How Downer improved efficiency and fueled growth by digitalizing site processes

Ashley Grogan00:00

Good afternoon and welcome to today's webinar. Today we're going to hear how Downer improved efficiency and fueled growth by digitalizing site processes. My name is Ashley Grogan, editor of Inside Construction magazine, and I'll be hosting today's session, which is in the style of a fireside chat with our speakers.

Ashley Grogan00:18

In construction, and in any industry with a lot of moving parts, people and processes, embracing digitalization is essential to staying competitive. Process automation can raise production rates, improve project delivery times, create better health and safety measures and reduce overheads. In other words, it can solve common pain points like project overruns, spiraling costs and supply shortages.

Ashley Grogan00:52

Today we'll hear firsthand how FlowForma process automation has improved Downer's workflows by eliminating manual, paper-based processes, increasing collaboration and improving governance. The speakers will explore Downer's experience automating processes such as permit to dig, purchase orders, daily job records and timesheets, the benefits Downer has realized, advice on achieving real-world process automation success, and how a no-code tool lets organizations rapidly digitize processes to support remote workers and drive project efficiency.

Ashley Grogan01:40

Introducing our speakers: Cameron Hyndman, national digital engineering lead for transport and infrastructure at Downer, and Paul Stone, product strategist at FlowForma. Thank you both for being so generous with your time, particularly as we're all in different time zones.

Ashley Grogan02:02

I'm sure most people joining today have heard of Downer, but Cameron, could you give us a little background on Downer in New Zealand and your role there?

Cameron Hyndman02:09

Sure. Good afternoon everyone, or good morning if you're in Europe. My name is Cameron Hyndman, and I'm the national digital engineering lead for Downer Transport and Infrastructure in New Zealand. If you haven't heard of digital engineering, don't worry, I'll explain. Downer has roughly 32,000 employees across New Zealand and Australia. We construct and maintain across transport and infrastructure, utilities, social infrastructure, energy and industrial, and rail and transit systems.

Cameron Hyndman03:10

This is our digital engineering strategy. Within our team we're focused on winning work, delivering that work, and transforming the way we work during a project, which with any luck leads to winning more work. My team has 25 people, covering CAD and BIM technicians, digital engineering leads, GIS, automation and AI.

Cameron Hyndman03:58

The staircase of acronyms here represents projects we've worked on over the last four to five years. Every new project is the next generation of the previous one, because we're always trying to work smarter. It was a very grassroots approach: we started with one or two projects, and it has grown from a thought experiment into something more enterprise.

Cameron Hyndman04:45

For delivering work, we've come up with a digital menu that explains how we plan works using digital methods, how we build them and how we hand over to our clients. Today we'll focus mostly on the digital forms part, which started as a really important initiative for us, and you'll see how it's growing through the organization.

Cameron Hyndman05:18

On transformation: people talk about failing fast, we like to think we learn fast. We develop good ideas and make them business as usual for our digital projects, then for the whole business unit, and potentially for the whole enterprise. And those great ideas help us win more work, which closes the loop.

Cameron Hyndman06:22

On any of our digital engineering projects, the 3D model geometry takes precedence over the drawings. We take 3D design information from the designer and load it straight into the survey controllers or the machines on site. Once we've built it, we as-build it using typical survey methods, in the same format we received from design. That's the basis of a model-first workflow.

Cameron Hyndman07:20

Those 3D models unlock a lot of other capability, like extracting quantities by linking a drainage model into GIS, and 4D simulations that combine the construction program with the 3D model. The core of a digital project is achieving interdisciplinary design coordination before we get out on site, with our site engineers flying through the model and solving coordination issues first.

Ashley Grogan08:15

Fantastic, thank you Cameron. It would be interesting to hear where our attendees are on their digital transformation journey, so we're launching that poll now. From my interactions with the industry through Inside Construction, I feel many businesses are still at the beginning of their journey. Is that your take, Cameron?

