How Sandar Construction got its site managers off email and back on the build

Sandar Construction is a family-owned main contractor based in Cavan, with more than two decades of work across residential, commercial, education and healthcare, from heritage restoration to multi-million-euro developments. As the team grew past 30 people and took on more projects across Ireland, the admin behind the work started to slow things down.

The challenge

Sandar was running collaborative document control between Head Office, site locations and several design teams, on software that was never built for construction. Email had become the system of record, and it was buckling under the load.

We were trying to trawl through months of previous email threads for RFI and submittal responses and drawing revisions.

Every RFI response, submittal sign-off and drawing revision lived in someone's inbox. The cost landed squarely on site managers, who were spending their time chasing documents rather than managing the build. With revisions buried in threads, there was a standing risk of a crew working from a superseded drawing.

The fix: Trave

Sandar had already evaluated the alternatives. Some products were too narrow: they solved one part of the job but not the whole picture. Others were built for much larger firms and would have brought so much administrative burden that operating the software would have become a problem in itself. On an architect's recommendation, Sandar approached Trave.

What stood out was the partnership, not just the product.

They have kept in regular contact throughout our journey with them and have been very welcoming of feedback we can provide on their products. The sense of acknowledgement is a credit to Trave, as opposed to being sold a product and then trying to fend for yourself.

The rollout was deliberate: Document and Project Management first, on a handful of projects and a small group of people, then widening access and adding Workforce Management and Project Financials. The deciding factor was that it took little to no extra admin to run.

Trave's impact on Sandar Construction

One place for every drawing and RFI

RFIs and submittals now live in one place, visible to everyone who needs them.

Our site management now has better access to real-time information.

Site managers back on the build, not the inbox

With documents handled, experienced staff returned to the work that actually moves a project forward.

Our staff now have more time to concentrate on construction activities as opposed to administrative duties.

With around five site managers each saving 1 to 2 hours of admin per day, Sandar is recovering approximately 150 hours per month across the team — time that goes back into managing the build.

Traceable from purchase order to cost report

Since adopting Project Financials, Sandar can track costs end to end, from purchase order to invoice to cost report, with fewer people involved.

No more chasing of paper trails from site required.

Running your construction business across email, spreadsheets and software that was never built for it? Book a free demo and see Trave on one of your live projects.