A-1 Cement Contractors Ltd.
A-1 Cement Contractors Limited (“A-1”) is a concrete company servicing homeowners and homebuilders, as well as commercial and municipal properties, in Calgary, Canada, since 1956. This family business has grown from a small backyard operation to a leader in the local industry through their commitment to quality and workmanship. Customers can depend on A-1 to provide top notch work for exposed, pattern and broom finish concrete driveways, patios and steps, as well as exterior weeping tile, window wells, damp proofing, basement gravel, basement floors and garage pads.
A HISTORY ENTWINED
Starting in 1956, the company found success as they continually delivered dependable and quality service. As the company grew, the customer list, staff and crew, and subcontractors also increased—which resulted in more papers, file cabinets and manual bookkeeping. But as the years passed, technology and software became more mainstream and accessible. In 1997, A1 seized the opportunity to participate in the direction of Resource Project Manager (RPM) software. The nitty-gritty, day-to-day business transactions were translated to the RPM software which A-1 fully utilized in the back office for well over a decade.
In 2004, Spira Data Corp. (“Spira”) was born and RPM became Spira, setting the foundation with proven technology in the industry. Collaborating extensively with customers, Spira created a vision, strategy, and product roadmap to address and solve the top business needs that were not available anywhere in the commercial software market. With innovation at the forefront, the evolution of Spira’s ORP™, rebranded from the original RPM software, began by methodically adding feature sets to allow customers to maximize ROI at a rapid pace. With the ever-changing technological landscape, Spira committed to advancing the software, with the primary focus on allowing customers to streamline their operations by leveraging emerging technologies. Today, Spira’s ORP™ is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, allowing for efficient and cost-effective scalability for growing businesses. Accommodating data capture in online and offline situations, Spira’s ORP™ includes a web application for the back-office (Spira Web), a native iOS/Android app for smartphones and tablets (Spira FI), and a standalone application for field laptops (Beacon), all purposely built for a variety of user’s roles to optimize operational efficiencies.
Although Spira continued to provide support for the legacy RPM software, as time went on and newer versions of Spira were released, the technology became outdated and the knowledge base for the original software code became more and more limited. In 2015, A-1 decided to migrate from RPM to what was Spira Command at the time, mostly executed by A-1’s internal IT manager. After a few months to fully assimilate to the more intuitive and user-friendly interface and reporting structure of Spira Command, the business found increased efficiencies with features such as job and ticket copy, drastically reducing keystrokes and data entry time for the users.
transition to support
All the way through 2021, A-1’s internal IT manager managed all software related projects, issues and tasks. But with the IT manager’s departure from the company, the business transitioned to directly communicating with Spira’s customer service team. Russell Vanderveen, A-1’s President and 3rd generation owner, reflects back on the transition.
“We were very worried about Spira support when our IT manager left. But our customer service experience thus far has exceeded expectations. We will submit a question or issue and can expect to receive a response within a few hours if not a few minutes. By directly communicating with Spira, we have been able to lean on their expertise to alleviate existing pain points with the software through features that we did not realize existed.”
All the Spira administrative tasks also fell to the business, which gave insight into how configurable Spira can be. Beckie Vanderveen, Service Manager, through trial and error and with some assistance from Spira support has successfully implemented changes to further increase efficiencies.
“We have been able to tailor the application through configurations to streamline data entry—renaming fields, re-ordering fields, setting up default values, etc. By working with Spira’s support, we have uncovered available features that are applicable to our business that we have not been taking advantage of. I am excited about rolling out the next version of Spira and all the new features that will be available to us then.”
LOOKING FORWARD
Currently, A-1 leverages Spira in the back-office. Hundreds of paper tickets are dropped off at the office daily, reviewed by a manager and then routed to be hand keyed into the system for processing payroll and customer invoicing. Forms, such as the Hazard Assessment Form, are still paper and need to be printed out, filled in, signed and then scanned and emailed to the back office.
In 2023, Russell has plans already underway to upgrade Spira to the latest version, configure the forms feature, and implement Spira FI, a mobile application, for the field. A-1 will undergo a digital transformation that includes web-based ticketing and forms that are accessible from any device—eliminating as much paper and manual reconciliation as possible. After which, Russell would like to tackle asset utilization and resource skills/certification management.
“I trust that Spira is the company that will help us achieve these goals all while doing it in style.”
Conclusion
From one generation to the next, A-1 has continued to grow and thrive. To support their success, they have looked to software and have trusted Spira (and Spira’s predecessor) for over two decades to help them achieve their goals. A-1 recognizes that Spira shares their dedication to customers and commitment to quality service. Having placed their trust in Spira for more than 25 years, A-1 is now eagerly looking forward to the next generation of digital transformation with excitement.
