Build Business Success in Roofing with Real-Time Access to Accurate Data

By John Kenney, Cotney Consulting Group.

Cloud-based work management platforms help you work collaboratively with teams and provide an accurate view of your business.

Overview of the Work Management Platform

There are many different cloud-based work platforms such as Smartsheet, Monday.com, Basecamp and others. Some have a familiar spreadsheet-like interface. You can not only plan, track, and manage projects in real-time, the collaborative platforms offer a range of tools, such as document and resource management, project reporting, and timeline tracking to mention a few.

These platforms have many uses and are exceptionally adaptable for the construction industry and, in particular, your roofing company. In the following paragraphs, we are going to explore just some of the ways you can implement this technology in your business.

Administrative work

Like most businesses, you probably have one of the many available accounting systems that keep track of your daily financial transitions with basic reporting features. Some even have a dashboard with a few graphics that show cash balances, payables, and receivable charts on it. Having the data in a program is just a start; to grow profitably, you have to have accurate data in front of you and have confidence in that data. You also have to know what the information is telling you.

The magic begins once you get data into these platforms to start a thorough quantitative and qualitative deep-dive analysis. Your goal is to put a management strategy in place that evaluates potential projects and use that evaluation to prioritize and implement your projects. Together, project managers and stakeholders analyze potential projects based on data-driven conclusions that direct decision-makers toward the most appropriate and rewarding projects.

Human Resources

You can set up an HR Suite to quickly fulfill your Human Resource tracking needs. 

• Recruiting and talent acquisition - track your return on investment (ROI) on recruiting activities by staying on top of your budgets, and streamlining internal planning and coordination with your hiring managers.

• Employee onboarding - streamline your processes and paperwork, maintain a fully auditable database that will assist you in growing your business.

• Employee resourcing and management - Increase visibility into your policies, office calendars, internal forms, and centralize your critical resources to have for a better-informed team.

Sales, Estimating, Planning, and Tracking Jobs

Sales teams can track leads and prospects, sales, contract closes, commissions, and close ratios. Contracts move through the approval process with automated alerts and approvals that automatically request the required signatures and inform accounting or payroll about specific financial tracking needs. When work is completed, contract details, work notes, labor records, and accounting data are all moved into a closeout sheet for final review before archiving.

With these platforms, you can capture project leads and detailed data on roofing jobs completed over the history of your company: material costs, duration, labor hours required, unexpected issues, and more. This information helps the company's estimators get a clear picture of what a new project would require and when crews will be available so work can begin.

Keeping track of your historical data on all the projects that you have completed allows you to know the man-hours it has taken to do the job, material underages, and overages, and the equipment used. Your team can see how long the project has taken, what time of year it was done, the type of crew, and how many men.  

The operations team can use these platfroms to plan and schedule every step of a job, then track its status as work progresses. Managers get real-time visibility into the status of any project; if work is 30% complete, but 40% of the allocated materials and labor have been used, leaders can step in to identify the problems, reset processes or expectations, and get things moving in the right direction.

It's easier to capture real-time details using these cloud-based solutions because users can access forms and data on their phones. With many team members on the go-between job sites, mobile access ensures they can get the most current information on a job before they arrive.

Team and Stakeholder Reporting

Dashboards make it easy for the estimating, sales, and operations teams to share information that is needed to make decisions.

Dashboards make it easy to streamline the process. In a C-level or other Senior Management position in your company, you must have the information you can crunch, and have confidence that it's accurate. The nice thing about these platfroms is, once you get the data in, you can have your dashboards with your KPIs and company benchmarks all preset on one side and actuals on the other half. You can make your projections with numbers, graphs, or whatever works for you, and in minutes, you can get the health of your company.

Customer Reporting

With the same concept as dashboards, you can set up your clients to have secured access portals to the data that you need to share with them. Your customers can access this information on a desktop, smartphone, or tablet device.

These platforms are a great way to streamline your company's processes. You and your team will spend less time looking for information, with it all being in one location. Your team will collaborate and share information over one platform with confidence in the built in security. These platforms have robust global security features and administrative controls that enable you to audit ownership, access, and usage. Your data is safe and can only be edited or viewed to who you set up with permissions.

To learn more about how to implement these platfroms into your business, contact John Kenney at Cotney Consulting Group.

John Kenney has over 45 years' experience in the roofing industry. John started his career by working as a roofing apprentice at a family business in the Northeast to operating multiple Top 100 Roofing Contractors. As Chief Operating Officer, John is intimately familiar with all aspects of roofing production, estimating, and operations. During his tenure in the industry, John ran business units associated with delivering great workmanship and unparalleled customer service while ensuring strong net profits for his company before joining Cotney Consulting Group. If you would like any further information on this or another subject, you can contact John at jkenney@cotneyconsulting.com