Customer Case Studies
Project Management
The unique nature of remote construction — specifically, the need to manage a large volume of relatively short-term projects — requires fast-paced collaboration across the organization, timely status reporting and the ability to quickly access project documents.
However, most software platforms are limited to supporting a specific role, such as field operations or finance. This shortcoming represents a critical flaw: your employees may not have direct access to the reports and documents they need to perform their job.
SRU, a growing Electrical Contractor based in Chicago, found themselves using a large number of applications and trackers as they expanded into new services and territories. Because of this, both the Operations and Finance teams faced challenges getting access to accurate and timely project information and status.
After a competitive search, SRU chose Fieldclix, which offers one centralized platform to collect and access critical project data and make sure everyone in the organization is on the same page. In addition, the integration with their Accounting system allowed the Finance team to process vendor and client invoices more efficiently and the operations teams to get daily, automated updates on all their job costs.
This allowed SRU to operate more efficiently as a team, improve the productivity of their field operations and increase profit margins across all their projects.
Roger Mankus, the Director of Finance at SRU strongly advises anyone looking for project management software to keep an eye on the needs of both the field operations and finance teams.
"You can try to optimize your operations on one side of the house but quickly run into a brick wall if the rest of the organization isn't along for the ride," he said. "We made the right decision by focusing on the gap between field operations and finance and deploying a solution to help them work more effectively while making sure there was a seamless way to collaborate on the handoffs."
However, most software platforms are limited to supporting a specific role, such as field operations or finance. This shortcoming represents a critical flaw: your employees may not have direct access to the reports and documents they need to perform their job.
SRU, a growing Electrical Contractor based in Chicago, found themselves using a large number of applications and trackers as they expanded into new services and territories. Because of this, both the Operations and Finance teams faced challenges getting access to accurate and timely project information and status.
After a competitive search, SRU chose Fieldclix, which offers one centralized platform to collect and access critical project data and make sure everyone in the organization is on the same page. In addition, the integration with their Accounting system allowed the Finance team to process vendor and client invoices more efficiently and the operations teams to get daily, automated updates on all their job costs.
This allowed SRU to operate more efficiently as a team, improve the productivity of their field operations and increase profit margins across all their projects.
Roger Mankus, the Director of Finance at SRU strongly advises anyone looking for project management software to keep an eye on the needs of both the field operations and finance teams.
"You can try to optimize your operations on one side of the house but quickly run into a brick wall if the rest of the organization isn't along for the ride," he said. "We made the right decision by focusing on the gap between field operations and finance and deploying a solution to help them work more effectively while making sure there was a seamless way to collaborate on the handoffs."
Case Study - SRU Electric
Mobile Workforce Management
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Timekeeping Automation
For remote construction and installation companies, Field labor typically represents over 70% of the project costs. However, these companies often have limited visibility into where those hours are being spent.
The tools of the trade for managing crew deployments - whiteboards, spreadsheets and manual time entry - are just not designed to identify the many different ways your labor hours can "leak out of the bucket".
An analysis of Fieldclix client data, representing more than 80,000 daily deployments, shows that field crews spend anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of their time away from the project site. For a company with 20 remote crew members, this can represent more than 15,000 hours a year of non-productive time.
Kent Smith, the VP of Operations at Wireless Construction, a turnkey wireless design, build and maintenance company, had a large number of field crews giving an estimate of their hours at the end of the week. Because of this, his project managers had no ability to determine how many hours were spent on productive vs non-productive activities.
After an extensive search, Kent selected Fieldclix, which uniquely automates the creation of timecards with GPS tracking.
"We looked at many mobile timekeeping applications such as T-Sheets, but they still required field crews to manually indicate when they arrived on-site and select the proper job codes, which inevitably introduces human error into the system," Kent said.
With automatically generated timecards based on GPS, Smith and his project managers now receive accurate daily updates about where field hours are being spent. The information gives them the ability to work with their field crews to identify and eliminate unnecessary off-site activities. As an added bonus, they receive early warnings on potential labor cost overruns, which allows them to make adjustments while there's still time to make a difference.
The tools of the trade for managing crew deployments - whiteboards, spreadsheets and manual time entry - are just not designed to identify the many different ways your labor hours can "leak out of the bucket".
An analysis of Fieldclix client data, representing more than 80,000 daily deployments, shows that field crews spend anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of their time away from the project site. For a company with 20 remote crew members, this can represent more than 15,000 hours a year of non-productive time.
