Hercules launches new skills portal for HS2
Gloucesterhire-headquartered labour supply company Hercules Site Services has launched its skills portal, the Skills, Employment and Education ("SEE") Everything Portal, which has been developed in conjunction with the Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra (BBVS) joint venture on the HS2 rail project.
Hercules focusses on supplying labour into the UK's infrastructure sector, and the launch follows successful trials, triggering an initial payment of £44,000 to the company. The Company and BBVS have now entered into a licence agreement regarding the SEE Everything Portal's full implementation and use at the Old Oak Common regeneration project in west London. This represents a significant milestone in Hercules' strategy to monetise and white label its digital tools for major projects. The company now plans to progress a pipeline of licensing opportunities across the public and private sectors to secure additional recurring revenue.
The SEE Everything Portal aims to reduce the time and resource spent coordinating, tracking, monitoring and validating data on equality, diversity, inclusion, skills, employment and education outputs on infrastructure and construction projects. Reports can be produced for any of the recorded data and have proven to be key in measuring SEE performance and demonstrating capabilities and awareness for tendering.
The portal can be easily accessed and used across all types of devices and it utilises a user-friendly web-based interface that delivers seamless stakeholder coordination. The standardised collection of 'live' data enables contractors and sub-contractors to become more embedded in the local community and achieve more project SEE targets generating additional benefits for local people.
Contractors are increasingly required to demonstrate the SEE impact of a project when entering into a tendering process following the implementation of the Social Value Act (2012). This has meant that social value has become an ever-growing metric that is being required across all sectors, especially for public spending.
Brusk Korkmaz, Hercules' Chief Executive Officer, said: "Our SEE Everything Portal will make it easier for contractors and sub-contractors of all shapes and sizes across the private and public sectors to meet their skills, employment and social value commitments.
"Beyond providing another example of how we embrace digital innovation in the infrastructure sector, the SEE Everything Portal chimes with our core values of being committed to improving the lives of our workforce and positively disrupting the construction industry.
"We will continue to work together with our clients to create lasting, mutually beneficial partnerships that are driving change in our industry and delivering ever higher standards for our workforce, our partners and the local communities that we work in. In doing so, we are delivering new revenue streams with high growth potential for our stakeholders."
