Case Studies

Antler Homes

The appointment of a new Chief Executive in 2002 was the turning point for a period of significant growth at Antler Homes. It also stimulated the requirement for an integrated business reporting system where previously ad hoc regional systems had been used largely based on spreadsheets.

Antler Homes has offices widely spread across the UK and also in the Channel Islands. The company builds high quality apartments, townhouses, terraced, semi-detached and detached homes together with undertaking residential conversions and refurbishments.

Geoff Potton, the new Chief Executive, was previously with a larger housebuilder where he was used to integrated software reporting tools including systems from SiteStream. After selecting SiteStream to bring the same levels of corporate reporting to Antler Homes Geoff recruited Paul Dunnell as Group IT Manager. Paul also had extensive experience of SiteStream's systems within a major housebuilder.

A further requirement was for SiteStream's software to drive Antler Homes' web site with real time price and availability data for each plot on every development. This was a task ideally suited to the new web browser based Sales module developed using the latest Microsoft.Net and XML technologies.

The system has been highly successful in automating the generation of the group's sales reports. Every stage of each sales transaction is entered on the system immediately allowing status reporting as it occurs. At the same time data is exported to Antler Homes' web site using a standard XML link provided with the SiteStream system.

Paul Dunnell says "All our web site content is easily managed by Antler staff and key data is dynamically generated from the SiteStream Sales system onto the web site. This means that whenever a user visits the Antler site, they see live, up to date information on pricing and availability, key to providing accurate details and good customer service."

The system has proved to be a comprehensive system for sales progression, sales reporting and forecasting. The user-friendly web browser interface is simple and cost-effective to implement and also has the potential to be used in the show house or marketing suite. Automated and comprehensive management reports monitor day-to-day sales progress as well as recording performance against targets.

Paul concludes "The Internet is now recognised as the prime research tool for prospective house purchasers and remains one of our most effective means of reaching prospective customers. The links offered by SiteStream enable us to provide a level of currency and detail of information not previously available"

You can see Antler Homes' web site in action here.

Robertson Homes

Robertson Homes is part of the successful Robertson Group of companies, one of Scotland's largest privately owned construction firms. The new homes division recognised that the substantial growth of the company required sophisticated information systems providing real time management information, business controls and ad hoc reporting which under the previous manual systems were time consuming and inefficient.

Company rebranding, allied to the introduction of a Regional Office Structure, required systems which could accurately support the brand promise.

A core team was established from experienced business users (land, surveying, buying, finance, sales, customer care and I.T) to identify the requirements of a new system. A project definition document was prepared by the end users for systems assessment. This was incorporated into a proposal that included resource requirements, hardware and training needs for budget preparation.

The assessment of systems identified SiteStream as the core business system to run alongside the existing accounting solution.

Implementations began in August 2003 with the key team members having responsibility for the various modules. A timeline spanning 6 months was produced and this was used to monitor progress.

The success of the implementation was made possible due to professional project management and a ‘can do' attitude of the implementation team. The benefits, have been seen throughout the business:

Real time information for build, sales, care and visitors
Single input with reduction in errors
Staff efficiency
Site deployment for build, sale and care recording
Increased site layout efficiency
Valuable visitor information, marketing, profiling, target spending
Highlights inefficient subcontractors and poor customer care response
Improved customer care both pre and post completion
After-sales customer care questionnaire for product and service feedback
Ability to design out poor components with use of after-sales monitoring
In-built query tool for ad hoc reports along with standard reports
Uniformity of reporting information
Improved K.P.I's and financial data
Future benchmarking e.g. build periods, sales and legal performance

The SiteStream implementation carried out by Robertson Homes was carefully planned, researched and time managed. The implementation was driven by business needs, researched and resourced with a clear project plan that was completed on time and within budget. This was a considerable achievement for a wide ranging business system such as this.

Billy McFadyen, Regional Managing Director of Robertson Residential commented "The system gives us a clear vision, with real time information to deal with a rapidly changing market. The availability of real time information across such a wide range of business functions is seen to be genuinely innovative in the house building industry which traditionally relies heavily on periodic historic reporting." Billy continues, "With SiteStream the visibility of events in our construction and sales programmes is better than ever which leads to much better prediction of costs and resource planning within the organisation". "Also the amount of data that can be extracted using SiteStream's in-built query tool is proving invaluable to manage the business at optimum efficiency." Robertson are actively rolling their sales systems out to site and plan to use the system to automatically update their web site efficiently and cost effectively.

The Robertson team were also particularly pleased with the implementation approach. The documentation and guidance developed by SiteStream to support the new software kept the project on track from start to finish.

Billy McFadyen commented "The identification of the resources we would need, and visibility of key project milestones provided by SiteStream's approach was a significant factor in the success of this project". "We were able to accurately predict the resources necessary to keep momentum in the project and we completed the software configuration in a remarkably short time".

Billy goes on to say "All our staff have found SiteStream's approach very refreshing and productive compared to some of our previous software implementations. The support and service levels offered are also to be praised and we have total confidence that we will get a constructive and positive response to resolving any issues as they arise".

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