By Andrew Smith, Programme Director at Telent
A new system of sharing documents, a year in the making, is now being used to great effect within Telent. eDocs is saving paper, ink, electricity and time, changing the delivery mechanism of documents in all our Rail projects UK wide. The system operates utilising common platforms such as Microsoft Power Apps, OneDrive and SharePoint to reduce the amount of paperwork issued to site, streamlines how information reach site and improves the timely return of completed documents from site.
Each document can be uploaded immediately after approval, whilst still allowing for last minute changes so it’s available at the earliest opportunity for the site teams. It doesn’t require a constant internet connection after set-up and is driven by metadata, supporting all documentation types using a single portal.
We know that efforts to make efficiencies do not always end up being a direct improvement, that’s why the feedback we’ve been receiving is incredibly valuable to us. We’re happy to say that not only is the eDocs programme already delivering beneficial results, but the people who are using the system are finding that it simplifies document processing and makes their lives easier.
Ryan Singleton, Survey and Design Manager said, “eDocs is so much more efficient than the old paper way, especially with the time and effort it takes to print and distribute documentation to site, having a site pack worth of documentation in your pocket works a lot better for my sites.”
Ultimately, eDocs is available for use on site within 5 minutes of the request, a big improvement over what would otherwise have taken a significant period of time to print, collate and distribute the printed documents to site.
Working smarter not harder
eDocs requires no new password or login, nor does it require specialist equipment or software. Instead, eDocs was designed in-house to be accessible on all Telent devices. Training only takes one hour and to date 76 people have been trained and are using the new system on Rail projects and this figure already includes seven individuals onboarded from four different partners in our supply chain. This is only made possible thanks to the way in which eDocs has been designed and implemented that allows both internal staff and our supply chain to engage in its use.
The way in which eDocs has been architected, designed and implemented makes eDocs totally scalable to encompass distribution of other documentation to and from site. It can be scaled to include wider participation including partners, supply chain and suppliers. There is a significant benefit to the environment in that far less paper will be used and distributed to site and will assist in achieving Telent’s Science Based Targets.
“A site pack worth of documentation in your pocket”
The primary focus for eDocs currently is predominantly health and safety documentation with dates set in 2021 for inclusion of all site required documentation including engineering design and test and commissioning documentation. Whilst there will always be a requirement to have a certain number of hard copies on site, eDocs will significantly reduce the amount of paperwork on site and significantly improve the return timescales.
To help describe the benefits of eDocs in terms of real-world cost savings, increased efficiency and associated environmental benefits we know that the new system saves up to 7 hours in preparation, printing, scanning, and filing per pack, £50 for direct printing costs per pack, 600 fewer A4 pages printed per pack and completely removes the need for dedicated trips to an office to collect and return documentation.
The new system is proving to be a game changer that seems to tick every box so far and we anticipate it will scale in the future to incorporate more of Telent’s activities. Naturally, as and when this takes place, the environmental and financial benefit - not to mention time saved - will scale accordingly.