Cameron Hyndman08:38

I've been thinking more and more about this, and I'd say it really depends where you look in the construction supply chain. Ten years ago we never would have heard of a precaster taking 3D models and building from them, but in the last couple of years we've handed 3D models directly to precast teams, who create shop drawings and build from them. Compare that with cast-in-place concrete poured on site: that's still very low tech, and those crews get drawings, not 3D models. People say construction lacks innovation, but I think it's more that uptake of digital varies a lot across the supply chain.

Ashley Grogan09:55

Let's take a look at the results. 63% have just started their journey or have just introduced some new ways of working. Cam, did you want to weigh in?

Cameron Hyndman10:04

That's interesting. Clearly people are jumping on the call wanting to learn how to get started. If I go back to where I started on the journey of digitizing forms: on my first day at Downer I got pulled into a meeting with some senior people, and I said I just couldn't believe we didn't have a widespread digital rollout in construction. I was told that wasn't part of my job and not to do it. Of course, I went and did it anyway. So ours is a grassroots story, and we can get into how we approached processes and systems, and how you can stand up your first digital process.

Ashley Grogan11:14

Before Downer started its digital transformation journey, what process challenges did the business face?

Cameron Hyndman11:30

For a big construction business there are two views of the world. There's the enterprise view, with mandated systems and mandated processes you have to adhere to, but then there's a whole bunch of gaps once you get onto a construction project.

Cameron Hyndman12:18

We break digital forms into two parts. One is simple forms, for example to collect quality information. The second is more complex forms that facilitate a business process. On site we call that pitch and catch: I request something like a permit to dig, someone else approves it, someone else uses it, and someone needs to close it out. Our journey focused mainly on those complex processes.

Cameron Hyndman13:12

When we looked at tools, we set ourselves a few rules. First, we needed a business process tool. Second, we needed to decouple those processes from IT: if you have to go to IT every time you want to create a digital site process, it really slows you down. Third, we wanted to be able to use the information in the future, so capturing it within the Microsoft suite, in SharePoint or SQL, was really useful.

Cameron Hyndman13:59

And the whole supply chain had to be able to interact with those processes. We could have the cleverest process in the world, but if we had to set up every user, including all the subcontractors, with a Downer login, we would never get there. Those were the key directives we worked to when looking at technology.

Ashley Grogan14:31

Let's see if our audience has had similar challenges. We're launching another poll now. While we wait for the results, Paul, are Downer's process challenges similar to those of other customers you've worked with?

Paul Stone14:48

Yes, absolutely, Ashley. We work with many construction companies across the world and they all have the same challenges. They all need to digitize processes to improve efficiency and, most importantly, as Cam just mentioned, gather data. Construction is a very data-hungry sector, and any way you can gather data from the site processes you're running helps you continuously improve.

Paul Stone15:17

Cam made a great point earlier that every project is a follow-on from the last one, so you're constantly improving the way you do things. Digital processes really help with that, and a lot of construction companies around the world are realizing it and putting continuous improvement programs in place, just like Downer.

Ashley Grogan15:47

Let's look at the results. 50% say their processes are paper and email based, or manual. Is that surprising?

Paul Stone16:04

Not at all. It still surprises me how paper-based construction is, but adoption is variable. Your design team uses CAD programs, but people out on site are often still on paper, relying on email chains. Once you're doing that, you end up with zero data collection, and that leads to poor visibility, which was the second most popular answer. One of the big pluses of digitizing processes and gathering data is dashboards: you can quickly see where everything is on a project at any point in time, and that helps with the third answer, delays. You can head off delays before they have any significant impact.

Cameron Hyndman17:13

All really good points. What jumps out at me is that there are stages. When you come up with a digital process, you want operational efficiency first: it has to be more efficient for people in their day-to-day work, or they just won't do it. That's number one for me. The additional benefit beyond that is the data, like having a BI report of the process you've digitized.

