Solution Benefits

  • Saved considerable office space
  • Transformed the speed of access to information
  • Cost of external storage significantly reduced

Customer Profile

  • Housing Builder
  • Located Nationwide

About Persimmon Homes

Persimmon is one of the UK’s leading house builders, committed to the highest standards of design, construction and service.

Persimmon Homes, established in 1972, is a national organisation building over 12,000 homes a year. With a head office in York, the company employs more than 4,000 people across the UK, with core operations located in 33 offices from Exeter to Edinburgh.

The Challenge

All building companies are increasingly looking to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Persimmon Homes were no different and the sheer volume of paperwork within the construction industry was adding major costs to their business.

The range of documents was also considerable including purchase invoices, sub contractor payments and architects drawings.

The ease with which Invu integrated with COINS was a very important component of the decision making process.

Rob HoldenGroup IT Director

Getting Started

Persimmon Homes recognised that in order to maximise profitability a strong Document Management strategy should become a core component of its operations.

The company also wanted to share information between its regional offices in order to attain an insight into key operational trends.

They decided to embark on a strategic group-wide Document Management initiative designed not only to remove paper from the organisation but also to provide a platform for cross-company knowledge sharing.

The Approach

Rob Holden, Persimmon’s Group IT Director explained; “Document storage and retrieval had historically represented a very significant overhead for Persimmon Homes. The priority was to find a solution that integrated easily with the COINS business software which is used throughout the construction industry for everything from buying materials to managing sales and salaries; the ease with which Invu integrated with COINS was a very important component of the decision-making process.

Key Benefits

Save Space
Invu enabled Persimmon Homes to remove well over one million documents a year from the business. Both archive documents and live documents were scanned into Invu significantly reducing the necessity for manual filing systems, saving the company considerable space and allowing them to reduce the size of office premises. A key financial consideration for a fast-growing company, especially in the metropolitan areas.

Save Time
Persimmon Homes have transformed the speed of access to information across their business and have over 600 people using Invu on a daily basis. The company’s initial focus was to replace paper with electronic content. However, Invu’s functionality has also been deployed to support Persimmon’s knowledge sharing through a document intranet and workflow. This has sustained opportunities to optimise users time and increased the management of information within the company.

Save Money
Invu provides not only effective, reliable Document Management and retrieval but also delivers immediate benefits in enhanced productivity and cost reduction. The cost of external storage has been significantly reduced, whilst the installation of the knowledge base now provides a platform for excellent inter-company collaboration that will drive further efficiencies across the business.