CF Construction Services
Serving Calgary and the greater Calgary area, CF Construction Services (CF), established in 2003, is a concrete flatwork construction company offering residential concrete flatwork services for everything from patios to driveways. Operating with an emphasis on customer service, CF commits to providing the highest quality work while continuously looking for ways to improve and fostering relationships with their customers and partners.
OUTGROWING CURRENT SOLUTIONS
As with many companies starting out, in the beginning, CF leveraged the most cost-effective solution for managing their data and processes, i.e., using what they have, Excel. And as they proved to be a successful business, they knew that software was needed to support their growth. In 2007, CF selected and implemented an ERP system. Within the new ERP system, there were components and features that applied to their field operations that they opted to use.
As CF continued to grow, the reality was that the solution did not meet all their field operations business requirements. This resulted in a build out of an Access database by CF’s IT to manage field operations. Data entry became even more intensive. The same information had to be keyed in multiple times—to Excel, Access, and ERP. Creating reports involved onerous activities such as data manipulation and reconciliation that required many man hours.
Finally, in 2020, CF determined that they need a purpose-built field operations solution to support their business and planned growth.
SHOPPING FOR SOFTWARE
The hunt for new software began with learning about the solutions that CF’s builders and suppliers utilize as well as searching for other potential software solutions. CF sat through a handful of various software sales demonstrations, including Spira’s ORP®. Out of the box, Spira checked off more of the boxes of what they needed and wanted in comparison to the other software packages, but all the sales teams did their job of selling and promising that their solution is the right fit. Often, though, it is hard to trust that what the sales teams are pitching is truly reality.
Ultimately, CF selected Spira because of Spira’s reputation, through word of mouth. CF employees that have previously used Spira at former employers had positive experiences and recommended the software.
OPERATING WITH SPIRA
Allison Wilson, Systems Analyst, spearheaded the Spira implementation project. She worked hand in hand with the Spira delivery team to document requirements, configure the system, test processes and reports. Overall, it was a very smooth implementation project that went live in February 2023.
Processes changed drastically with the new system. They are now streamlined and more efficient with greater visibility into cost and revenue. Order entry is much faster than previously as all duplicative data entry has been eliminated. The service and warranty team utilizes the system to manage all warranty tickets to provide transparency and accountability on costs. The invoicing team can now invoice the customer as soon as the job is completed, whereas before they had to wait until the next business day at the earliest to ensure all data is inputted and reconciled. The overall time and effort required to complete accounting month end processes reduced by 70%; and the weekly reporting process reduced by 50%.
Allison reflects on one of the more complex reports that she runs month to month:
“Every month we review every single job to identify areas of improvement via a profitability report. On average, it took 3 weeks to compile the report—having to export data from Access into Excel to marry data from the accounting system. It required data manipulation and reconciliation to output in a sensical and analytical format. With Spira, I can run the report and the data outputs instantaneously. I almost cried the first time I ran it.”
August 2023 was one of CF’s biggest months in terms of jobs and job profitability and Allison attributes part of that success to Spira. Spira’s ORP® has enabled the CF team to become more proactive; less time spent inputting, reconciling, researching data and more time identifying areas for improvement and executing new initiatives.
“Spira offers a flexible rigidity that was not available in what we had and in other solutions we saw. To be able to tailor the system to our business requirements through the plethora of configuration options exceeded our expectations. We now have a system that can quickly report on what we need and require. The reporting package available for analytics, customer reporting, etc. is so much better than what we used to have.”
ALIGNED CUSTOMER SERVICE VALUES
The Spira delivery team worked alongside CF throughout the entire implementation project. The team listened to CF’s concerns and provided guidance as needed. Allison describes the team as patient, knowledgeable and understanding—a pleasure to work with.
Once the project went live, CF transitioned from working with the delivery team to the support team. Allison has worked with other software vendors and customer service teams and calls the Spira support team “a breath of fresh air”. With other vendors, Allison experienced long wait times for responses to issues and inquiries, needing to routinely follow up to and/or reopen issues to get resolution. Spira support, on the other hand, responds within 24 hours, is knowledgeable about the product and the customer, and communicates a plan for resolution promptly.
“It is obvious that the people at Spira are committed to providing high quality customer service. They prioritize their customers just as we prioritize our customers. Their support team is truly a breath of fresh air.“
LOOKING FORWARD
With the success of the Spira project, CF is eager to continue improving their processes with technology. With any software implementation, there are must-have and nice to have requirements. Spira’s ORP® robust feature set provided more than just the must-haves right out of the box. As the CF team utilizes the software, and experiences the improvements to date, they are looking for opportunities for further improvements and plan to partner with Spira to build out and implement new features.
Darren Sweeney, President, now has reporting and data analytics right at his fingertips and is continually inspired to push for more—whether it be executive dashboarding or automated notifications—to help him make decisions quickly and confidently.
“Spira is set up to promote productivity and support our desired growth. As we plan for the future, whether it be expanding our service areas or adding additional service lines, I trust that Spira can scale with us.”
Conclusion
Since 2003, CF has been providing concrete flatwork construction services throughout Calgary and the greater Calgary area. CF is committed to their customers and pride themselves on delivering the highest level of customer service. By eliminating their data entry intensive processes and moving their field operations processes to Spira, it has enabled them to easily honor that commitment by allowing staff to focus on the services and trust that the system and process outputs timely and accurate invoices. Spira’s ORP® helps CF reduce the time from order to cash and is set up to support their continued growth and expansion efforts.