Cameron Hyndman18:01

Then, a few steps down the journey, once you're collecting that data you can start joining processes together. For example, we set up a basic site sign-on: someone turns up to site and scans a QR code. Once that person is registered in a database, you can start collecting timesheets using that original data. Map it through a process, and your site supervisor signs off subcontractors' timesheets and applies cost codes, and at the end you've got a BI dashboard giving the project management team everything they want to see.

Cameron Hyndman19:05

Judging by the crowd here, I'd say stage it. Think about the first stage, which is just operational efficiency, and the rest of those steps will come as you progress on your journey.

Ashley Grogan19:28

Back to you, Paul. What are your thoughts when organizations say they aren't technical enough to digitize?

Paul Stone19:36

That's not the case. There's a lot of reservation in the construction industry about rolling out technology, but everybody now sees the need to introduce technology to stay competitive and win bids. People are concerned they won't be able to handle or implement it, but a tool like FlowForma, which Downer is using, is designed to be used without support from IT. You don't have to have an IT department or rely on the vendor. You can do it yourself, and that's really significant.

Paul Stone20:34

Once you digitize that first process you'll see success pretty much straight away, and that builds momentum to digitize more. Tools like FlowForma are designed for people who have business knowledge but not technical skills, to quickly build solutions that significantly help them in their work. There is some hesitance, but the level of interest we're seeing around the world in digitizing processes is very high.

Ashley Grogan21:14

Cam, reflecting on Downer's journey, what would you say to organizations that are hesitant to digitize?

Cameron Hyndman21:30

What tools like FlowForma offer, and exactly what we've been doing, is building digital processes with graduate-level people. That's a real key thing that people maybe don't think about enough. The construction market is very competitive, and if you're running a project lean, with a small site crew and no highly technical people on site, digital processes can suffer. So you have to find a tool that lets you set up those processes easily.

Cameron Hyndman22:19

One lesson we've learned on the way: if you've got a digital site process, you need people on site who understand the tool. You need champions on site who are willing to breathe life into that process. Maybe it's worth showing you our digital permit to dig now. I'll share my screen and play a video.

Cameron Hyndman23:08

Our journey actually started with a question: how do we reduce the risk of a service strike? That was the short-term goal, so how do we create a digital permit to dig? The longer-term thought was that if we could crack a complex process by testing it in different platforms, we'd be able to set up any other digital process. So start with a difficult one, test it in multiple platforms and battle test it, then move to a high level of digitization.

Cameron Hyndman23:57

What we're looking at is the dashboard that the quality manager, or whoever owns the digital permit to dig, has on site. This video shows the pitch and catch, from requesting a permit to reviewing, approving and closing it out, and how we integrate the process with GIS. Our GIS platform is our single source of truth for utilities information. This is FlowForma, with someone filling out the form for the standard Downer process.

Cameron Hyndman24:53

Once they submit, it goes to the approver. All that digital information connects to the standard paper copy you saw on screen, and high levels of automation in the background, for example, automatically generate a drawing. The supervisor reviews the permit, approves and signs it off, and can keep track of all the permits on the dashboard. It's now growing to include multiple processes and permits on site.

Cameron Hyndman26:02

An important point for people at the start of their journey: a tool like FlowForma lets you connect that digital information back to the form, including the signatures. So we can still have paper copies on site, but the whole background process is digitized.

Ashley Grogan26:19

How did a process automation tool help Downer improve adoption of technology across its sites? Cameron, did you want to start, then Paul?

Cameron Hyndman26:37

Having a digital tool forces adoption across sites, but in our experience, when we started with the permit to dig, what quickly came back was a flood of requests: can we digitize this, can we digitize the next thing? We thought surely not many people would use a purchase order, but that ended up being one of our most popular forms. I've even heard of people digitizing a cleaning record, so the cleaner turns up in the evening, fills out a FlowForma form and it keeps track of everything they're doing. It started small and quickly escalated into a whole bunch of processes.

