Case Study
Customer Profile
J.F. Electric
Edwardsville, Illinois
Industry
Commercial electrical contracting
Product
PowerTrack Mobile Workforce
Solution for Construction
The Challenge
J.F. Electric is a large
electrical contractor, based in Illinois, that serves commercial, industrial,
communications and utility customers. The company manages multiple concurrent
projects ranging in duration from one day to several years. Some jobs require
one or two electricians, and others need more than 50 electricians. Each job
requires J.F. Electric’s warehouse personnel to track and manage parts,
consumables and equipment related to that job.
In 2005, J.F. Electric needed to
replace its accounting system and at the same time wanted to streamline its
inventory process. The company desired to track job costs more accurately so it
could refine its estimating process. It also wanted to identify and avoid
potential supply bottlenecks and achieve greater economy in purchasing.
 The
Solution
The company evaluated many
accounting packages that offered partial support for barcode inventory
management or remote data collection. Evaluators discovered a vacuum of packages
targeted toward mid-market companies like J.F. Electric. Most of the accounting
systems the company looked at were oriented to smaller companies with less
ambitious information technology requirements. After significant research, the
company chose Viewpoint for its power and flexibility.
“So many accounting solutions we
looked at use proprietary databases with less than stellar ODBC support.
Viewpoint has the power and flexibility we needed to accommodate our firm’s
growth and change” says Jared Faulkner, J.F. Electric’s director of information
technology.
While looking for its new
accounting program, J.F. Electric learned about PowerTrack, the enterprise
mobility solution from Control Solutions. PowerTrack is designed to integrate
with many construction accounting packages, including Viewpoint.
“We were looking for a solution
that was powerful and extensible,” notes Faulkner. “We wanted a solution that
could grow with us and adapt to meet the rapidly changing needs of a
construction subcontractor. Viewpoint and PowerTrack together are more powerful
and flexible than any of the integrated tools we looked at.”
Faulker says that J.F. Electric
chose the Viewpoint and PowerTrack combination because the products offered a
secure solution that was still flexible and open. With SQL Server on the
backend, Viewpoint afforded the company the opportunity to work with a number of
powerful database tools to maximize J.F. Electric’s investment. PowerTrack fit
into their plans to use an industry standard database.
“Coming from a product with a
proprietary database and very little integration potential, we were delighted
with the ease of integrating PowerTrack into our workflow,” observes Faulkner.
“Furthermore, we can see the potential for additional PowerTrack uses as we grow
and develop.”
 J.F.
Electric currently uses PowerTrack in conjunction with inventory tasks.
Warehouse personnel use Symbol PPT 8800-series PDAs to look up and track
material location, cost and inventory on hand. Using the PDA’s scanner, workers
assign material to jobs. When a warehouse staff person assigns material to a job
and posts the record, PowerTrack sends the information to Viewpoint. This data
is used for a wide variety of accounting and project management processes.
PowerTrack makes it easy for
warehouse staff to track inventory and assign material, ensuring that needed
material is available for jobs. PowerTrack also provides cost and material usage
data to estimators, improving J.F. Electric’s competitiveness.
Timecard entry and equipment cost
tracking are other eventual uses the company is exploring.
According to Faulkner,
PowerTrack's outward simplicity and ease of use makes it the perfect choice to
allow users with less computer experience to interface with the accounting
system safely and with very little training. End users needed only a few minutes
to become proficient.
The Results
Since implementing PowerTrack, J.F.
Electric has increased its volume without requiring a major increase in
warehouse staff. More important, the company is able to track job costs with
much greater accuracy. Accurate cost data allows the company to refine its
estimating process, identify and avoid potential supply bottlenecks, and achieve
greater economies of scale in purchasing.
Says Faulkner, “There was no
question — none at all — based on our evaluation of nearly a dozen packages,
that Viewpoint and PowerTrack together was the right solution to take us to the
next level.”
Download this case study
in PDF format.
For more
information, please contact us.
|
Home