With 38 years of experience in construction and mining, Abletech Underground Group are experts within the industry. They strive to set the standard of excellence across all facets of underground location and vacuum excavation. As experts in the industry with proven capabilities, Abletech Underground Group creates a personalised service for their clients.
Abletech Underground Group has a proactive and committed approach to safety. They ensure their workers are trained and competent in the use of all equipment to provide clients with a safe and productive outcome. They set themselves apart from their competition by consistently delivering personalised services, competitive costs, and clear results that are beyond all expectations. Major projects include major road upgrades in Ipswich, the Mooloolaba Transport Corridor Upgrade, and the rural road construction in South East Queensland.
replacing manual systems with digital solutions
Abletech Underground Group had been looking for a digital solution to replace their current manual and paper-based systems for over a year. Both Abletech Underground Group and Assignar were Civil Contractors Federation of Queensland (CCF QLD) members and were able to connect via the association to discuss the potential of digitisation in the industry and their business. After a demo and comparing Assignar to competitors, Abletech Underground Group’s Directors Geordie and Duncan McGrath decided that Assignar was the best solution for their business.
live in under 60 days
Geordie and Duncan were determined to digitising their operations and knew that internal commitment was crucial to successfully implementing the software into their business. Kelsee Stevens, their Operations and Admin Manager became the internal champion of Assignar, learning all the modules to maximise the software across the business as a whole. In just under 2 months, Abletech Underground Group were live on Assignar with their orders, scheduling, the SMS module, forms, documents, timesheets and dockets. This fast onboarding is a true testament to the dedication and teamwork of Abletech Underground Group.
from late night texts to days in advance
Prior to utilising Assignar, Abletech Underground Group were using a daily diary and sending out text messages the night before a shift to communicate to their crew about their jobs. In addition, they also had print-offs of job packs that team members would have to pick up at the yard each day.
“Now with Assignar, our team know their shifts days in advance and utilising SMS templates to mass text our crew makes scheduling so much easier.” – Geordie McGrath, Director
From the compliance side, Abletech Underground Group had both digital and physical copies of their crews’ tickets and licenses. Now with Assignar, each employee has their own profile with all their inductions and corresponding competencies.
Much like its employees, each asset has its own profile. With utes, vacuum trucks, water trucks, and tippers, keeping all the corresponding maintenance and pre-start forms is quite an extensive job. Geordie shares his experience in managing assets in Assignar. “All our assets have a pre-start checklist and their maintenance schedule is digitally stored on the asset’s profile. We also have a service location record, where our crews need to take photos of the underground working site and take measurements. All our safety forms, general induction site form, and incident forms are also now digital. Before Assignar all this documentation and data was paper-based”.
Abletech Underground Group have also transitioned their timesheets and dockets to Assignar. Geordie recalls “we used to have paper timesheets and dockets. The paper dockets would need to be submitted to the office every day and timesheets at the end of the week. Now they are received instantly back to the office via the Assignar mobile app. We find that entering all the information via phone is so much easier for the team out in the field. As a Director of the business, now I don’t need to wait until the end of the week to see hours worked. Record keeping is so much easier when the data is digital and readily available online. The visibility I now have into the business has been great!”
“We have easily saved 2 hours a day by going digital with Assignar.” – Geordie McGrath, Director
staggered rollout = long term success
With Kelsee as their champion deep-diving into training on the Assignar modules with their dedicated Customer Success Manager, Kim Fenton; they were able to distribute the learning across the management team and do a staggered rollout to the field staff. Geordie recalls “we had been onboarding one thing at a time. First, it was pre-starts, then other forms and eventually timesheets and dockets. We did it one thing at a time so our field crews would feel comfortable. Our team has welcomed the change from paper to digital quite positively. We even have one employee who has been in the industry for over 30 years and is used to doing everything on paper. But he has been so keen and open to learning these new processes.”