Paul Stone27:41

It's so important to choose the right one first, and for Downer the permit to dig was the perfect choice. We always say listen to the feedback. When you launch a site process to workers who may not have used a system like it before, you need to listen to their feedback and act on it quickly. That encourages ownership: it's not just your solution, it's their solution, and they're using it every day.

Paul Stone28:35

Cam also mentioned the paper copy. In construction it's still important. People may not even use it, they just want it there, so they can easily transition from paper to digital. Having that PDF automatically generated in the right format is significant for adoption.

Paul Stone29:20

Sweeteners like the dashboard Cam showed really help, because that's what you get at the end of the day: a full analysis of data you didn't have before, letting you track permits across the entire project at any point in time. Even people on the ground who are just filling in the form can see the dashboard and know it's real-time information, and that's a big positive for everyone involved.

Ashley Grogan30:00

Back to you, Cameron. You touched on this with FlowForma and GIS, but can you share another example of how Downer has integrated FlowForma with other solutions?

Cameron Hyndman30:18

The GIS integration is probably the main example, but I'll share one more process: going from the induction register to the timesheet to the daily job record. All of those processes are hosted in FlowForma. Anyone who turns up to site can scan a QR code and fill out the induction register. All they need is a phone and an internet connection.

Cameron Hyndman31:51

Then a timesheet gets filled out, which feeds into the daily job record. The supervisor fills out the daily job record, and all the timesheet data collected from waged staff or subcontractors is linked into it. That's where you start linking multiple processes together.

Cameron Hyndman32:28

Because all that data is collected within the Microsoft environment, we can report on it. Here's an example report of how many people have been inducted, and who, with stats for waged and salaried staff. Use your imagination on how you might connect other things together, like linking a safety observation on site to an incident. Plenty of businesses are doing that kind of thing.

Ashley Grogan33:16

Paul, did you have anything to add on integrations?

Paul Stone33:25

FlowForma is designed to integrate. It presents forms to people who fill them in, but it talks to systems in the background as it goes through a process. The most obvious one is Microsoft SharePoint, to manage documentation. It also saves data, for example into a SQL database, and you can integrate it with many other systems.

Paul Stone33:54

Construction companies all have their own common data environment, different back-end systems and different accounting systems. FlowForma provides a veneer over everything, so every process captures data in a similar way, and FlowForma pushes and pulls information with the systems in the background. Cameron showed GIS, but if you wanted to look up cost codes in your accounting system, you could do that automatically in the form. We support lots of integration options.

Ashley Grogan34:43

Cam, what benefits has Downer seen since digitizing its processes? Could you talk about efficiency, time savings and client satisfaction?

Cameron Hyndman34:58

We've probably been on our journey for over two years now. We started by piloting on one or two projects, and now we have 11 projects on board with FlowForma and 23 different processes. We now have something like 23,000 forms submitted and over 45,000 interactions.

Cameron Hyndman35:34

We measured the value in two parts. The first was development time saved: we compared FlowForma with the more classic approach Downer has taken in the past, using Power Apps, and found a significant saving in development time. The second was efficiency gain: a portion of every one of those 45,000 interactions is a time saving.

Cameron Hyndman36:15

We've calculated that we've saved something like 200 days of development time compared with building those same processes in Power Apps, and somewhere in the order of 3,000 hours of efficiency gain. It's worth pointing out that's not a bottom-dollar cost saving for a construction company, but it saves a small portion of everyone's day and makes people more efficient, so they can do other things at work.

Paul Stone37:06

They're exemplary results. It's interesting that speed was a big thing for Cameron and Downer, because you're using non-IT resources, so you need to do things quickly. Saving 200 development days is a massive achievement, and 3,000 hours saved is a significant result. Processes can also be reused very easily: once one is running on a project, you can improve it and roll it out to the next projects without rebuilding it. So your savings just grow over time.

