Integral customer story

21 May 2019

“We've reduced the time taken to produce RAMS by 50% while increasing the quality enormously”

Integral is the leading provider of mechanical, electrical and fabric maintenance services in the UK providing a range of solutions. It provides safe, efficient working environments for leading household names including the Shard, Amazon, Facebook, and the London Stock Exchange.
Key achievements- Significantly decreased document rejections- Vastly improved quality of RAMS- 50% time savings2000+ RAMS created in the first half of 2018 alone- Delivering safe and efficient work environments

Integral was looking to implement a consistent and robust approach to the RAMS process for its large team working across a diverse portfolio of sites and projects. We talked with Integral’s HSE Team, and their National Director of HSE, Allison Connick, to understand how HANDS HQ has helped drive consistent improvements in its health & safety management process.

Driven to distraction by the document management
With 1500 technicians and engineers working across 2000 sites, document management was the most significant challenge for Integral’s business. Inconsistencies in the formats used, how and when the team create RAMS, the quality of the content within them, and the workers that would get involved in the process meant that there was a real need to simplify the workflow.

“The inconsistencies drove us to distraction; there was no document management, there was no version control; this, unfortunately, meant we saw a fairly high turnover of rejections to our documentation,” said Connick. “There were great intentions there to try and manage the process, but we had room for improvement.”

In 2016, Integral turned to HANDS HQ to streamline how it produced RAMS; initially using the platform on a handful of smaller projects, before rolling it out to the entire team following a successful pilot.
Overcoming onboarding challengesWith a mostly field-based workforce that’s always on the move, implementing a change management programme to deploy new systems and processes can be a challenge. HANDS HQ worked closely with Integral during the onboarding process, creating a pilot programme of the software that was used with a small group of 19 users, to understand the exact needs of the business that would make the platform a success.

Integral has 60 standard tasks that they deliver to clients, which form the basis of its risk assessments. These tasks originate from the SFG20 - the Facilities Management industry bible - and are the core business that Integral delivers to all of its clients.

HANDS HQ was customised to include these tasks, meaning that while the method of producing the RAMS was new, the team was familiar with the core document that was generated.

“I think that’s why the uptake has been so great in Integral - seeing nearly a 600% growth in the number of people using the account when we rolled out the software 18 months ago. HANDS HQ generates a true RAMS document that is fully customizable - but still retains the core documents that the team has been using for years,” said Connick.

A constantly improving processSince rolling out HANDS HQ to the broader team, the software has become deeply ingrained in the business. Over 670 planned engineering and reactive maintenance projects have been managed in HANDS HQ since launch; with more than 2000 RAMS created in the first half of 2018 alone. The local and regional teams are seeing significantly fewer documents being rejected, and Integral’s clients are full of praise regarding the quality of the risk assessments being produced.

“HANDS HQ has taken a process that wasn’t working effectively or productively; and has delivered a solution that means our business is constantly improving,” said Connick.

And looking to the future, HANDS HQ is helping Integral prepare for its ISO 45001 qualification in 2019. Since the launch of Risk Register in 2018, Integral has been using the feature to manage its master risk assessment library, to help with external auditing for ISO 18001/45001.

“We can see when templates are prepared; can set reminders to review them on an annual basis; and are now able to easily retrieve each project’s documents without even leaving the office,” said Connick.

“HANDS HQ is affordable, reliable and customisable to meet our organisation’s needs. It’s vastly improved the quality of our documents, from risk assessments through to construction phase plans. It’s a great product.”