, reduce costs and increase efficiency. Appetite provide M365 development and support services to improve efficiency and QHSE audit and compliance.

Pharmaceutical 

From regularly working with pharma organisations, we understand the challenges to support collaboration, productivity, and paper lite initiatives to streamline processes, increase visibility and comply with regulations. 

Public Sector  

We are on the UK Government G-Cloud framework. We can support you with process transformation, employee engagement and digital working practices with a variety of solutions.  

Healthcare 

From advisory and best practice around large digital transformation programmes to out of the box and bespoke digital solutions we can help you adopt modern working practices. 

Not for Profit 

Every penny counts.  So, we help you do more with less, from licensing to better information access, tracking data for metrics and creation of dashboards all to ensure regulatory compliance.