PureGym is improving project management and increasing the speed of their decision making with Viewpoint For Projects.

Founded in 2008, PureGym is the UK’s leading gym chain, becoming the first to reach one million members in 2018. PureGym operates more than 230 gym locations, and was acquired by Leonard Green & Partners in 2017. PureGym’s strategy is to continue to roll out new gyms with high returns on capital, as well as drive the operational and financial performance of its existing gym estate. The company’s annual revenue grew to £228M in 2018.

Challenge

PureGym faced numerous challenges that arose from not adopting digital construction management methods such as access to a common data environment (CDE). Being a large asset owner managing entire projects without sufficient systems in place can lead to lack of communication, errors and delays in projects and ultimately an increase in costs negatively impacting bottom line. PureGym was experiencing poor version control of documents, which led to confusion as people were referring to old documents during construction. This resulted in costly errors and project delays.

Managing entire projects with numerous contractors means communication is vital. Without an effective technology solution keeping track of all communication and progress on tasks, PureGym experienced project delays and inconsistent work. For example, it could take
several days for revised drawings to be sent out to project teams. The company looked to real-time solutions to improve efficiency, productivity and reduce lead time for decision making.

Solution

PureGym selected Viewpoint For Projects™ as its common data environment to manage the company’s entire property portfolio. VFP is a cloud-based document and information management solution which enables customers to share, control and collaborate on project
documents with dispersed projects teams.

Collaborative functionality of VFP was an integral reason for PureGym selecting Viewpoint over competitor solutions. With the scale of the PureGym projects key stakeholders such as, architects, internal project managers, contractors and suppliers need to be using the
same system. The Viewpoint solution enables large-scale asset owners like PureGym to effectively collaborate with project stakeholders and manage the entire project on time and on budget.

PureGym saw an opportunity to achieve greater document control. VFP features leading-edge document management capabilities, providing a single source for all documents, drawings, photos and file types shared by the right people at the right time. The latest versions of documents are always immediately available, and users can view documents regardless of the software program in which they were created; no native app is necessary. Documents are also available to access offline so that users can still work when no internet connectivity exists.

Results

PureGym transformed its project management processes, resulting in projects being on time and on-budget, one of the contributing reasons John Graham, PureGym’s property development director, recommends VFP to other asset owners running multiple outlets. “It’s easy to use, readily available and pricing is competitive. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough,” Graham said.

With VFP, PureGym gained clarity over its document control processes, which previously caused errors and delays. The most current versions of documents are available to all users to view and download in real-time as soon as they are uploaded. The company uses VFP to manage document referrals, communications about the project, updating plans and specifications. Anything relevant to the project gets shared to VFP and all documents are stored and archived for future reference.

VFP saved PureGym valuable time and costs as the architects could comment instantly on suppliers’ drawings of equipment layouts once uploaded into VFP. The details of layouts can be fine-tuned to the nth degree well in advance of the physical install on site, reducing the chance of errors from misinterpreted plans. PureGym use VFP across all projects, and benefit from the product’s unlimited storage capacity meaning every project is archived so when refurbishments or extensions are needed on assets all key stakeholders can reference existing documentation and plans.

Graham added that Viewpoint has proven to be a more than reliable technology partner. “The after sales support we get from Viewpoint in terms of training is second to none,” he said.