Cameron Hyndman38:18

It's also worth pointing out the governance. Once you start scaling up, one process grows to five and then 10, and you can end up with too many processes. You want graduate-level people to be able to build processes, but if too many people are building them it becomes the Wild West. FlowForma has a good solution: the Governance app applies the same pitch-and-catch idea to the processes themselves.

Cameron Hyndman39:14

I could create a process, and it has to be signed off by someone in the Governance app. You can control how processes are rolled out on different projects, and control your license usage. So it's another important part of the platform: the ability to govern all these digital processes on site.

Ashley Grogan39:39

Finally, do you have any tips for our audience on getting started with automating their processes? Paul, we'll start with you.

Paul Stone39:46

It's important to get started. It sounds obvious, but it's the first hurdle. Select a process, ideally a moderately complex one that will have significant impact, because you want to build momentum: get it out to people, get their feedback and build on top of it. People often think the process must be 100% perfect first. That's not the way it works. Get something out there, get feedback and refine it. It's iterative. Once you get started you'll build momentum and end up with results like the ones Cameron is achieving at Downer.

Cameron Hyndman40:58

Definitely. I'm for actually giving it a go: pushing the buttons and testing an actual process, like we did with the permit to dig. In the past lots of companies have bought tools with the shiny brochure technique: look at some shiny brochures, pick the one that looks best, onboard it, and realize it doesn't do what it said on the box. So battle test it and make sure it works. If a software vendor isn't willing to give you a trial, you should question whether it's the right tool. FlowForma has been so good and helpful to us, and when we ran into trouble even offered to modify the platform to make it work.

Cameron Hyndman42:26

Another lesson, especially for larger construction companies: separate process from systems. Downer has a standard process for a permit to dig, and it was really important to tell everyone we weren't looking to change the standard Downer process, just apply a layer of digitalization over the top of it. That would have saved us some time early on if we'd learned it sooner.

Cameron Hyndman43:09

Keep it simple. If you start with a simple process, the systems and digitization side is more likely to be simple. If you start with a complex process, you're more likely to run into trouble further down the track. And, like Paul says, just make a start. Digital engineering at Downer is a journey with no end state. You'll learn lots digitizing the first process, and that opens up new avenues on your digital journey.

Cameron Hyndman44:04

Our approach was quite grassroots. We don't represent the enterprise Downer Group IT function; we're more at the edge, at the coalface, representing the project. What we found was: get started and digitize the process, but before you show people, make sure you've brushed it up and ironed out the bugs. If you show your shiny new process to someone and it doesn't work the first time, they'll generally go pretty cold on you.

Cameron Hyndman44:58

What I learned through that grassroots approach is what I call the coalition of the willing. If a platform isn't mandated top-down by group IT, try to get as many senior people on board as you can. There will be key people in your organization who are keen on digitization. Get them all on board as part of a coalition, selling the solution and the idea for you. Then it's not just you as one voice, you've got a whole army of people selling the idea.

Cameron Hyndman45:59

A couple more. You could have the cleverest, simplest systems in the world, but if you don't have people on site to breathe life into them, they just won't work. So as part of our governance plan for FlowForma, we have a clearly identified process owner. If it's collecting quality information, the quality manager owns it; if it's safety related, the safety manager owns it. And on each site we need a FlowForma champion: someone who knows how to get people set up on the system and show them how to use it.

Cameron Hyndman46:53

Once you've got a lot of people on board and it looks like you've got a business case, you probably need to make some friends in IT. It's pretty helpful to have friends in the IT architecture and security teams, and potentially even some bribery.

Cameron Hyndman47:19

My final point is learning to deal with frustration. I've had pushback from various people all the time. A group of us in our team give ourselves a pep talk every now and then, to remember that dealing with frustration is part of the job. Frustration will always be there when you're trying to innovate: there's a strong voice of people who want to get on board, and an equal and opposite voice. Keep pushing through and you'll get there. It might just take some time; as Paul knows from working with us at Downer, some of these things didn't happen overnight.

