Why site apps get a poor reception

Contractors are often described as stuck in traditional ways of working. After more than five years running a Tier 1 contractor as CEO, I think refusing new software is usually a rational decision for a contractor to make.

Why saying no is usually rational

Each reason below is a cost the contractor carries when a new system fails.

• Margins are thin. A monthly licence is a certain cost, while the time it saves is only a promise until the crews are using it.
• The person who would run it is already overloaded. The office or operations manager chasing timesheets, RAMS and client portals on a Friday is the same person expected to set the new system up.
• Most owners I have worked with have paid for software before that nobody ended up using. It was set up halfway, the operatives went back to WhatsApp within weeks and the subscription carried on.
• A switch that goes wrong costs live work. A crew without its RAMS or permit on site cannot start, and the client notices before the office does.
• The current tools cost nothing. WhatsApp, paper and Excel are free, and every operative already knows how to use them.

Where the software is to blame

The product matters in one respect: every step it asks of an operative on site is another reason for the firm to refuse it. A password to remember, an app to install, a form longer than the paper version or a screen that will not load on one bar of signal each sends the crew back to WhatsApp.

When work stopped over paperwork at the contractor I ran, the usual reason was that the operative said there was no signal, so the forms had not been filled in. Whether or not that was true, the job waited until they were done.

Operatives also read most new apps as a way of watching them, so a system that only serves the office is resisted by the crews before the owner has decided anything. What changed the crews’ minds was seeing how much time it saved them. A check done in a few taps on the phone was simpler than a paper form to fill in and hand in at the office. Once it was quicker than the paperwork, it stopped looking like a way of watching them.

What software has to do before contractors keep it

The software that contractors keep using is the one that asks the least of the people using it, and in practice that comes down to five things.

1. 1Few steps for the operative. A link that opens on the phone, a handful of taps and pages that still work where signal is weak.
2. 2Set up before the first login. The firm’s own forms, staff, vans and tickets are loaded by the supplier, so the office starts with a working system rather than a blank one.
3. 3Records in the format the client already accepts. The same RAMS, timesheets and job evidence the client asks for today, produced complete and on time.
4. 4One job first. RAMS signed before work starts, timesheets ready for payroll or evidence ready for payment, with the rest switched on once that one is in daily use.
5. 5Easy to leave. Monthly terms and every record exportable at any time, because a contractor who can leave at no cost is far more willing to start.

How we built MostlyCloudy

When I ran the contractor, vehicle checks and van handovers were on paper, and the sheets piled up in drawers in the office. If a van came back damaged, the blame passed from one operative to the next, because nobody could show who had done what. Across the industry, finding information still takes up a large part of the week.

We built MostlyCloudy on those five points for UK contractors, and it covers the whole job, from the quote to the final invoice, including payroll.

• The work order from the client becomes a job, with the drawings, RAMS and permit on every operative’s phone before they leave the yard.
• The timesheets, vehicle checks and photos come back to the office in one place.
• Every screen has to be quicker for the crew than the paperwork it replaces.

We do not offer instant sign-up. We set up every firm ourselves, so the forms and apps we deliver match how the firm actually works, in a way the office can run and grow with. That takes time, which is why we take on a limited number of firms at a time.