Case Study: Probuild Edmondson Park Sydney Australia
Probuild and Frasers Property Australia are two of Australia’s leading builders and developers respectively. The mutual goal for both companies is to set the industry standard in the post construction phase, through collaboration and by providing premium customer service.
The companies were looking for a more efficient solution to managing the 24 month Defects Liability Period of their premium Edmondson Park project, consisting of 240 apartments.
DLP Manager was approached by Australian premium construction company, Probuild to manage the post construction phase of their recently completed Edmondson Park project in Sydney, Australia.
The project is comprised of four buildings of 240 apartments in total.
As two of Australia’s most reputable property providers, Probuild Constructions, together with developer Frasers Property Australia, needed to ensure that new property owners were provided with the highest standards of customer service and product – that being their new home.
The two companies share a mutual goal: To set the industry standard in this post construction phase through collaboration and premium customer service.
Their existing processes and technology were limited to traditional methods which relied on administrative staff, spreadsheets and emails to manage the hundreds of defects reported by customers during the period. They found this to be both inefficient and ineffective in managing customers and stakeholders to resolve defects.
Valuable professional construction team members were required to manage the process, with little to no post construction management training, resulting in poor outcomes while also pulling them away from other revenue generating jobs – which ultimately impedes corporate growth.
In addition, Probuild wanted to increase cost-efficiency, whilst maintaining its premium market reputation.
As a result, Probuild were looking to DLP Manager as the solution to effectively manage the end-to-end process during the Defects Liability Period.
Coordinating Owners With Contractors
Good customer service means delivering on commitments. And this can be challenging, when doing so requires relying on so many different people (touch points) just to have a as small as a leaking tap, fixed.
With multiple touchpoints and steps involved, one breakdown in communication can result in frustration, cost and reputational risk.
Both Frasers and Probuild expressed frustration over past projects, where fraudulent claims were made by contractors and owners alike as to the resolution of defects.
They found that claims were requiring multiple meetings, phone calls and mediation by senior managers. This in turn, often creates an environment of mistrust, with ‘he said / she said’ blame and miscommunication.
The only solution was to have a representative from the companies make an onsite visit to determine the truth. And the cycle would start again each time there was a dispute, adding time and cost.
The DLP Manager Solution
Bridging the gap between Frasers clients and Probuild’s sub-contractors was a challenge that DLP Manager had intrinsically designed into their innovative platform – reducing phone calls and miscommunications by 96%.
The DLP Manager solution for Probuild included:
- Transparent all-in-one system instead of spreadsheets, with full visibility by all stakeholders in real time, online, every day, keeping everyone accountable.
- Sub-contractor accountability through the unique design of the platform and driven by a dedicated defects manager.
- Management trends and reports that enabled them to track defects, see a big picture on suppliers and product performance to help improve on future decision making.
- Simple, visual ‘greenlight’ system closes out defects easily and quickly so Probuild and Frasers were able to easily see and run reports on the project’s status.
- Customisable reporting and data analytics to enable Probuild to achieve continuous improvements.
- One source of truth” for all issues in the post construction phase.
- Full documentation and simple access to allow financial/ commercial management post construction.
The Results
The DLP Manager platform has delivered a stress free and collaborative working relationship between the Frasers post construction team and their clients.
As a single source of truth of all post construction items the collaborative platform allowed Frasers to answer all the questions regarding post construction defects at the click of a button.
Every detail was accounted for – By providing this visual platform, subcontractors were able to identify even the smallest installation issues that required work, and every stakeholder benefited:
Home owners – A coordinated response and no more no-shows.
Developers – The Customer Care team has the truth about every defect online in real time, 24/7.
Builders – Onsite visits by the construction team were all but eliminated.
Subcontractors – Full documentation of the defects allowed them to plan ahead, coordinate a time and rectify the defect on the first visit.
Ultimately, Probuild gained optimal defects management – allowing all stakeholders from the owners/property managers, developer, builder and subcontractor full transparency of all the defects – while eliminating the need for day-to-day involvement by the developer.
To talk about your needs and the DLP Manager Enterprise Solution, contact the team at DLP Manager. Smarter Defects Management.