Kier

Kier went from four custodial projects using Morta to over twenty live projects across the business in a matter of weeks. The enterprise template Colin Bell commissioned made this possible — new project setup dropped from weeks of configuring Excel templates, interlinked sheets, and training teams to a single day. Duplicate the template, add project-specific details, and the team is operational immediately with all standard columns, validation rules, permission structures, and CDE integration configuration already in place.

The standardisation extends beyond individual projects. By aggregating data from all projects into a central hub using Morta’s synchronisation, then piping it into Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, Kier now has enterprise-wide visibility that was previously impossible. Colin Bell’s team can analyse performance by region, office, project, or originator code — the kind of cross-portfolio reporting that Excel files scattered across different project teams could never deliver.

Thomas Crossley built a controlled process for requesting new IDPs, complete with a RACI matrix, so the rollout stays disciplined rather than drifting into project-by-project customisation. Each new project gets its own tailored site based on its information standards, but the underlying structure is consistent. This controlled approach to growth is what protects the standardisation that makes enterprise reporting possible in the first place.

The approach also proved to be CDE-agnostic. Whether a project uses Viewpoint, Asite, or any other CDE, the same Morta templates and reporting structure apply. This flexibility was essential for scaling across divisions where different projects have different CDE requirements.

At the enterprise level, Colin Bell had no way to get a consistent picture of information delivery across the Kier business. Each project ran its own Excel files with its own structure and conventions. Even on the custodial programme, where Thomas Crossley had built a working IDP process, the approach was bespoke to that programme. There was no mechanism to replicate it consistently, no way to enforce standards across divisions, and no path to aggregating data for enterprise reporting.

The lack of standardisation had real commercial consequences. When every project team defines its own columns, its own validation rules, and its own reporting formats, the data cannot be compared or combined. Margins get eroded by inefficiency that nobody can see because there is no unified view. Training costs multiply because every project is a fresh learning exercise. And the knowledge built on one project stays locked in that project’s files.

Colin Bell needed a way to capture data once and reuse it many times — not just within a project, but across the entire Kier Group. That meant moving from a successful project-level implementation to a genuine enterprise platform, with templates that could flex for client-specific requirements without breaking the standardised core.

The solution was to take what worked on the custodial programme and turn it into a repeatable enterprise framework. Colin Bell commissioned an enterprise template that codifies everything: standard columns, validation rules, permission structures, CDE integration configuration, and reporting dashboards. Any Kier project can now be stood up in a single day by duplicating this template and adding project-specific details.

To prevent the template from fragmenting as it spread across divisions, Thomas Crossley designed a controlled request process for new IDPs. Project teams submit requests through a RACI matrix that defines who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed for each new deployment. This governance layer ensures that every new project starts from the same baseline and that any customisation for client-specific requirements is tracked and deliberate rather than ad hoc.

Onboarding suppliers at scale required its own approach. Each project gets a tailored site based on its information standards, but the underlying data structure is consistent. Over 30 information suppliers across the custodial programme alone now input directly into Morta, each with filtered views and controlled pick lists. As Kier expands to other divisions, the same onboarding pattern applies.

The enterprise reporting layer ties it all together. Data from all projects flows into a central hub via Morta’s synchronisation, then into Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. For the first time, Kier can analyse information delivery performance across the entire business — by region, office, project, or originator code — using data that is structurally consistent because it all came from the same template.

The enterprise rollout built on the foundation that Ashley Dawson and Thomas Crossley had established on the custodial programme. Colin Bell saw the potential beyond MOJ projects and set a target: an enterprise template for all of Kier within six months, deployable across every division with flexibility for client-specific requirements.

The first step was standardising the template itself. Rather than allowing each new project to customise freely, the enterprise template locked in the core structure while providing defined extension points for project-specific needs. This balance between consistency and flexibility was the key design decision — too rigid and teams would work around it, too flexible and the standardisation would dissolve.

Kier began with strategic Pathfinder projects in custodial environments, using them as proving grounds for the enterprise approach. Once the pattern was validated, they scaled to regional projects across other divisions. The progression from four custodial projects to twenty-plus live projects happened rapidly precisely because the template eliminated the setup overhead that had previously made each new deployment a multi-week effort.

The data aggregation architecture was built in parallel. Thomas Crossley set up Morta’s synchronisation to feed all project data into a central hub, which then connects to Microsoft Fabric for enterprise-wide Power BI reporting. This was the capability Colin Bell needed most — a single, consistent view of information delivery performance across the entire Kier portfolio. Kier has also been collaborating with Andy Boutle at ALEC, sharing ideas and templates between the two organisations, demonstrating that the standardised approach has value beyond a single company.