Benson Group Limited

Effective use of broadband technology supports rapid growth of construction services company Benson

Best practice in: 	Broadband
Sector:			Construction
Size of firm:		250 employees
Location:		London
Website:		www.benson.co.uk


Benson Group Limited provides construction, interior fit out and property maintenance services from six regional locations in the UK for clients such as Tesco, Royal Sun Alliance and the Royal Ballet School.


Objectives: 

Benson's growth has been rapid with annual turnover growing from £14 million in 1998 to over £100 million.  The Group needed an on-line communications solution to support its rapid growth.  The workforce is distributed not only across each of the six offices but also across construction sites.  It was therefore necessary to provide effective on-line facilities at its individual construction sites as required as well as at the main offices. 


Solution: 

Daniel Piggott, Group IT Manager, has implemented a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution based on broadband connections to provide the workforce with an effective communications system.  A VPN uses encryption data to provide a secure network suitable for off-site workers or remote office access.  Benson's VPN connects 250 users across the six regional offices and provides remote access for up to 250 users per regional area office.  It also enables secure broadband connections to be provided at the construction sites.  

The company's broadband connections are a combination of ADSL and leased lines to meet the specific requirements of each location.  For example leased lines are used in both the Reigate and the London City locations as the heavy usage there requires the extra bandwidth. 


Results: 

The benefits of broadband have been experienced across the organisation.  
"With the VPN we can offer every employee secure remote access as well as secure access from their office through the VPN's encrypted channel to the company's network."

Effective sales and marketing activities are fundamental to achieving future growth.  Benson uses a software package designed to record all customer and prospect information and details such as tenders won and lost and the status of tenders in progress.  They have chosen to operate this database at a local level with each office keeping its own records that are synchronised on a daily basis.  They have found that management of the records at a local level suits the way they work and the Group culture.  




"As we have grown so the database has grown and we need the bandwidth of broadband to be able to synchronise effectively."  Without sufficient bandwidth the company would either have to centralise the database in one location, which without broadband would mean that effective access to this at a local level would not be possible, or operate each branch on a stand-alone basis.  However the information from the database is used to generate the management reports used by the Group's senior management to manage the business and integrating the information is therefore central to the effective running of the Group.  Manually collating the information from each office would take time and not be able to provide management with the up-to-date information required.

The importance of broadband has recently been evident in the company's tendering process.  "We have recently tendered for work where the whole tender process was managed online.  This meant that we needed to be able to download and upload documents online.  This cannot be done effectively without broadband.  It also involved a live on-line bidding event for which a continuous connection is necessary."

Customer service has also been enhanced as a result of broadband with improved response times and greater levels of co-ordination between the offices.  "Broadband has enabled the business to do things very quickly and we can therefore provide a faster turnaround of response.  We are more efficient and have a greater capability to meet our customers' requirements."

The extension of broadband access to the individual construction sites is also important in achieving this.  "We currently have broadband access at a number of our construction sites and we will be increasing this.  It provides major benefits in terms of improved communications with customers, suppliers and our offices.  Our on-site teams are able to receive architects' drawings on-line which is not possible in any volume over a dial-up connection.  They are then able to make any necessary amendments and respond immediately on-line from the site.  This provides major benefits in terms of turn-around times.  

"The on-site broadband connections enable improved contact and communications with suppliers where timing can be critical.  Our site managers are also able to email digital photographs of the site to customers and also other members of staff as required.  Again the ability to do this is restricted when using a dial-up Internet connection."


Challenges: 

Daniel stresses the importance of security for a broadband network with many remote workers.  In order to avoid security issues Benson uses Internet company VIANET.WORKS' managed security service. "Flexibility has to be a key feature of the company's network," says Daniel.  "We have to deliver flexibility for remote users without compromising security."  

The last word: 

Daniel says that the fixed cost of broadband is a major advantage.  "We know up front what a broadband connection will cost us whereas we do not know with dial-up.  For us the benefits far outweigh the costs."