Kent Smith, the VP of Operations at Wireless Construction, a turnkey wireless design, build and maintenance company, had a large number of field crews giving an estimate of their hours at the end of the week. Because of this, his project managers had no ability to determine how many hours were spent on productive vs non-productive activities.
After an extensive search, Kent selected Fieldclix, which uniquely automates the creation of timecards with GPS tracking.
"We looked at many mobile timekeeping applications such as T-Sheets, but they still required field crews to manually indicate when they arrived on-site and select the proper job codes, which inevitably introduces human error into the system," Kent said.
With automatically generated timecards based on GPS, Smith and his project managers now receive accurate daily updates about where field hours are being spent. The information gives them the ability to work with their field crews to identify and eliminate unnecessary off-site activities. As an added bonus, they receive early warnings on potential labor cost overruns, which allows them to make adjustments while there's still time to make a difference.
Case Study - Wireless Services
Job Costing
Darrin Wagner, the CEO of Test Communications, a growing wireless services company with headquarters in Slidell, Louisiana, had limited visibility into where his company spent money on a day-to-day basis. To support ongoing growth, Wagner realized he needed accurate and timely updates on all project costs. After an extended search, Wagner deployed Fieldclix to get daily updates on project costs. As part of that journey, he identified five essential steps to accurately track job costs to help measure and improve project margins.
1. Use software to track project performance accurately.
Find a software platform that can capture operational and financial data in real time to help make informed decisions. "With Fieldclix, our office and field teams have instant access to the data, reports, and documents they need to perform their job," Wagner said.
2. Establish project budgets, and track costs daily.
Wagner's project managers had limited visibility into the amount of money they were spending on a daily basis. With Fieldclix, his project managers establish an operating budget at the beginning of the project, which receives a review and approval before they spend the first dollar.
3. Redefine roles, and establish measurable goals.
"Fieldclix changed our perspective on the project manager's role and how they are measured," Wagner said. "Now that we can measure with accuracy, everyone knows what is expected and can see how they're performing against their targets and peers".
4. Track locally for global improvement.
While rolling out the new software platform and setting up his measurement program, Wagner realized there were no standards for project performance he could rely on. "The reality is the time required to complete a project differs by customer, by region, by site type, and by project team," Wagner said. Wagner now creates targets based on historical performance and sets expectations for improvement at the local level.
5. Keep raising the bar.
With his new operational and financial reporting system in place, Wagner now has the confidence to step out and grow into other markets. Wagner is meeting budgets on 70 to 80 percent of his projects and expects to continue to find opportunities to increase his profit margins by10 percent and beyond.
1. Use software to track project performance accurately.
Find a software platform that can capture operational and financial data in real time to help make informed decisions. "With Fieldclix, our office and field teams have instant access to the data, reports, and documents they need to perform their job," Wagner said.
2. Establish project budgets, and track costs daily.
Wagner's project managers had limited visibility into the amount of money they were spending on a daily basis. With Fieldclix, his project managers establish an operating budget at the beginning of the project, which receives a review and approval before they spend the first dollar.
3. Redefine roles, and establish measurable goals.
"Fieldclix changed our perspective on the project manager's role and how they are measured," Wagner said. "Now that we can measure with accuracy, everyone knows what is expected and can see how they're performing against their targets and peers".
4. Track locally for global improvement.
While rolling out the new software platform and setting up his measurement program, Wagner realized there were no standards for project performance he could rely on. "The reality is the time required to complete a project differs by customer, by region, by site type, and by project team," Wagner said. Wagner now creates targets based on historical performance and sets expectations for improvement at the local level.
5. Keep raising the bar.
With his new operational and financial reporting system in place, Wagner now has the confidence to step out and grow into other markets. Wagner is meeting budgets on 70 to 80 percent of his projects and expects to continue to find opportunities to increase his profit margins by10 percent and beyond.
Case Study - Test Communications
Learn how Fieldclix can help
Is Fieldclix right for you?
Fieldclix is purpose-built to help Subcontractors, Trades and other companies with a mobile workforce address the unique challenges that come with deploying in-house crews to multiple project sites every day.
Unlike many other software platforms, Fieldclix provides real-time visibility into field activities and daily updates on progress and costs across all your active projects.
Schedule a discussion with a Fieldclix representative to answer any questions you have about our features and pricing so you can decide whether we're a good fit for you.