Construction Site Inspection & Quality Assurance (known as CSI~QA for short) have been in operation since 2012. In 2019, they expanded their team to three members with over 79 years of experience between them.
Their services fall into three main categories:
- Technical site visits: enabling construction firms to prepare for inspections by visiting for Technical Audits and reporting on defects and other issues
- Quality Assurance: helping construction businesses develop their Quality Assurance procedures, providing support from the design phase all the way through to customer care after completion
- Training: assisting construction firms in keeping their workforce up to date on best practices, whether they work as site management, supervisors or operatives
As part of a series of interviews with our clients, we spoke to Grant Heath, Administrative Manager at CSI~QA, about why they chose PlanRadar, how they introduced it to their clients and how it’s changed their working process.
What is your company’s aim?
CSI~QA works with builders and contractors to audit their sites and help them identify and repair defects. The goal is to help them improve the quality of their work and reduce the number of complaints received by their aftercare departments. That, in turn, helps them to save money and improve their reputation.
Which stages of the construction lifecycle are you involved with?
It varies from client to client. We now get involved with some projects from the design phase, helping to establish potential problems from the beginning. Some clients then arrange monthly visits so that we can check that work on the project is being completed to a high standard throughout the construction. Other clients ask us to come in and inspect projects at certain key stages of the building process.
What kinds of projects do you work on?
Our projects are as varied as our clients, including residential and commercial building projects of different scales. We’ve also worked on several projects that are only based on cladding since the new government regulations came into effect.
What problems or challenges led you to try PlanRadar?
We were looking for a piece of software that would facilitate better communication with our clients and that would enable us to collaborate with them. Our previous reporting method used Excel spreadsheets in combination with an internal database, and there were pros and cons to that system. We’d tested several alternatives before trying PlanRadar and our director Shaun Heath had even considered building his own version before he found PlanRadar online.
How easy did you find it to introduce PlanRadar?
We initially ran PlanRadar alongside our existing reporting system to make sure it was fulfilling all of our needs and to give us time to tinker with the customizable ticket and reporting formats. We then sat down with some existing clients and asked them if they’d be interested in moving over to the new system and after they agreed we haven’t looked back. We were supported by our PlanRadar sales representative, Simon, who ran an initial training and has been on hand to help with any questions we’ve had since launch.
Has PlanRadar created any new opportunities for your company?
We’ve been able to collaborate with our clients in a new way by using contractor accounts. At first, we were only generating reports for them, but now we encourage them to create contractor accounts so that they can see defects we’ve flagged on the digital plans and resolve them themselves. This can work really well, especially after they receive a small amount of training from us.
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