RPS Delivers Projects More Efficiently with Mastt

RPS is a leading global professional services firm with over 5,000 staff and operating for 40+ years. RPS works with the Australian Department of Defence to deliver infrastructure & construction facilities. Using Mastt, RPS can provide a better project administration system that improves financial transparency and workplace efficiencies.

Customer Story

• RPS provides Defence’s Capital Facilities and Infrastructure (CFI) Branch with detailed financial forecasting of commitments, escalation, risk and contingencies to inform decision making.
• RPS’s reporting informs Defence’s in-year funding allocations for its remaining portfolio programs. Uncommitted funds accurately identified for reinvestment.
• RPS’s reporting informs Defence’s in-year funding allocations for its remaining portfolio programs.

The Challenge: Managing $10M-$300M Defence Projects

Managing disparate, complex infrastructure projects ranging from $10M to $300M requires complex financial management tools and accurate data input mechanisms. Variances and forecasting need to be aggregated and reported to numerous stakeholders who make important decisions on capital allocation opportunities by project, region, portfolio and more.

The prior systems used for this purpose were slow, prone to error and didn't easily automate or analyse the data collected. Mastt provided a complete financial project delivery system offering the ability to work in a controlled and consistent framework. It enables granular data interrogation and fully transparent analytics, while automating project, region and portfolio roll-ups to make sense of disparate projects.

The Solution: Standardised Project Controls and Real-Time Financial Reporting in Mastt

Mastt needed to ensure the system stopped the reliance on distributed spreadsheets used across different teams and organisations and brought the data collection into a controlled and consistent framework that could be easily analysed by project managers and senior executives.

By introducing new forms of data visualisation and a robust modal driven validation system, Mastt provided a solution that made data entry efficient, reduced errors, removed duplication of effort and provided real-time project transparency.

How RPS Rolled Out Mastt Across Major Defence Infrastructure Projects

Stakeholders included Defence, RPS project managers, project administrators and technical security professionals. After 3 months of workshops and scenario analysis the system was deployed on minor projects.

In 2020, after further feedback and customisation, the system was deployed to major Defence infrastructure projects around Australia.

Mastt in Action: Real-Time Project Reporting and Power BI Analytics at RPS

Once Mastt was implemented, individual project teams and senior managers were able to produce more detailed reports and rely more heavily on the information provided.

RPS has since integrated with Microsoft's Power BI solution to produce tailored analytics for senior stakeholders to improve investment and operational decision making. RPS uses the system across a wide variety of Defence projects and now also apply it to other construction infrastructure initiatives including integration with their own internal systems.

“Super slick, very easy to use, and improves workflow time massively.”
_{- James Murdock, Senior Project Manager}

The Results: 76% Better Forecast Accuracy and 2% of Program Value Returned

Mastt has replaced much of the administrative work previously needed by RPS to complete frequent and complex tasks related to financial year cash flow. RPS no longer relies on 100s of spreadsheets and tracing formulas to get answers, and no longer requires specialist financial controllers.

With Mastt, RPS has unprecedented real-time transparency of project data, allowing fast and accurate reporting to CFI and other clients. Mastt has become well recognised within Defence as an effective tool for financial data collection and analysis. Defence is now considering Mastt for related infrastructure divisions.

RPS were able to return 2% of the overall program value to the sponsor for reinvestment into new scope. RPS saved significant time needed for project administration and thus redistributed consultants to higher level analysis and portfolio management activities.

RPS Results with Mastt:

• Mastt systems have resulted in a 76% improvement in forecast accuracy
• 2% of program value was returned to the sponsor for reinvestment in new scope
• 95% of Project Consultants say Mastt gives them have better project visibility
• Project Consultants report saving 2 hours of time per week

“Mastt helps reduce the opportunity for errors in cash flow and budgeting and provides insights into aggregated data and program trends that we need.”
_{- Stefanie Watts, Senior Project Manager}