As a large multi-disciplined construction group, SIAC Construction Ltd faced a real business issue in 2001, one familiar to many expanding construction businesses. SIAC’s organic growth and a number of business acquisitions had resulted in various disparate Information Technology systems being used across the group.

A combination of two industry systems covered the basic construction business requirements of financials, costing and subcontracting. The result – no consolidated business reporting without a great deal of reconciliation, validation, manual intervention and suffering from the limitations and costs associated with all of the above. In the accounts department alone, 6 days were being spent, every month, on reconciliation.

Eliminating more than 20 systems through a rigorous and scored Request for Proposal (RFP) selection process, SIAC’s final unanimous choice in 2003 was COINS. ‘COINS offered a fully integrated, multi-currency system which fulfilled all legislative requirements for the Irish and UK construction industry along with the additional modules which could be utilised by our divisions – for example EC Intrastats, accruals and expenses which were previously being carried out off-line’ says Eamonn Buckley, Information Systems & Technology Manager, SIAC.

Core financials, procurement and payroll systems were implemented first in the head office, 10 divisions and in 4 key project sites – followed up by implementing the Fixed Assets module, Expenses and Intrastats, and Internal and External Plant. The COINS Intrastat functionality simplifies making returns to the government when SIAC finds itself buying in
one jurisdiction and exporting to another. An example of such a contract is the 20 Km A1/N1 Newry to Dundalk Link Road – part of the Dublin to Belfast motorway route.

‘Originally estimated to take three to four years, the rollout has taken place ahead of schedule with minimal disruption to day-to-day business,’ says Eamonn Buckley. SIAC developed a standard implementation process which, used by the same internal Applications Team for each new COINS roll-out, has been key to their success. The team members are now highly experienced and can apply their knowledge with each deployment.

‘SIAC has seen significant business growth and COINS has proved invaluable in supporting this, through its application in joint ventures and acquisitions,’ says Eamonn Buckley. ‘In the cases of joint ventures even when our partner is the dominant player, COINS is often the system of choice for the project. On the M50 upgrade project – a 50/50 joint venture with Ferrovial – SIAC rolled COINS out using a standard implementation process, in 3 months. In January we implemented COINS in SIAC Tetbury Steel, which we acquired in September 2006.’

‘Users appreciate the advantages of an integrated system and the removal of numerous spreadsheets!’ comments Eamonn. With 200 users regularly accessing COINS, the business now benefits from information being stored in one central system. Increased financial visibility across the business means management reporting and information analysis is significantly improved. The burden of supporting multiple IT systems finally removed, the SIAC application team now focus on supporting the users and driving forwards the effective application of COINS.

The SIAC IT Applications team continues to work very closely with the divisions and the COINS team where appropriate – a key objective being to achieve continual process improvement. ‘The close working relationship with COINS is as valuable today as it was in the early project phases,’ concludes Eamonn Buckley.

SIAC Construction is a large multi-disciplined construction group with significant operations across Ireland and the United Kingdom. SIAC provides turnkey solutions to the Civil Engineering and Building industries and has extensive Commercial Development and other investment interests. www.siac.co.uk