Apollo Group use LiveCosts to:
- Track materials costs from suppliers
- See a live reflection of each project's profitability
- Connect the job site to the office
About Apollo Group
Established in 2008, Apollo Group is one of Ireland’s leading Electrical, Mechanical and Facilities Management contractors.
Apollo Group has responded to the ever-challenging engineering landscape by using the latest technologies in design, continuous education of resources, and obtainment of technology experts, which enables our capabilities to exceed the market demand.
Visit www.apollogroup.ie
Challenges
What problem were you trying to solve?
As we were getting through jobs, we were finding it difficult to know what stage we were at, what was left on the job, and projecting how we were going to finish the job.
Our existing accounts package did have a purchase ordering system, but it was very very basic. Just ordering materials, no stock control or anything like that.
And we found that once we grew, it wasn’t fit for purpose and we started looking for something else to try and control costs properly.
Results
What are some of the main benefits of using LiveCosts?
LiveCosts runs throughout our whole company now, right from site staff recording deliveries, and site admin staff being able to track costs – especially labour costs – to here at the office being able to track POs, to the management being able to look at the overall picture for jobs.
The RFQ feature that was introduced this year has been just phenomenal for us because one of the things we were finding with our suppliers is that they’re changing their prices all the time.
RFQs allows us to track what we paid the last time against what they’re charging us this time.
Then we can change that RFQ very quickly into a PO and then that PO into an invoice. It has been phenomanal for us.
I find that I can just go into the system, pick a project, and see if that project is in the positive or negative. At my end I should just be looking at the big picture, and in that respect it’s excellent.
How much time has LiveCosts saved your business?
Two weeks ago, one of the directors on site asked accounts for costs on a particular job.
Previously we would have used Excel to gather that data, and it would have taken hours. But now, because we’re using LiveCosts, we were able to extract that data in minutes.
Advice
What would you say to other people considering LiveCosts?
I would spend some time deciding what I want to get out of it, and how I’m going to use it before I implement it.
I’ve made loads of feature suggestions to the LiveCosts Customer Success Team, and they’ve implemented them. That responsiveness is invaluable.
With other softwares, I got plenty of attention from the Sales Team, but once I bought the product the assistance disappeared. With LiveCosts, the support team are always there, they solve your problems quickly and genuinely listen to your product suggestions. Your ideas are taken on board.
Support was very helpful with setting LiveCosts up, and also setting us up for success.
