“We want to give our clients the best possible service,” Guy Goodall, Operations Director at Polyteck Group, says. “At Polyteck, we’ve always known to do that we must be efficient; we must digitalise; we must have the correct procedures in place; and we must deliver the best quality work. We must also be able to share information securely with our clients so they have real-time visibility of our work and progress. These are all things that HandsHQ helps us to do.”
"I’d highly recommend HandsHQ to anyone who needs to produce RAMS. Nothing comes close to the ease of use or quality of what it produces.”
As an early pursuer of digitalisation, in 2014, Polyteck Group began using HandsHQ software to produce its risk assessments and method statements (RAMS). This digital, cloud-based solution simplifies the production of high-quality RAMS.
Guy explains, “Producing RAMS used to be a much more daunting task. By switching to HandsHQ we have reduced the time taken to produce RAMS by 75% across the board.”
Before using HandsHQ, it could take five hours to produce a RAMS. Now, it can take as little as twenty minutes. More significantly, at the same time, the quality of Polyteck Group’s RAMS has improved.
"With HandsHQ, at least 99% of our RAMS are accepted first time.”
“HandsHQ gives us the building blocks for our RAMS in its content library. We can adapt these components to produce high-quality, site-specific RAMS every time. It used to be that RAMS were often sent back because they weren’t complete or weren’t specific enough to the site. That no longer happens. With HandsHQ, at least 99% of our RAMS are accepted first time. That’s a big improvement which delivers a better service to our clients and saves us even more time.”
Polyteck Group has been using HandsHQ for nine years. Over that time, Guy estimates that it has saved the business, at minimum, several hundred hours. Polyteck Group has wholeheartedly adopted the technology, working with the HandsHQ team to explore new opportunities to digitalise operations.
Guy highlights HandsHQ’s collaborative approach as particularly beneficial. “We worked with the customer success team to customise the HandsHQ software, so we can use it to produce our construction phase plans as well. These are linked to our RAMS,” says Guy. “With HandsHQ, we save around 80% of the time it takes to produce them. We can now produce a very detailed, site-specific plan in a much faster time.”
Guy adds, “The software is nimble and it’s reassuring to know that the legislative requirements are always kept up to date. HandsHQ is also very intuitive and easy to use, and has also ensured a much shorter learning curve when new engineers, administrators or managers come onboard.”
"When auditors ask to see sets of RAMS, HandsHQ makes the whole process easier.”
Polyteck Group’s use of HandsHQ also pays dividends with regulatory compliance and auditing. “When auditors ask to see sets of RAMS, HandsHQ makes the whole process easier,” says Guy. “For Achilles, SSIP or ISO 9001, we can easily categorise and find RAMS and provide them to the auditors.” The same is true for third-party site audits, too; when auditors go to sites, they can easily see up-to-date digital RAMS on an iPad, and track digital signatures to see the acceptance of the RAMS by everyone onsite. Guy says, “From an auditing perspective, HandsHQ makes it a breeze.”
“As we grow, the greater our need to digitalise and streamline,” Guy concludes. “HandsHQ saves our team a huge amount of time that they can now spend going out and meeting the client or delivering the work – not sitting in the office consumed with paperwork.”
“I’d highly recommend HandsHQ to anyone who needs to produce RAMS. Nothing comes close to the ease of use or quality of what it produces.”
Founded in 2005, Polyteck Group provides a broad range of facilities management services, including development; property refurbishment; property maintenance; electrical & HVAC services and IoT remote monitoring. With a turnover of £30 million, the group now employs more than 200 employees in the UK.