Customer story
How Cotswold Fire Services turned custom workflows into a competitive advantage
Working on projects from small refits through to complex NHS hospital sites with hundreds of pins per floor, Cotswold Fire Services needed more than a digital logging tool. They needed structure, visibility, and a way to scale compliance without scaling admin.
1,500+ locations
structured and tracked on single projects
40% saving
in project admin capacity
3 hours per day
of manual QA time saved
About the company
Based near Bristol and serving a wide geographic footprint, Cotswold Fire Services are specialists in passive fire protection with over 30 years’ experience. From essential compliance programs to major ongoing capital projects, they deliver expert solutions across the region and beyond, focusing on quality results rooted in their company values: Honest. Compliant. Safe.
Services
Comprehensive PFP: Survey, Installation & Compartmentation Sealing
Fire Door Solutions: Audit, Installation & Remediation
Fire Risk Assessments
Technical Consultancy & Compliance Advisory
Planned Compliance Maintenance Programs
Fire-Resistant Glazing
Onetrace features
Custom statuses
Approvals
Reporting
Data capture
Rates and materials
Productivity
the challenge
When Lee Drew joined Cotswold Fire Services, Onetrace was already in place. The team were using it to log work, generate reports and store records. It worked, but it wasn’t driving the business forward.
Large projects meant hundreds of fire-stopping locations per floor, multiple stakeholders needing different information, hundreds of tickets for review, and weekend overtime.
As Project Manager, Lee saw an opportunity to do more than keep projects running—he wanted to make them smarter, by using digital workflows to transform efficiency, traceability, and client reporting.
From recording data to managing workflows
Making use of Custom Location Statuses was the turning point.
By creating colour-coded, clearly defined statuses that mirrored how projects actually run, Lee built Cotswold’s full process into Onetrace.
Lee Drew - Project Manager
Rather than sending bloated documents, Cotswold sends targeted, relevant reports—clearly structured and easy to act on. The result is faster decision-making and clearer communication across contractor, estates and technical teams.
Reclaiming hours with structured approvals
Before formalising Approvals, Lee was manually reviewing hundreds of tickets, with quality checks taking anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours per day. That workload often extended into evenings and weekends.
By implementing structured approvals and involving the technical team in formal sign-off, Cotswold:
Distributed responsibility more effectively
Embedded technical accountability into every job
Reduced manual re-checking
Built professional sign-off directly into reports
Lee Drew
Instead of one person carrying the burden of quality control, approvals are now part of the workflow—not an afterthought.
Protecting margin through better material control
Operational efficiency wasn’t the only improvement. Commercial accuracy improved too.
By inputting precise measurements, rates and markups into Materials Manager, Onetrace became a safeguard for margin—not just compliance.
The team can now:
Track material usage accurately
Align pricing with real site data
Avoid underpricing or absorbing unexpected costs
Export clear cost breakdowns instantly
Lee Drew
That level of clarity supports better quoting, better conversations internally, and stronger commercial control.
A strategic shift: compliance as a selling point
Perhaps the most significant shift was strategic.
Lee Drew
That mindset reframed the business. With Onetrace, Cotswold can actively position structured traceability as part of its value proposition. They now lead with:
Structured traceability
Clear approvals
Stakeholder-specific reporting
Live visibility of project progress
Across 10–15 active projects at any one time, Cotswold maintains control without increasing administrative overhead.
The reclaimed time isn’t idle time. It’s reinvested into improving processes, refining workflows, and strengthening their market position.
Onetrace hasn’t just improved how they record work. It’s changed how they communicate the value of what they deliver.
Looking ahead
With structured workflows embedded, Cotswold is now exploring further efficiencies—including workforce planning and expanded dashboard reporting.
Six months ago, they were using Onetrace as a logging tool. Today, it underpins how the company operates, reports and sells.
Lee Drew
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