Ashley Grogan48:24

Thank you both for your tips. We're launching one final poll before the Q&A: are you looking to digitize your processes in the next six months? Cam, while we wait, do you think digitalization is going to ramp up in the construction sector over the next 12 to 24 months?

Cameron Hyndman48:52

The short answer is yes. Of course I'm going to say that, because I've got a role with the word digital in it. But the challenge is that we focus on the projects that are the cream on top, the best of the best doing all this wonderful digital stuff, and that's only a very small part of the whole construction industry's portfolio. The real question is how we lift the game for all the rest, the maintenance contracts and other construction projects. That's the challenge: taking tools like FlowForma, making them more enterprise and rolling them out more widely so the whole supply chain benefits.

Ashley Grogan49:52

Looking at the results: 55% said yes, it's a priority for me this year, and 27% said no, we're not ready. Are these surprising to you, Paul?

Paul Stone50:07

Not the 55%. We see so much interest in construction in adopting digital technologies. A lot of people have dipped their toes in the water with point solutions here and there, and they're seeing a greater need. To the 27% who aren't ready: you may not realize how easy it is to introduce digital technologies. Look again, and look at some of our case studies. We work with a lot of companies, big and small, including smaller companies that were entirely paper-based and have digitized at scale with FlowForma with no IT department at all.

Ashley Grogan51:12

We'll now take some questions from attendees. Paul, Sarah is asking: is it possible to access forms on site via mobile, and how can the tool be used if there's no internet connection?

Paul Stone51:29

Absolutely. The examples Cam showed were on a desktop, but we have mobile apps for Android and iOS where you can fill in forms out on site, which is critical for all our construction customers. The mobile apps have an offline cache, so when you're not connected to the internet you can still fill in your form and save it to the system later when you have connectivity.

Ashley Grogan52:02

Cameron, David asks: what's next on Downer's digital transformation journey? Are there always more processes to be digitized?

Cameron Hyndman52:18

Yes. Remember how we win, we deliver and we transform: we've got a bunch of other initiatives up our sleeve, and the future is looking really bright in the way we're using AI. That's the next big thing for us. For the past 18 months we've been using cameras and AI in a few areas. One is what we call safety vision: cameras that automatically detect site safety observations, to keep our people safe. We're also using cameras and AI to detect faults in the road corridor.

Cameron Hyndman53:16

We're also developing what we call Downer GPT, using large language models to automate content generation, but mainly to give people different ways to interact with information, a more conversational AI experience for their day-to-day work. That's where we're heading.

Paul Stone53:47

Just to add, FlowForma has a lot of AI initiatives at the moment and we're bringing AI into the product. AI is very topical and everybody is looking at how they can gain an advantage from it, so there's more to come from FlowForma on AI features.

Ashley Grogan54:04

Paul, one more for you, as we've run out of time. Leslie asks: we need our suppliers to input information into our forms and processes digitally. Is this something FlowForma allows?

Paul Stone54:27

Absolutely. People involved in the process can be inside or outside your organization, whether that's a supplier, the client or a contractor. They can all interact with the process and complete their steps. We fully support external people working with you in the process.

Cameron Hyndman54:42

I'll just add, because for a contractor it's a really important point. Downer uses Power Apps, and they do what they need to do, but to get people to interact with those digital processes we have to give them a Downer login, which is a whole other process. Sometimes subcontractors are on site for only a week. FlowForma offers Secure Engage, which lets third parties authenticate with their Google, Facebook or own Microsoft account, so we don't have to set them up in the Downer system. And another part of the platform, Engage, means people don't need to log in at all. All they need on site is a cell phone and an internet connection to fill out a form.

Ashley Grogan55:55

That's all the time we have for questions today. Thank you to all attendees for joining us, and thank you to our speakers, Cameron and Paul. If you'd like a free demo to see the return on investment your business can achieve, take a look at the resource panel or visit flowforma.com/demo. There will be a short survey at the end of the webinar; we'd appreciate it if you could take 30 seconds to fill it out. Thank you again for joining, and see you next time.