Network Plus manages their £50M asset portfolio with Cogna

About

Network Plus is a leading utility and infrastructure service provider in the UK. They deliver constant essential services for major gas, water, power, and telecoms providers, including Cadent Gas, National Grid, and United Utilities.

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Challenge

Tracking over 20,000 assets with spreadsheets meant limited visibility and inflated costs

To maintain operational and cost efficiency, Network Plus depends on detailed, actionable data. Matthew Asprey, Head of Data Management, and his team have been working to deliver that level of granularity by migrating their reporting infrastructure.

Improving data collection for over 20,000 assets quickly emerged as a high-impact opportunity. High-value assets (vehicles, field equipment, plant machinery, and IT hardware) form the backbone of Network Plus' operations. Tracking availability and usage is key for effective expense management and resource allocation across contract teams — but it's hardly easy.

Every two weeks, Network Plus' team downloaded a master asset spreadsheet, filtered it by contract and responsible party, and sent custom files to their 50 contract teams requesting asset verification. This process was not only labor-intensive but also limited visibility into the company's £50M asset portfolio.

Responses rarely came back on schedule, forcing Network Plus' team to chase down responsible parties. When updated spreadsheets trickled back, Network Plus spent hours manually consolidating data into a new file covering their entire asset base.

Because each master spreadsheet was created from scratch, it was disconnected from past asset checks. Without historical data, Network Plus couldn't tell if equipment was used consistently or sat idle for months. This created unnecessary costs and prevented leadership from effectively allocating resources or planning future investments.

Matthew and his team needed a dedicated solution that could deliver a granular asset view without the manual overhead. But building one in-house would divert attention from other high-priority initiatives, and generic software couldn't address their operational complexities.

Matthew went looking for a partner who could build a custom application around their existing workflows — and that's when Cadent Gas, one of Network Plus' clients, recommended Cogna. Unlike most software providers, Cogna's AI-powered platform builds applications for each company's unique operations. Matthew knew they'd be a natural fit for Network Plus' needs.

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"We were shuffling 50 net-new spreadsheets every two weeks to track assets worth millions of pounds. It was a lot of time spent on a task that gave us limited visibility into our operations."

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Solution

Continuous asset visibility and better spend allocation with a custom, AI-powered platform

Cogna instantly stood out with their collaborative, tailored approach. They engaged directly with Matthew's team to understand what asset data they collected, how they collected it, and their asset tracking goals. Armed with these insights, Cogna's AI build engine developed a custom application in just two weeks.

Now, Network Plus has an automated asset tracking tool that saves 2 FTEs worth of manual overhead. Every two weeks, the platform automatically pulls the latest asset data from Network Plus' system and sends verification requests via email.

Contract teams report on asset status and location directly within the platform. Single sign-on grants responsible parties easy access through existing company credentials, encouraging regular participation. If a team doesn't respond within a week, the system sends reminder emails, eliminating the need for manual follow-ups.

This centralized view gives Network Plus unprecedented visibility into their asset portfolio — including their most valuable and complex equipment. Regular verification confirms active use, while unverified assets are flagged automatically for investigation. That way, the Network Plus team can investigate if the equipment is lost, returned without notice, or simply idle and ready for other teams.

Everyone benefits. Contractors receive the resources they need without delays, boosting operational efficiency. And Network Plus minimizes wasted spend from duplicate purchases and unused assets.

Every update is also pushed back into Network Plus' core system of record, creating a cumulative picture of asset utilization. As a result, teams can uncover even deeper patterns and refine their overall resource strategy.

Because Cogna stays deeply integrated within Network Plus' operations, they make quick, targeted platform adjustments to improve the asset tracking process whenever user needs evolve.

For instance, as Network Plus ramped up their cloud migration, Cogna quickly redesigned the application to integrate with the new environment. This upgrade enabled fully automated data flow, aligning the solution with Network Plus' broader modernization strategy.

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"Cogna are always asking, 'How can we make your process easier for your teams?' If something comes up, they turn it around in days — unmatched speed compared to other vendors and in-house builds."

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Results

Network Plus projects £1M in annual savings after extended asset usage reviews with Cogna

With their Cogna-built application, Matthew's team transformed a manual process into an automated tracking system for one of their most valuable investments: their £50M asset inventory. These insights enable informed spend decisions and reclaim hours for strategic enhancements to Network Plus’ core operational platforms.

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• £50M in assets under management
• >£1M projected annual savings
• 85% asset visibility — including high-value equipment
• Overhead savings equivalent to 2 FTEs

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But the wins run deeper than operational improvements alone. With Cogna, Network Plus gained something no traditional vendor can deliver: a responsive tech partner that innovates alongside their team. Cogna consistently looks for new opportunities for feature upgrades, accelerating business initiatives and compounding the tool's value.

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"We brought some of our senior leaders to test out Cogna's asset tracking application. Their feedback was overwhelmingly positive — our process is now as efficient as it could be."