The future of smart materials ordering

By Anna Lockhart.  

As technology continues to advance, platforms like Beacon PRO+ have begun to offer smart programs that make the management side of running a roofing company simpler!   

In a recent Read Listen Watch® (RLW), “24/7 Smart Material Ordering,” host Karen Edwards met with industry experts Will Barber from Beacon and Mark Larkin from EagleView to discuss the importance of technology and digital platforms in the roofing industry. Particularly, they discussed the role platforms like Beacon PRO+ plays in helping business owners streamline their material ordering process.  

In this webinar, Will and Mark discussed how their two companies, EagleView and Beacon, have partnered up to bring their customers “Smart Order,” a feature for Beacon PRO+ members that allows them to save time and money when ordering materials for building projects. As technologies like Smart Order take off and bring business owners a completely new way to manage their materials, these technologies are allowing the roofing industry to change the way it does business for the better.  

As the product manager for the Beacon PRO+ program, Will had some valuable insights to share about the platform, which is a self-service portal for businesses to manage countless organizational functions. He explained, “On the surface it is a business-to-business E-commerce platform. But beyond that, it’s really a 24/7-piece point of access to Beacon for the customer... There is no off switch for eCommerce, and that's the beauty of it.” 

EagleView, known for its incredible ability to provide accurate measurement data to roofing professionals thanks to their aerial imagery technology, integrates their abilities into the program by providing users with roof measurements and imagery to better prepare for project proposals, materials ordering and more. Mike emphasized that integrating into platforms for business owners to put their data to use has allowed for contractors to cut back on the time needed for measuring and calculating material needs. Now, they can do it with the click of a button.  

He shared, “For us, it's all about trying to pivot from that previous PDF format into a digital company and being able to get that data to the appropriate parties to digest it in a way that is instant.” 

Through their companies’ collaborations to bring the Smart Order program together, the possibilities are endless for their users!  

Read the transcript, Listen to the interview or Watch the webinar to learn more about Smart Order and Beacon PRO+!