RIB CostX Delivers Fast, Accurate Cost Management Across the Globe for TSA Riley

“CostX forms a pivotal part in how we deliver that service globally.”

Chris Donachie, Regional Director, TSA Riley.

Company Name: TSA Riley

Location: UK and Ireland, Europe, Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand

Industry sector/s: Commercial to residential properties

Products used: RIB CostX

The Customer

TSA Riley are project consulting specialists. They provide end-to-end asset management, advisory, cost and project management, and environmental, social and governance services on property and infrastructure projects across multiple sectors. Their scope of expertise ranges from commercial to residential properties, from utilities to transport and social infrastructure, as well as defence, resources and waste. With a footprint that spans the globe, TSA Riley works on projects in the UK and Ireland, Europe, Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand.  

The Mission

TSA Riley has built on a 130-year-old legacy of driving value and impact to guide their mission of helping clients realise the transformative power of their built assets. Providing expert, strategic commercial and operational advice at every project stage gives them special appreciation for the interdependence between different functions and stages. Given that their largest cost management focus is the UK, Europe, and their Malaysia and Australia operations, the availability of consistent, standardised project data is key to successful service delivery. It’s both a communication and efficiency requirement and impacts service delivery across all their locations.

The Solution

TSA Riley selected RIB CostX because they needed a reliable system to operate quietly in the background while they got on with the job of project consulting, and to make their jobs easier. They needed a software partner that could help manage their data and create a seamless workflow, with the capacity to integrate different operational areas and simplify processes. This solution has ensured the production of accurate, high-quality outputs, and has helped differentiate their service offering.

The Result

TSA Riley’s decision to implement RIB CostX has improved their cost management efficiencies across all their locations worldwide. By unifying the data in a standard format, they have brought consistency across their interdependent functions and project stages. They have been able to scale their capacity to accommodate a global cost management team that has tripled in size in just over a decade. CostX has compounded its value as a robust measuring tool by empowering TSA Riley to manage measurement, revisions, costings, and service delivery with greater efficiency.

The end-to-end global service that needed a smart, seamless solution

In a space of 13 years TSA Riley has grown its cost management team from around 50 to nearly 180 people. Heading the global team, Chris Donachie identified the challenges around data management inherent in this growth. They needed a unified way to manage their measurement data, to benchmark, store, and generate outputs from it.

“For us, data is a key part of how we deliver our services to our clients – data and accuracy.”

Chris Donachie, Regional Director

Data in disparate formats can slow processes down, while the use of different or incompatible software tools can cause mistakes to creep in. Chris understood that they needed a reliable system that could quietly go about the work of processing and displaying their data in the background, so that they could get on with what they do best: share their project consulting expertise.

As part of their quality management process, TSA Riley wanted to move away from using Excel to cost plan in an effort to reduce or eradicate errors and incorporate their internal carbon data more efficiently.

They pride themselves on the service they deliver to their clients and so, the quality of their measurement checks is fundamental to the way they run their business. Accuracy in their outputs is crucial from a customer service point of view. Equally important, it is not uncommon for different clients to have different preferences for how their costings should be laid out – this is an opportunity to differentiate on service offering. TSA Riley leverages CostX’s customisation capability to do just that.

“You can adapt the templates on CostX to satisfy each individual client, which is so beneficial to them and to us too.”

Amy Gillard, Quantity Surveyor

How RIB CostX helped TSA Riley get better at cost management

When their cost managers receive drawings and designs from architects and M&E designers, they can now import all of it into their CostX system and do measurement directly from there. As they get revisions, they’re able to create a new version in CostX and input the new drawings. The software overlays the drawings and automatically measures the changes.

This has proven to be super efficient at handling the multiple variations that come about in plans, and it simplifies the process of updating and revising plans. No dipping in and out of multiple tools or fumbling with different formats. Everything in one place makes them better at cost management.

“It’s incredibly important to make sure that all the measurements are in one place for when I’m checking it because it makes my job a lot easier.”

Mehul Anand, Senior Quantity Surveyor

Not only does CostX offer the flexibility to measure directly off 3D files and implement 2D drawings, but it also consolidates all the measurements in one convenient, secure place. Immediate access is a huge benefit. Mehul likes that he knows exactly where to find everything and can send a file path, just copy and paste what he needs, and complete his measurement checks. CostX helps him get it done quickly and easily.

A single drawing could have 3 revisions. Previously, processing revisions entailed QS having to format everything, almost from scratch – using multiple different tools to do revisions and then combine them is not the best use of resources. Now, with its auto-revisioning feature, CostX’s measuring tool is proving to be another major time saver for TSA Riley.

Following the efficiency theme, TSA Riley have utilised the CostX Workbook to keep all their measurement data in one location, including internal carbon data, which has helped them to eradicate errors and account for embodied carbon in their projects. The NRM phraseology used to describe works can simply be copied and pasted into the workbook in an easy, time-efficient process. And it has made the workbook a key tool in TSA Riley’s efforts to move the needle on their carbon impact.

One system playing a pivotal role in service delivery

TSA Riley has been empowered through access to one efficient system to serve their clients at speed and with accuracy. The CostX benefits addressing their most pressing needs include:

• Standardised data – that is, one format to display cost management data consistently
• Error eradication – a single system offering immediate access to updated data improves accuracy and makes the quality management process easier
• Efficiency – easier and quicker measuring and revisioning, compatible with both 2D drawings and 3D design files
• Customisation – the ability to adapt existing templates to provide costings in the format that clients prefer or to expedite revision updates (copy and tweak!)

Overall, TSA Riley have found “a really beneficial system” in CostX and partners in the RIB team on their quest for accurate outputs. They’ve engaged constructively with the explainer videos on RIB’s online portal that bring them up to speed on how to use all the available tools and explore further avenues to benefit their business.

“We’ve gone from a measurement tool to something that we can use to benchmark and store our data in a sort of toolkit to be able to really push what we do within our markets.”

Chris Donachie, Regional Director