George Leslie is a privately owned civil engineering contractor established in 1964. With a turnover of £130m and a dedicated team of 450 employees, the company operates across critical sectors including water, marine, energy, power, defence and flood protection. Committed to innovation, George Leslie has partnered with Trimble to implement a new connected workflow designed to streamline connectivity between field and office, grow productivity levels and improve collaboration.
Challenges
Before adopting the connected workflow, George Leslie’s process for delivering LiDAR survey data was manual and time-consuming. The initial process involved:
Completing a survey on-site.
Exporting data and downloading it to a USB.
Manually transferring the data from the USB to a laptop and then uploading it to the office system.
This traditional "siloed" approach took approximately 8 hours to complete for a single survey. The lack of real-time connectivity between the field and the office led to considerable delays in data accessibility, negatively impacted on engineers’ productivity and hindered collaborative decision-making.
“The old workflow we had in place was insufficient for the resources we had within the company. We were spending too much time sharing and processing information, and due to the size of the files we were experiencing failed uploads. The integration between platforms didn’t exist whatsoever, so we were double-handling a lot of data.” — Michael Kennedy | Lead Document Controller
Solution
The "Connected Solution" leverages the Trimble ecosystem to create a seamless link between site activities and office management, effortlessly connecting hardware and software. Key components of the solution include:
Trimble X9 Scanner: For high-precision reality capture on live project sites.
Trimble Connect: A collaboration platform used for file sharing, clash detection, and visualising 3D models and scan data.
Trimble Business Centre: A software suite for managing and analysing geospatial data, it enables surveyors to transform field data into high-quality, actionable information.
Viewpoint for Projects: A robust document management system (ISO 19650 compliant) that serves as the "Golden Thread" for project information.
Adoption & Proof of Concept
The journey toward implementation began in April 2024 through the Trimble's Early Engagement Programme (EEP). George Leslie followed a structured timeline to ensure success:
April-August 2024: Identified needs, established required software/hardware, and conducted software trials.
November 2024: Developed a Proof of Concept (POC) workflow and business case, which received Board approval.
April 2025: Full implementation began.
While the hardware was found to be intuitive, the company recognised that changing internal processes required strong ownership and comprehensive training for both hardware and software.
Real results & ROI
The move to a connected “Scan to BIM” workflow has delivered dramatic productivity gains:
Time savings: The time required to process survey data dropped from 8 hours to just 10 minutes, representing a 97% time saving per project.
Annual efficiency: On an annual basis, this translates to a saving of 690 hours which enables resources to be more productive.
Financial impact: By moving from their initial manual process, George Leslie has realised a financial saving through their resource being able to do more, quicker.
Added benefits: Beyond the numbers, the company now enjoys improved data accessibility, a scalable process for future growth and a better understanding of how to apply digital tools to complex civil engineering challenges.
“The workflows have given us huge gains in terms of on-the-ground practices. For our site teams, it means we’re getting a single source of truth out there. In terms of speed, data collection and surveying is much faster now. So it means that everyone is able to collaborate effectively and in a timely manner.” — Andrew MacLennan | Engineering Manager
Conclusion
By connecting the site to the office, George Leslie has bridged the digital divide in civil engineering. The ease of adoption and clear return on investment demonstrate that "digital-first" workflows are no longer a luxury but a necessity for driving profitability, not reserved purely for the Sizewell C’s of the industry but also the “low value, high frequency” projects that are delivered every day. As the younger "digital generation" enters the workforce, these connected solutions will ensure that George Leslie remains at the forefront of the industry, delivering high-quality infrastructure with unprecedented efficiency.
