PaveWA is an Australian civil contractor executing concrete, paving, earthworks and asphalt projects for local government and utility providers.

They’re using Emvisage Field Service Software for streamlining their processes, digitising paperwork and automating admin tasks. 

We completed a deep dive with Michael Wyse, Operations Manager at PaveWA, to understand how Emvisage has helped them to double their business size in just 8 months. 

Michael Wyse (right) from Pave WA

How did they start?

Prior to Emvisage Pave were using a mix of jobsheets, spreadsheets, email and shared drives to mange their work. Meeting the process and compliance needs of their large clients was all consuming for their operations team. Pave could see strong demand and opportunity to grow the business, but with the current way of working, sustainable growth wasn’t possible. Pave needed a more automated, integrated solution. After evaluating a range of systems, Pave chose Emvisage.

Wanting to grow but no way to scale

Pave WA have different field teams completing a range of work, from road surfacing to footpath repairs and landscaping. Pave’s clients within the local government and utility sectors had specific work requirements, in terms of the workflow, what evidence was captured and the templates for quotes, completion reports or approval of variations. SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) were also critical, as these organisations had specific performance SLA’s which cascaded down to delivery partners like Pave WA. Meeting these requirements while coordinating more than 150 jobs per month was a challenge for the Pave WA operations team. 

Most of the work was manual, buried in jobsheets, emailed photos, uploading into shared drives and spreadsheets. The operations team were already past capacity, working long hours and under high levels of stress to keep up. With demand growing, Operations Manager Michael Wyse was searching for systems that would help them streamline the work, so they could grow. But he was struggling to find a product that could handle their diverse needs. 

‘I feel like I have looked at every single one. Other products we looked at would have forced us to operate differently and potentially complicate the work. We had to operate how they were structured, they weren’t for us.’

When Michael first saw Emvisage, things clicked very quickly, the long search was over. It was the deep customisation, the flexibility of Emvisage, that Michael knew would accommodate their different work types and handle the workflow needs of their major clients. 

Efficient information flow between field teams and operations

One of the main challenges Pave WA faced was the sharing of information between the teams doing field work and operations. This started with the site inspection scheduling, then site measurements being fed back for quoting, following approval a second round of scheduling for the actual site work would be completed. You can appreciate the sharing back and forward of information here, the final step was getting the job information and photos from field crews that completed the site works and entering that into job completion reports. 

With different crews out in the field across a range of jobs, there would be times when the operations time would get more than 100 calls in a day, clarifying or confirming work details. There was a lot of double handling and manual work to get the work done accurately. As Michael puts it, 

‘The biggest pain was passing information between the office and field staff. Storing the information for the job, record keeping. The running around and the time wasted. Paper, miscommunications. It was crazy, I was working 11 or 12 hour days’.

Emvisage has centralised the data for Pave WA, meaning that field crews and operations are working in the same space, with live visibility. There is no need for emailing of photos, spreadsheets, updated schedules. It’s all in Emvisage, it’s clear for everyone. Field technicians don’t need to scramble with jobsheets and printed photos, before leaving home they preview the job details on their mobile and when on site the capture everything quickly in one go. 

This has reduced the time field technicians spend on field paperwork by 75%. With the data digitised in Emvisage the operations team instantly have the information they need, while the system automatically feeds the measurements, photos, signatures and job notes into the right quote or job completion reports. The downstream automation in Emvisage saves Pave WA hours each day of data entry, copy pasting, uploading and follow up calls. 

‘Compared to how we used to do it,  it’s so much better now with Emvisage. Clients are loving it - it just speeds everything up.’

Now the phone calls are down to a handful per day and time spent on admin has been reduced by 81%,. That’s 6.5 hours less admin work each day. The productivity gain here was a key for Pave WA to scale and grow, but it’s been more than that. For Michael and the team the focus has shifted from admin to improvement,  ‘this has meant I am not stuck at the desk. I am on site helping, checking and improving how we do the work’.

Less manual work > less mistakes

How well Pave WA followed their client’s work process, met compliance needs and delivered within SLA were key to winning a greater share of work with their clients.  It’s why Pave WA had a strong focus on quality and that why prior to Emvisage a lot of effort was spent on checking, rechecking and ensuring accuracy. Emvisage SmartForms have taken out the manual steps, reducing the opportunities for human error to creep in. Field technicians select an item, capture the measurement and the because Emvisage stores the pricing for each different partner, the quote is automated. This has meant less mistakes for both field crews and operations, simply because it’s harder to get something wrong. 

‘Everything is there. When I am doing quoting everything from the inspection auto fills into the quote tab. It’s prefilled. I just fill in the box underneath, hit save and the slider to email everything. Quoting used to be done in a horrible excel sheet and could take a few hours per day. Now I am all done in 30 - 60 minutes.’

Emvisage has made not just more efficient, but also easier for the Pave WA operations team and the field crews. An unexpected benefit from this has been unlocking additional revenue from variations. ‘Variations before were difficult. The process was difficult, involving photos, additional measurements. People could not be bothered for small variations. We have found with Emvisage our rate of variations has almost tripled. That is 1-2sqm more each time. The work is the same, so it’s just making the process easier.’

‘Mate, I am loving the software. It’s making my life so much easier. Some of our senior guys have no computer skills and even they love Emvisage’

PaveWa’s results - supercharged growth and productivity

Since partnering with Emvisage, Pave WA has made some fantastic gains.

81% Reduction in time spent on admin work 

75% Less time spent on field paperwork 

10x Return on investment 

Doubling business size in 8 months

These terrific results were due largely due to automation and improved flow of information between operations and field crews.With less admin burden and less stress, the operations team have been freed up and now have the headspace to focus on improvements. While field crews are happier, more empowered and doing better work. 

Overall Michael has been extremely satisfied with their Emvisage experience so far stating: 

We were able to employ more staff because we’re simply able to manage bigger workloads with Emvisage. I couldn’t tell you what we would use if Emvisage didn’t exist.  I can’t imagine life without it.

Emvisage - powerful automation

If you need to automate your workflow, but it feels impossible or not feasible. It’s worth getting in touch, our technology can be a game changer. 

Are you ready to automate your admin and work better?  Book a quick demo