How are Highways firms using field management software to prepare for the future? By Mike Saunders Managing Director Re-flow
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s highways businesses come under increased pressure to meet stricter deadlines and ensure high standards for HSE while facing shrinking margins and growing workloads, many are abandoning traditional systems in favour of digital field management solutions that can provide the breathing room to enable sustainable business growth.
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insight S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E saferhighways.co.uk
As the highways industry ventures further into the future, the move away from tried-and-true paper systems and legacy spreadsheet software grows increasingly inevitable. The past several years have seen the rise of many alternatives pitching themselves as the next step for the industry, yet one has stood out, and continues to gain massive traction to this day – field management software. An all-in-one system that aims to unite all major operational processes digitally, it’s no secret that its popularity is only set to increase as more businesses take the plunge, and the benefits become increasingly evident. As more companies move into the market, business owners and managers may find
themselves either spoiled for choice or daunted by the selection. Picking the wrong software can cause more problems than it promises to solve. Off-the-shelf packages can often be lacking and flexibility, and businesses may find themselves quickly outgrowing their capabilities. This was the case for Tony Baysford, Managing Director of Fenton TM, who was looking for a solution to improve the slow communication that was hurting his HSE compliance and audit trails. After investing into a solution that failed to meet their needs, him and his team felt burnt from the experience – “We were concerned about moving to another solution, because of the limitations of the system we were using”.
