Murphy Group are preparing for growth with MAXcel

Established more than 50 years ago, Murphy Group is one of most respected names in the building and civil engineering industry. The Group has become a major force in civil and mechanical engineering, pipelines, tunnelling, telecommunications, commercial and residential building and property development. Companies within the Group also specialise in piling, drilling, stabilisation and demolition and pipeline testing and are involved in many of the biggest projects in the UK & Ireland.

Based in North London, the Murphy Group employs up to 3,000 staff and has 8 offices across the UK and Ireland.  It was one of the first contractors to win a contract for construction work relating to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

 

 

 

The value of Murphy’s projects can easily run into several millions of pounds. With a reputation for high quality work, completed on time with exemplary safety on site, Murphy has won many landmark projects and has doubled its turnover during the last four years.

 

 

 

Murphy Group has made the strategic decision to migrate from its current Intellect system to Maxima’s new MAXcel business solution which is based upon Microsoft’s class leading ERP application, Microsoft Dynamics AX. Murphy Group will be implementing the MAXcel modules for Finance, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Procurement, Contract Management, Hire Services and Human Resources.

 

 

Vision - Maintaining growth and steady turnover

 

 

 

With this success and expansion came a new goal for the future.  Crucially, the company needed to consolidate its increased market share and provide a sound business footing for future development and a stable environment for its loyal, experienced workforce. At this point, the company decided to review its internal computer systems to ensure that it would have the best possible systems and software to support its future development.

 

 

 

Murphy needed to equip its staff with modern tools to manage its information. “We needed more interrogation of our project costing information and more powerful reporting tools.” says Tom Cassidy, Costing Manager at the Murphy Group.  There was also an ongoing requirement for specialist software to take care of Contracts, Plant Hire and Services.

 

 

 

Murphy had some first hand experience of other software packages for the construction industry gained during joint construction projects with partners and was aware that these were not always easy to learn and to use.  The new software needed to be at least as flexible as their existing package, Intellect.

 

 

 

There were certain requirements that the new software had to meet. First, it was important that the new software should allow plenty of room for further growth. Murphy’s project team had identified some new requirements in the areas of Human Resources, Document Management and Customer Relationship Management.

 

 

 

Murphy had already made the decision that in future they would standardise on Microsoft based packages. “We needed to be certain that the software would be reliable and robust,” says Tom Cassidy, “and we have great confidence in Microsoft.” They were very pleased to learn that Maxima was offering a solution built around Microsoft’s financial software suite, Microsoft Dynamics AX.

 

 

Requirements

• Scalability – software that would grow with the business
• Better management of customer data
• Powerful data interrogation tools
• Flexible reporting
• Specialist applications for Contract Management, Plant Hire and Services
• Easy for staff to use

 

It was at this stage that Murphy began to talk to Maxima about the possibility of replacing Intellect.

 

 

During the planning and discussions, Maxima advised on a suitable hardware specification for the new software solution. In fact, Murphy already had a modern IT infrastructure in place that would be suitable to run MAXcel.

 

 

 

The MAXcel Solution

 

 

 

Maxima’s MAXcel solution for the construction industry is based around Microsoft Dynamics AX and provides modules for Contract Management, Contract Sales, Hire Services, Service and Maintenance and a Subcontractors System.

 

 

 

Being a Microsoft solution, it integrates perfectly with Microsoft Office. It is very easy to learn how to use MAXcel because it looks and feels like Outlook. Also, there is a direct transfer of data between Excel and MAXcel, which makes loading data and reporting quick and straightforward.

 

 

 

During discussions, it became very clear that MAXcel offered some additional software functions that would be extremely useful to the business. MAXcel would be easier and more effective to use and, as the information is only stored in one place, there is no need to keep more than one copy of the data. This would save a lot of time, because the data would not need to be re-keyed.

 

 

Business Benefits

• Proper integration with Microsoft Office packages
• No duplication of data, no re-keying
• Specialist software modules for construction
• Better information from MAXcel reporting
• MAXcel can be configured to a company’s exact requirements

 

Murphy Group has purchased a MAXcel solution for 150 users. “MAXcel matches our requirement for business software and we are confident that this product, which is based on Microsoft Dynamics AX, will deliver what we need. We have a sound relationship with Maxima and we are looking forward to working with them long term in this new stage of our development,” says Michael O’Connell, Financial Director at the Murphy Group.

 

 

Murphy is to implement the Human Resources package in 2008 and will roll out the other applications from 2009 onwards to go live in 2010.