Bouygues UK is part of a diversified services group operating in over 80 countries with 129,000 employees. Operating in the UK for over 20 years, Bouygues UK designs and builds sustainable developments that enhance and transform communities, and is one of the largest contractors in the UK. Specialising in the residential and education sectors, Bouygues UK run a large number of simultaneous construction projects, with values reaching up to £200m.
We talked to their Deputy Commercial Directors to understand how the Bouygues UK team have recently transformed their subcontractor payment processes.
Bouygues UK’s processing of payment applications before Payapps
Payment-related challenges are not uncommon in the construction industry, the majority of which are rooted in a lack of transparency, a fact that was not lost on the team at Bouygues UK.
Prior to digitising the supply chain application for payment process, ensuring compliance with Construction Act timescales was managed in what is the traditional way for UK contracting:
Anne Smales, Deputy Commercial Director at Bouygues UK, told us “We were operating a fairly manual process, relying on emails and Excel spreadsheets.”
Moving with the times and to make certain that they were receiving payment applications at the right time to avoid any project delays, Bouygues UK felt that adopting a web-based solution could streamline the traditional process.
They implemented Payapps across a number of their projects to transform their management of payment applications and have access to what Anne refers to as ‘a single source of truth’ so that information is more accessible to all relevant stakeholders.
How Payapps is benefiting Bouygues UK
Fabrice Davis, another of Bouygues UK’s Deputy Commercial Directors, offered an insight into how Payapps is being used in the Hallsville Quarter Phase 3 works, part of Canning Town’s £3.7bn regeneration program.
“Hallsville Quarter is one of the biggest jobs that Bouygues UK has ever done in the UK, and Payapps has made our lives considerably easier. Making sure people get paid on time is always a concern, but the system keeps track of all the applications from the subcontractors. We haven’t got to worry about anything as the system lets us know that applications have been received. It then prompts the team, the commercial staff and engineers to make sure they do their payment notices on time.”
“It makes payments easier. It simplifies everything and makes processes slicker for us as a business.” [Fabrice Davis, Deputy Commercial Director, Bouygues UK]
Can Payapps de-risk your organisation?
In a previous blog, we highlighted findings that showed 40% of construction companies are still predominantly paper-based. Keeping information offline and paper-based increases the unnecessary risks taken, opening the door to project delays.
Anne Smales, who previously joined us on a webinar at London Build Expo in early 2021 discussing the de-risking of the construction industry, explained more about how Payapps helps to minimise risk associated with processing supply chain applications for payment.
“Payapps keeps all the vital information in a third-party location that is easily accessible for our team and subcontractors too.”
How can you get started?
In a recent blog post, we made the case for taking a digital approach to your payment processes – something that is not as complicated as you may at first think.
Forward-thinking businesses, such as Bouygues UK, use Payapps to manage over £6 billion certified applications for payment over the last year, shifting focus away from the related administrative efforts and freeing up time to focus on more strategic tasks.
Book a free demo today to see how we can help you step into the future.
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