# Operational Excellence for an Engineering Consultancy

> How a leading engineering consultancy achieved operational excellence with SimplaDocs, eliminating manual work and enabling scalable project management.

**No backfill needed after their PM retired**

How a leading engineering consultancy achieved operational excellence with SimplaDocs.  
Client: Leading Engineering Consultancy  
Industry: Building Services Engineering  
Services: Automation, Coda Pack  

## Key metrics

- Hours → minutes — Task creation time

## What we built

Replaced manual ticket re-entry between Synergy and Coda with a bespoke Pack that syncs both systems and generates tasks automatically.

## Challenge

A leading building services engineering consultancy was managing thousands of projects annually across mechanical, electrical, hydraulics, fire protection, and vertical transportation services. They had hired two different freelance contractors to create an operations infrastructure, but neither implementation could scale to meet the needs of an enterprise company with employees across multiple offices.

Their project management process had become a frustrating cycle of repetitive manual work. The team had implemented a project management tool for architecture and construction, but the tool's rigidity didn't align with how they actually worked. Project managers were manually recreating tickets into Coda, then porting information back and forth between the two systems.

## Solution

SimplaDocs began by thoroughly assessing what had been tried before and why it failed. Rather than jumping straight to building, they worked collaboratively with the client through weekly check-ins and daily async communication.

SimplaDocs identified two critical bottlenecks: manual data translation between systems, and hours spent on routine task creation. They built a bespoke Coda Pack that automated the connection between the existing PM tool and Coda, eliminating the time-consuming double-entry problem. They also added intelligent business logic to automate task generation, transforming hours of manual work into a simple form.

SimplaDocs also trained the team on how to maintain and optimize the new system, ensuring long-term success beyond the initial implementation.

- Bespoke Coda Pack automating Synergy-to-Coda data sync
- Intelligent task generation replacing hours of manual creation
- Team training for long-term system ownership

## Results

- Eliminated double-entry between Synergy and Coda with automated data sync
- Reduced task creation time from hours to minutes through intelligent automation
- Freed project managers to focus on strategic work rather than administrative tasks
- Delivered enterprise-grade reliability that previous freelance builds couldn't match

## How the engagement ran

### Which systems did it touch?

Synergy, Coda

## Impact

When one of the firm's project managers retired, they didn't need to backfill the role. Another project manager could seamlessly take on those workstreams, while the firm redirected that headcount investment to more strategic areas like marketing.

The success led the firm to expand their partnership with SimplaDocs to improve how it triages and approves its employees' billable hours.

> SimplaDocs didn't just save us time, it changed how we think about our internal operations and investments. We were able to redirect effort and resources away from administration and toward more strategic areas of the business.
> — Operations Director, Engineering Consultancy

> The difference with SimplaDocs was immediately clear. Instead of relying on a single contractor, we had access to a team that brought structure, accountability, and deep expertise.
> — Operations Director, Engineering Consultancy

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Source: https://simpladocs.com/work/engineering-consultancy