TFT Strides Ahead with Connected System for Flexible Working
TFT is a leading independent firm of development, built assets and sustainability experts with 150 staff across 7 offices. It has a reputation for integrity and delivering work of the highest quality. Chris Keates Lewis, HR & Operations Partner, says: “Our success is due to the quality of our people, a versatile structure of specialist teams, an open-minded culture of collaboration both with our internal teams and with external experts, and a long-term commitment to leverage the best information technology”.
Technology has always been central to the TFT approach; the company pioneered the use of handheld devices for surveys back in the 90’s and has continued its engagement with technology ever since. The TFT PropTech group evaluates new innovations and engages with IT industry leaders together with in-house proponents.
Flexible and connected working
In recent years significant investments have been made to achieve a more robust, streamlined and flexible operation. This includes “Core” (by Deltek), Microsoft 365 and Teams, and solutions from Flo10.
Now all staff can access integrated and up-to-date information about projects and clients from any location. There have been substantial benefits; “We have improved talent collaboration, increased the visibility of project progress for teams and partners, streamlined Project Accounting, and strengthened our Quality Assurance processes. We can now support maximum flexibility for all staff, which has created a resilient and responsive business, a notable gain with the advent of COVID-19, as well as climate challenges, such as flooding. Time is used more efficiently which delivers cost savings, and there is transparency of projects to staff and Partners” explains Chris.
Maintaining strong relationships with leading property investors, developers, occupiers and owners is critically important at TFT. Some client relationships span more than 25 years, therefore with the growth of the business, being able to create reports reflecting clients’ specific needs and project activity has become increasingly important.
Flo10 provided the answer to maximising return on TFT’s IT investment. Applications by Flo10 encompass CRM workflows, GDPR tracking, and file management for large numbers of documents and folders, which is especially important for monitoring projects. The client summary displays information from across multiple sources including databases and live feeds about projects, marketing, events, finance and industry news. It also has NDA functionality to protect confidential data.
“It’s brilliant! We now have clear visibility of client activity across our teams.”
Chris confirms: “Flo10 provide tailored solutions including team training, using simple approaches to make the transition easier. Flo10 understand we have a wide range of needs from the administration to senior partners”.
Continuous improvement
The next phase is the introduction of the Flo10 intranet for further staff engagement and enhancing company-wide communications and knowledge.
Chris’s advice to anyone considering a company-wide information management system is to take a long-term view: “Start with the fundamentals, identify priorities, and phase introduction according to these over a number of years. Change takes time and requires the right level of resources, and investment in training”.
Project image left: 400 & 450 Longwater Avenue / Project image right: Wellington Wimbledon). All images courtesy of TFT.
More about TFT
TFT provide objective building and construction advice to commercial property investors, developers, owners, landlords and occupiers. TFT work across the UK and Europe, providing professional services as part of a multi-disciplinary approach to property acquisition, divestment, refurbishment and maintenance.
About Flo10
Flo10 provide the smart intranet encompassing tracker to organisations in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. Our passion is connecting your people to quality information when needed to support the delivery of quality projects.
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