How NJM Design achieved operational excellence with SimplaDocs.
Building Services Engineering
NJM Design
No backfill needed after PM retired
NJM Design, a leading Melbourne-based building services engineering consultancy, was managing thousands of projects annually across mechanical, electrical, hydraulics, fire protection, and vertical transportation services. They had hired two different freelance contractors to create an operations infrastructure, but neither implementation could scale to meet the needs of an enterprise company with employees across three Australian offices.
Their project management process had become a frustrating cycle of repetitive manual work. The team had implemented Synergy, a project management tool for architecture and construction, but the tool's rigidity didn't align with how NJM actually worked. Project managers were manually recreating tickets from Synergy into Coda, then porting information back and forth between the two systems.
“The difference with SimplaDocs was immediately clear. Instead of relying on a single contractor, we had access to a team that brought structure, accountability, and deep expertise.”
— Claire Brassington
SimplaDocs began by thoroughly assessing what had been tried before and why it failed. Rather than jumping straight to building, they worked collaboratively with the NJM team through weekly check-ins and daily async communication.
SimplaDocs identified two critical bottlenecks: manual data translation between systems, and hours spent on routine task creation. They built a bespoke Coda Pack that automated the connection between Synergy and Coda, eliminating the time-consuming double-entry problem. They also added intelligent business logic to automate task generation, transforming hours of manual work into a simple form.
SimplaDocs also trained NJM on how to maintain and optimize the new system, ensuring long-term success beyond the initial implementation.
What we delivered
Eliminated double-entry between Synergy and Coda with automated data sync
Reduced task creation time from hours to minutes through intelligent automation
Freed project managers to focus on strategic work rather than administrative tasks
Delivered enterprise-grade reliability that previous freelance builds couldn't match
When one of NJM's project managers retired, NJM didn't need to backfill the role. Another project manager could seamlessly take on those workstreams, while NJM redirected that headcount investment to more strategic areas like marketing.
The success led NJM to expand their partnership with SimplaDocs to improve how it triages and approves its employees' billable hours.
SimplaDocs didn't just save us time, it changed how we think about our internal operations and investments. We were able to redirect effort and resources away from administration and toward more strategic areas of the business.
— Claire Brassington, NJM Design
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