Jacobs has been providing professional services to the Australian Department of Defence since 1997, including strategic advisory services, capability development, program and project management, acquisition and sustainment support, commercial management, and training development.
With more than 40 active projects valued between $5 million and $700 million each, the program spanned a total capital expenditure (CapEx) of approximately $4.7 billion. It operated nationally and involved over 100 project managers.
Dan Atkins, Section Leader of Defence Infrastructure & Delivery Solutions ANZ, oversaw governance, reporting, and delivery standards across this high-stakes program. Jacobs rejected the incumbent methods of spreadsheets and PowerPoint reporting, instead challenged status-quo and partnering with Mastt.
“Mastt’s ability to record critical financial information, particularly Defence and Commonwealth’s budget and spend, as well as the program forecasted delivery and milestones, put Jacobs in a favourable position to our clients. It gives not only our Project and Program Managers but also the directorate itself, the Defence directorate, the confidence that we can take on more work and deliver more work.”
Dan Atkins, Jacobs' Section Leader Defence Infrastructure & Delivery Solutions ANZ
When Jacobs took over the program, the incumbent system of spreadsheets, documents, and PowerPoint was at breaking point. These manual tools strained under the pressure, slowing reports, hiding risks, and draining time.
Jacobs was responsible for delivering more than 40 Defence infrastructure projects nationwide, yet relied on spreadsheets embedded in PowerPoint slides for reporting. Each month, project managers manually built reports that took days to prepare.
“Reporting monthly was a challenge. It could take days to generate a spreadsheet inside PowerPoint.”
- Dan Atkins
By the time reports reached portfolio executives, the data was often 60 to 90 days old. That delay limited visibility and left the program vulnerable to budget and schedule blowouts.
“We weren’t comfortable with delays in data. We needed a system that showed us the impact of issues as they happened or even before they happened.”
- Dan Atkins
With over 80 spreadsheets being created each month, manually aggregating data introduced risk, created version control issues, and obscured insights buried in formulas that no one could trace.
Jacobs needed a better way, one that could scale with their program, surface insights in real time, and eliminate the reporting drag. Mastt became that solution.
Jacobs selected Mastt as its partner to replace spreadsheets with a secure, cloud-based system purpose-built for real-time project controls and portfolio governance.
The decision followed the firm’s commitment to innovation and agile delivery, as well as its ambition to provide the Defence with faster insights, stronger oversight, and higher delivery confidence.
“We wanted to report on day one. Now we can see impacts almost instantly, not four weeks later.”
- Dan Atkins
Jacobs worked closely with Mastt to digitise years of legacy data, onboard project team members, and train staff on new systems.
Mastt uploaded 10 years of historical data across 40+ projects within just four weeks. From day one, the system replaced hundreds of spreadsheets, consolidating risks, schedules, costs, and approvals into one secure platform.
“Instead of diving into subfolders to update finance and risk data, they just open a browser tab. That saves hours.”
- Dan Atkins
With Mastt in place, Jacobs implemented a structured system of project-to-program controls designed for seamless aggregation of risk registers, cost forecasts, variation tracking, approvals, and milestone schedules. Data was liberated and no longer buried in spreadsheets.
This shift enabled Jacobs to:
Project and program managers were able to rely on a single source of truth to drive performance, eliminate blind spots, and support informed decision-making.
With Mastt, Jacobs changed how they manage projects, from reporting to visibility to trust. Here’s what made the biggest difference:
Teams have generated real-time reports in seconds, with zero formatting stress and total data clarity. No more lag. No more manual patchwork. Just clean, credible reports, ready the moment they’re needed.
In Defence, trust is currency. Jacobs delivered live, defensible data instantly. No scrambling. No gaps. Just answers.
“Defence gets ministerial requests all the time. With Mastt, we can answer in real time.”
- Dan Atkins
That clarity built trust with the Commonwealth and positioned Jacobs to lead more programs in the future.
Jacobs was able to forecast program spend with over 95% accuracy. The numbers were solid. The confidence was absolute.
“Defence knows what we’re reporting is true. They trust it—and trust us to deliver more.”
- Dan Atkins
That belief opened doors and gave Jacobs the confidence to step through them.
Jacobs spent less time validating data and more time improving performance. Every update drove action. Every decision moved faster.
By partnering with Mastt, Jacobs moved beyond reactive reporting to proactive program control, demonstrating that new and innovative ways to deliver projects were possible.
Today, what once took weeks of effort and offered little clarity now happens in real-time with Mastt, with precision, foresight, and confidence.
As the partnership evolved, so too did the benchmark for what program excellence looks like in the defence sector and beyond.
“Mastt isn’t off-the-shelf software. We’ve grown it together. Every month, we build and improve.”
- Dan Atkins
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