The Simpler Total Synergy Alternative for Australian Built Environment Firms
Total Synergy is great for large firms that have the resources to micro-manage projects, but what about firms your size? Are you getting value from your subscription and using all of the features that you're paying for?
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Setup in days, not weeks
The Problem with Bloated Software
"Death by a thousand cuts".
That's how it feels to use software that's not made for YOUR use-case.
Everything feels a little harder and slower than it should.
Important data is hidden (or missing) beneath layers of menus and pages.
Pages are cluttered with features that will never be used.
The worst part is that you're paying for it all!
Imagine if there was an alternative that listened to your exact needs.
An alternative that was built for firms your size, not the enterprise?
Let me introduce Drum...
An Australian Alternative Built on Your Feedback
Hey, my name is Ben and I'm the founder of Drum.
Drum was built from our experience building bespoke business software for clients since 2014.
We realised that we were building the same fundamentals over and over again and by working hand in hand with local engineering firms in South-East QLD, we were able to release the first version of Drum in 2023.
Since then, we've worked closely with our customers to keep building features and workflows that have the largest ROI for their firms.
We're not engineers, architects, town planners or surveyors, so it's our job to deeply understand what YOU want and continually improve our software based on that.
What Australian Built Enviro Consultants Say About Drum
"Drum has been a game-changer for our business. After struggling with Workflow Max, we were searching for a fresh and user-friendly solution. Drum's clean interface and intuitive layout have significantly improved our time sheeting, quoting, project performance visibility, and billing processes just to name a few. The Drum team are incredibly responsive to our needs and open to our suggestions. Their willingness to adapt the software to our specific requirements made it an even better fit for our business. I highly recommend Drum to anyone looking for a reliable and efficient management tool."
"This is exactly the tool I was looking for. Drum is becoming an evermore integral part of my business. Day or night any issues I've had with the software have been rectified within minutes. It is a mile away from the faceless SanFran wannabes. This is the real deal."
"Shout out to the Drum team for helping us pull our project management, CRM, proposal generation, time tracking and financial tracking into one package! Quick, friendly and effective responses from the team. We have finally found a user friendly system to streamline our back office operations."
"We have found the team from Drum to be both responsive to our needs and open to changes and improvements. Implementing Drum has allowed us to significantly improve the visibility of our projects' performance to the team and is resulting more timely and accurate management of our projects."
"Drum has become our single source of information for project scheduling, tracking, QA and correspondence. We used to use multiple platforms across our engineering, drafting and administration teams but now all staff use Drum to achieve a more effective and efficient workflow. Our goal was initially to replace our existing scheduling system. Drum has given us so much more, and ultimately we now have more streamlined systems and procedures across multiple areas of our business."
"Drum's philosophy of being a 'single source of truth' has allowed us to manage project data simply and accurately. It has helped streamline our processes and we have found the team to be accommodating in all regards."
Streamlined Fundamentals
From proposal to invoice, Drum streamlines the workflows that you need to run your business day to day.
Whether for your project managers, admin team or operational staff, Drum has the key requirements built for purpose.
Here's the birds-eye view on how it works:
Sales Pipeline for Business Development
Drum's sales pipeline is built for purpose. And that purpose is business development.
Our clients aren't sending out thousands of emails a day. They're not posting on TikTok.
They're nurturing relationships, meeting tender dates and following up.
Drum's sales pipeline makes this easy.
The best part of Drum's sales pipeline?
It's incredibly intuitive and doesn't need much of your time. It's there to ensure you know your deal flow and then it gets out of your way.
The sales pipeline also ensures that responsibility for work is shared among the team and that key deals don't fall through the gaps, ensuring consistency in your lead flow and future revenue.
Create Winning Proposals in Minutes
Build out your project estimates in Drum using the templates that we'll help you create during onboarding and then easily convert them into client-friendly Word documents (also templated) that you can generate in moments.
Build your project estimate once and once you win the project, convert it directly into the project budget for ongoing management.
Forecast Your Revenue with Confidence
Drum allows you to distribute the revenue from your won projects however you like. Monthly, milestone based or payment upon completion are all easily managed project by project.
Drum will also show your estimated revenue from your sales pipeline (adjusted by the likelihood of each deal) so that you can get a true picture of your "won" and estimated revenue in future months.
Simple Time Tracking
You're a consultant and even if the majority of your projects are fixed value, you need to ensure that time is being spent wisely.
Drum's time tracking system is fast, simple and allows accurate tracking of billable and non-billable time.
Staff utilisation is displayed as a key KPI and can be managed (and reported on) in moments giving you the clarity to ensure projects stay profitable and your team is focused on the right work.
Project Budgets at a Glance
Whether on the project dashboard or viewing an individual project, as a PM or director, it's always clear how your projects are performing.
WIP, profitability and remaining budget are front and centre at all times.
These figures aren't from last week's report – they update in real-time as your team works.
As staff allocate time and costs to projects, or as variations are approved, staff who need to have their finger on the pulse of project financials will have no challenges at all understanding their positions.
Invoicing In Minutes, Not Hours
Whether you invoice upon project completion or create progress claims month by month, Drum has you covered.
By offering smart defaults at each step, we'll shave hours off your invoicing rituals and ensure that no billable hours fall through the gaps again.
Each and every invoice displays project performance as of that billing milestone and the inevitable write-offs of time can be managed in moments.
Our world-class Xero integration makes the invoicing process even faster again.
Seamless Xero Integration
Drum seamlessly integrates with your Xero account for:
Invoices (simple or via a progress claim)
Contacts
Credit Notes
Purchase Orders
Bills
Credit card management
As an example, once you've raised an invoice in Drum, integrating with your Xero account takes a single click. From that point, Drum will:
Automatically create a two-way sync with the Xero invoice
Update the Drum version of the invoice with sent dates and paid dates
The experience truly is seamless and has to be seen to be believed.
Get Expert Answers in 2 Minutes, Not 2 Days
Drum's support is not like our competitors.
We have in-app live chat support with an average response time from one of our core members of 2 minutes.
This ensures that you and your team aren't waiting around for answers. They're almost immediate.
Ensuring A Good Fit
I dislike calls with vendors as much as the next Australian business owner, but to ensure that Drum is a good fit for your firm, we do ask you to first hop on a discovery call.
Platforms like Drum are asking a lot. We're asking for you to completely change the platform that your team works within!
Whether you're coming from a competing software product or a handful of spreadsheets and a time-tracking app, you need support for the journey.
That requires:
And from a risk-management perspective, you NEED:
This isn't like booting up a new Asana account and adding projects and tasks, there are real risks and considerations when changing operations platforms, no matter your size.
To start the discovery process, click the button below to book a call with me at a time that works for you. It's not a sales call, it's simply the first step in seeing if Drum could provide value for your use-case.