Sydney Olympic Park $20m program delivered with cashflow confidence

Capital Insight (CI) was engaged by the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) to deliver a program of 35 projects across 14 construction contracts, with a total spend of over $20m in under 6 months.

The program of works included:

• The renewal of Sydney Olympic Park’s parklands, playgrounds, public domain and QuayCentre indoor stadium, as well as the famous Aquatic Centre.

• Asset improvement works including upgraded LED stadium and street lighting, a 1.3MW photovoltaic installation, renewed HVAC plant and wetland bridges.

Problem

The client, SOPA, had committed to specific timelines for their projects to align with the calendar of programs and activities set out by the NSW government to drive post-COVID local economic recovery.

Meanwhile, Capital Insight’s workflow was based on a siloed system of spreadsheets and documents and there was no central process for organising and storing project data. Supply chain and logistical delays and disruptions during the pandemic also increased the challenges for CapitalInsight to manage a complex program of capital works relying on spreadsheets, let alone boosting efficiency.  

For this program, SOPA demanded a live read on costs at every stage of projects. Hence cashflow and forecasting were of particular importance.

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Solution

Capital Insight began searching for capital works software that could provide transparency on capital allocation and cost tracking across the entire program. Mastt ticked all the boxes – it gave rapid access to this information, with a visibility at a granular level over historical and forecast cash flows.

After thoroughly assessing the software, Capital Insight engaged Mastt to support the capture of project information, and to help implement their governance framework. Modules used were Cost and Reporting.

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Key Feedback

1.  Cost Management

• Mastt’s software enabled Capital Insight to completely remove spreadsheets from its cost processes. The team saved an average of 8 hours in professional development in training on Excel Templates and time in rework/ auditing data at end of month.

• Mastt also enabled effective collaboration on cash allocation and payment lead times, with cash flow data no longer hidden behind complicated formulas.

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2. Better data validation through smart forms

• Mastt data is captured through smart forms with built in validation to clean and receive data only once in the system and provide a global update.

• When it came to project reporting, data was aggregated live into the project/ program dashboard. Mastt saved CapitalInsight 1 hour of data handling per project that would otherwise be spent on editing and combining Excel spreadsheets, tabs and cells.

• The solution allowed management of projects amongst remote teams and to connect the end-client (SOPA) and project stakeholders to live progress and performance data.

• This gave Capital Insights a competitive advantage and provided value to SOPA, along with confidence that critical milestones would be met, and the program delivered with transparency on critical financial performance.

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Eventually, Capital Insight was able to achieve client objectives and exceed expectations during delivery, regardless of the significant challenges posed by the Covid pandemic. SOPA stakeholders were delighted with the outcomes.

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