How Causeway is helping organisations in the highways and transportation sector become more efficient
By Juan Simpson
Juan Simpson is customer success manager at Causeway, CIHT’s knowledge partner. Causeway supplies software solutions to help the highways and transport industry boost performance and productivity. Having previously worked for a highways contractor, Simpson has developed a detailed understanding of what technological solutions are required by his customers.
I came to Causeway from a highways contractor, being involved on the IT side of the industry. This was hugely beneficial as it means I speak the same language and appreciate the position contractors are in and constraints they are under. So, rather than me being the technology person trying to ram home a technology solution, I understand the key problems that are challenging them every day, because I've been there trying to solve them myself.
I can win over a room by talking to prospective clients about my experiences and where I used to work. Rather than going straight in with a laptop and telling them I am going to digitise their world we can have a meaningful conversation and provide the right technology that will make a real impact.
What are the key challenges faced by professionals within the highways industry?
The biggest issue for our customers is improving efficiency for their clients. We are helping contractors solve this challenge by introducing technology that helps them better plan maintenance work and get easily accessible accurate data to the operations teams. As an example, our route optimisation technology means operational teams can do an extra job every day by more effectively planning the routes they travel.
Removing paper and wasted materials from a job is a big challenge, but digitising the whole process makes a huge difference. If an engineer is on site doing their job, someone back at the company base should know exactly what's happening at that time. Gone are the days where people are carrying reams of paper around in their vehicles, having to write down everything.
Most rewarding project?
Probably the most recent one, for a major infrastructure services provider. We took all its highways-related business processes such as costing, procurement, timesheets, subcontractors and operations ordering, and implemented our software across the whole business. As a result, everyone within the business is now using a single platform to manage all of their processes across different functions.
I’d say that was the most rewarding because we were able to provide a flexible solution that solved some industry-specific challenges. The current finance system we replaced wasn’t designed to be an operational, commercial and cost management solution.
We're committed to the highways sector and ensuring our software is always relevant. One example of that relates to the introduction of the Street Manager platform by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2020. Essentially, all local authorities must use the system to log every job they do – such as digging up the road or fixing potholes. We worked with the Street Manager project team and adapted our own software to work seamlessly with the new product.
Our dedication to the sector meant that none of our customers had to pay extra for that change and all our existing customers got an upgrade overnight.
What would you have done differently if you had to start over again on that project?
That's a difficult one, because the project was such a success! But there are always lessons learned and things that you could’ve done a little better. For our customers, that’s engaging with their clients. Communication between us and our customer is quite straightforward but that also needs to filter up to their clients. They need to know when we’re making a big change to a project because it might affect them. They also need to understand why the changes are being made in the first place.
If, like Causeway, you’re going to commit to being part of a sector, you have to connect and engage with the people making the decisions. That's fundamental for us and we are always keen to support CIHT events and work with it on reports and projects.
It’s also important to show that you don’t have to be a major contractor to be part of – and influence – the industry. We play a big role in trying to make that industry better for everybody and having that partnership with CIHT helps us enormously.
Here’s more information about becoming a CIHT partner - we’d love to work with you!
