The client
The client is a large construction enterprise headquartered in Sydney, with projects and regional offices across Australia.
Project sites, departments and regional teams all raise purchase requirements, and procurement keeps daily project work moving. Requests came from many places and needed sign-off before anything could be ordered, and every step was coordinated by hand.
The challenge
Purchasing depended on manual requests, repeated follow-ups for approval and purchase records scattered across files. With no central place to manage procurement, approvals were slow and nobody could see the whole picture.
- Purchase requests arrived from sites and departments in different, manual forms.
- Approvals needed repeated follow-ups before a request could move.
- Purchase records were fragmented across spreadsheets and teams.
- Procurement staff spent valuable time on routine coordination.
- Managers had limited visibility into what was being bought and where it stood.
What they set up in Asset Infinity
The enterprise ran purchasing in Asset Infinity’s Suppliers feature, with every request, approval and purchase order tracked in one place.
Purchase requests from every site
Project sites and departments raise purchase requests in one standard form, so procurement receives every requirement the same way. (Suppliers)
Approval steps by team
Approval steps are configured to match who signs off what. Approvers are reminded when a request waits, so nobody has to chase them. (Platform)
Purchase orders linked to requests
Approved requests become purchase orders, and their progress is tracked from the same record as the original request. (Suppliers)
Visibility for managers
Dashboards and reports show open requests, pending approvals and purchase orders in progress, by project and by team. (Insight)
How it works day to day
Here is how a purchase now moves from a project site to an order.
- Site engineer: raises a purchase request. From the web or mobile app, the site raises a request for what the project needs, with quantities and the project it is for.
- System: routes it for approval. The request goes to the approvers configured for that team. Each approver is notified, and reminded if the request waits.
- Approver: approves or rejects it. The approver reviews the request and decides from the web or mobile app, without being chased by phone or email.
- Procurement team: raises the purchase order. An approved request becomes a purchase order to the chosen supplier, linked back to the original request.
- Project manager: follows progress. The project manager sees whether each request is pending, approved or ordered, without calling procurement to ask.
- Procurement head: reviews the pipeline. Reports show open requests, pending approvals and orders in progress by project and team, so bottlenecks are visible early.
Before and after
| Before | With Asset Infinity | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase requests | Manual, from many places | One standard request from any site |
| Approvals | Repeated follow-ups to get sign-off | Defined approval steps with reminders |
| Purchase records | Fragmented across files and spreadsheets | One record from request to purchase order |
| Visibility | Limited view of purchasing activity | Open requests and orders visible by project |
| Admin effort | Routine purchases took repeated coordination | Far less manual coordination |
How it rolled out
- Current process reviewed. The team reviewed purchase processes, approval delays, manual effort and gaps in the workflow.
- Requests and approvals configured. Requests from sites and departments were centralized, and approval steps were set to match existing responsibilities.
- Teams trained, workflow refined. Procurement teams were trained, and workflows were refined after go-live for greater efficiency.
The results
- Purchase requests move through defined approval steps faster.
- Far fewer follow-ups, spreadsheets and manual coordination for routine purchases.
- Clear visibility of every purchase request and order in progress.
- Less administrative effort for project, purchasing and approval teams.
Why it worked
Same process for every site
Sites, departments and regional teams raise requests the same way, so procurement works from one queue.
Approvals follow responsibility
Approval steps mirror who already signed off, so teams kept their responsibilities and stopped chasing signatures.
One record end to end
A request and its purchase order sit together, so anyone can see where a purchase stands.
Looking ahead
With Asset Infinity, the enterprise moved from manually coordinated purchasing to one procurement process shared by project sites, departments and regional teams. Requests, approvals and order tracking now happen in the same place.
Because every purchase is recorded against the project that asked for it, the same data can support vendor contracts, vendor spend reviews and project budgets as the enterprise grows.