In this latest article about Stonebond, we catch up with Edd Cherry, grandson of the original founder Alan Cherry, who shares an insightful view into the role Eque2’s cloud technology has played in the company’s recent expansion, the latest exciting plans for the business and the continued role he sees cloud technology playing in supporting its growth in the future.
Technology Supporting Growth
When Stonebond first started working with Eque2, the Essex based family run business had a small team of under 10 employees. Today, the progressive house building company has over 150 employees, having expanded its Chelmsford based original headquarters to include a further five regional offices in St Albans, Sevenoaks, Guildford, Solihull and Manchester.
To support this rapid expansion, Stonebond’s senior team recognised early on that it was going to be vital to have the right technology not only in place but up and running before they needed it.
Edd commented, “Following our change in strategy, to a land led partnerships business, we took the decision to invest time and money into new IT solutions that would support future business need. We recognised that we needed reliable data and the correct systems in place to support our intended growth. We also thought that early investment – that would allow us to teach just 20 rather than over 100 people how to use new software – seemed to make good sense. We didn’t want to wait until we had already grown and would need to roll out the new systems along with new ways of working, incorporating these into operational processes and the necessary training to even more employees across more multiple locations.”
Proactive Planning
Stonebond’s proactive approach to business planning includes regularly reviewing the company’s IT investments to ensure the company continues to have the best systems and solutions in place to be able to meet its ever-evolving needs.
In late 2019, as part of the review process, it was established that the time was right for the company to upgrade from Eque2’s Construct for Sage 200 to EVision, Eque2’s construction ERP software designed for larger businesses and enterprises. It was also determined the business should invest in Eque2’s Housebuilding solution which, when fully integrated with EVision, would provide a complete end-to-end finance and operational ERP solution.
Edd explained, “Our relationship with Eque2 originally started with the purchase of Construct for Sage 200. Construct worked well for Stonebond’s commercial department and Sage worked well for the accounts team. However, as we began to expand, the lack of housebuilding-specific functionality meant there were too many spreadsheets being manually maintained across the business.
“EVision and Housebuilding would enable us to benefit from the full integration of the Microsoft suite whilst ensuring better reporting across all the operational regions and teams including land, commercial, construction and sales.”
In March 2022, Matt Blackmore joined Stonebond as Head of Systems and IT to work with Edd in furthering the IT strategy , oversee the IT support and evolve all systems across the business. Following the implementation in early 2020, the team were keen to improve the dedicated housebuilding system as early as possible to avoid inefficiencies down the line, as volumes increased. With the company aiming to build 1,000 homes a year by 2028, they knew they needed their systems to be not only efficient but scalable.
Futureproofing with the Cloud
Working closely with Eque2’s Head of Change Management, Steven King, Matt identified an opportunity to transition all of the company’s technology to the cloud and, by doing so, futureproof Stonebond’s software investments.
It was clear that cloud ERP software could bring significant advantages to the business, from centralised data storage and automatic software updates to real-time communication and simplified project administration.
Commenting on the decision, Matt said: “Steven King, Eque2’s Head of Change Management, was critical in opening our eyes to the capabilities of the cloud and has been instrumental in supporting us as we transition from relying on our previous on-premise solutions. The benefits are huge, from the flexibility and easy access from any device it gives us, to the strengthened security and automated back-ups that mean we will no longer have to worry about patching daily errors.
“It was our partnership with Eque2 that gave us the confidence as a business to commit fully to the cloud and put the IT systems in place that would ensure we were fit for the future. Steven worked with us to build the necessary approval processes, workflows and more general reporting we needed to enhance our cloud capabilities, ensuring we now have the robust systems and proper processes and procedures required to support our continued growth plans.”
Phased Deployment
A two-phased deployment was agreed as the best approach for a smooth transition. This began with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, the core finance system that EVision is built within, followed by moving Eque2 Housebuilding to a private hosted cloud solution .
One Version of the Truth
Edd continued, “Before we implemented Housebuilding, we were wasting time manually searching for documents and seeking updates from multiple people to try to produce a clear picture of what was happening on each project. Yet, as soon as we had sourced the necessary information, it quickly became out of date. The combination of EVision and Housebuilding now ensures the relevant people can always access accurate data or see the latest update on any chosen project.
“As we evaluate land purchase decisions, we need to be able to produce detailed forecasts using ‘what-if’ scenarios to help us predict profitability on each plot, before committing to future investments. With a dedicated Housebuilding solution firmly in place, we can run these directly from the system rather than relying on information in spreadsheets.”
A Real Time View
Edd added, “We have now been using Microsoft Dynamics Business Central since the beginning of April 2024 and have the Housebuilding software live on every site, giving us a real-time view of information across each location. Our reporting capabilities have really transformed with standard weekly and monthly reports all fully automated. Matt and Stonebond’s internal finance teams worked hard to produce a bespoke profit forecast using the data from both EVision and Housebuilding to produce a forecast in under 20 seconds rather than a week!
Matt added “We use Microsoft Power Automate for scheduled sales reports whilst our finance teams streamline the production of our monthly board packs using Jet Reports. Meanwhile, the time finance spends on administrative tasks has been reduced significantly with invoice entry, expenses and approvals all carried out automatically with Continia. EVision’s ability to integrate seamlessly with other complementary software is a major advantage for us.
“Eque2’s collaborative approach to working with us has been brilliant, and that includes addressing any of the challenges we’ve had along the way. For example, together we were able to make brilliant progress during the lockdown period by switching the planned face to face training to online sessions, which we found surprisingly efficient.”
Supporting the Future
Looking towards the future, Edd commented, “We are excited by opportunities to further innovate and enhance our use of EVision Housebuilding. We are currently looking at introducing Continia’s new ESG module to support us with our ESG goals and my own personal goal is to reach the point where our monthly board reports are fully automated. Essentially, we never stop looking for ways to improve and Eque2’s cloud technology plays a key role in helping us to do that.”
Edd concluded, “By supporting us as our strategic partner over the last five years, Eque2 has enabled us to meet our ambitious growth plans as we have evolved from a £20m turnover company to circa £100m turnover in 2023. Its construction-specific technology that is vital in empowering us to drive efficiencies and take a best practice approach to further benefit our ever-growing UK customer base.”
For more information on Stonebond, please visit: https://www.stonebondltd.com
