The @MIS web portal from ALcontrol has been delivering time and cost savings of more than 10 per cent for Sub Surface, the geotechnical and geoenvironmental site investigation specialists.
The Sub Surface Group has been providing a range of specialist geotechnical and geoenvironmental consultancy and investigation services for more than 30 years.
Its consultants offer support on a wide range of environmental assessment and planning issues, from helping clients understand the latest regulations, to advising them on waste management.
To ensure soil and water samples taken from a site can be analysed effectively, Sub Surface uses ALcontrol's proven testing facilities.
Owen Stevens, executive director of Sub Surface's consultancy business, said: 'To be confident in our findings and recommendations, accurate test results are crucial.
'We work with ALcontrol because of the consistent quality of its data, and its ability to turn around tests much faster than previous suppliers were able to,' he added.
Keen to improve the service further, ALcontrol suggested that Sub Surface be one of the first to try out its @MIS web portal, which makes test results available on screen as soon as they are completed.
Whereas Sub Surface were used to having to wait for a complete set of tests to be carried out before the information was made available, using @MIS it would be able to view partial test results as they were logged.
As a result, vital information could be passed onto clients much more quickly.
Additionally, the online reporting service would allow Sub Surface to run detailed final reports, and build an archive of test results that could be accessed for improved traceability and analysis.
This would make it simple for them to meet legal and regulatory obligations, while also continuing to improve the level of service.
Understanding the potential benefits of the service, Sub Surface began to use the online portal to view its results.
According to Owen Stevens, accessing information in this way made a noticeable difference to processes.
'Before, we had to wait hours for all the testing to be completed and have the results emailed to us, we can now view the information on each part of the testing process as it happens,' he said.
'This allows us to give our clients the information they need much sooner, and allows them to meet their deadlines and progress their projects.
'We've seen cost savings by around 10 per cent per job so far.
'We're so impressed with the online reporting service that we're now looking at integrating @MIS into our business even more, by using the scheduling element of the service.
'This will let us input test requests directly on screen, and send them to ALcontrol instantly,' he added.
