High-Tech Software Keeps Company at Cutting Edge
Excerpt from Electrical Contractor Nov. 1999
Miller Electric Construction, of Allison Park, Pa., has always used the latest technology, starting in 1964 when Richard R. Miller founded the company in the service bay of a local gas station. That focus has not diminished over the years. Indeed, it is one reason the company has grown to become one of Western Pennsylvania's leading electrical contractors, with more than 150 employees.
Bill Miller, president of Miller Electric Construction, believes that construction management software is one of his company's most important tools. A recent example of that technology focus: Bill Miller, the founder's son and company president, uses the latest construction management software to help Miller Electric, a NECA member since 1980, run more efficiently and profitably. That, in turn, he believes, helps his customers and employees.
"We've always been progressive about technology," said Miller. "We've always believed that, if used correctly, software can be one of our most productive tools."
Since the company began employing software in the late 1970s, it has evolved from the earliest operating system to DOS and Novell, and now to Microsoft's Windows NT. Miller installed Forefront® Construction Management Software from Seattle-based Dexter + Chaney in late 1997, and will soon install the newest version. For most of two decades, Miller customized other construction management software to meet specific needs—but with Forefront, that's no longer necessary.
Access to Information
Besides Miller, others at Miller Electric who use the company's construction management software include top management, office and accounting staff, project managers, purchasing personnel, and warehouse staff. Each has access to current information, which helps the company run jobs profitably, control costs, do more work in less time, increase accuracy and help customers with information they request.
For example, although the company's payroll has increased 50 percent since the system was installed, payroll-processing time has decreased 50 percent. Likewise, Bill Miller's personal month-end information processing—such as coordinating job site projections with project managers and checking receivables with the billing department—has been reduced from as many as four days to as few as one.
"You can 'drill down' in great detail into a job, right on the screen, without spending much time," said Miller. "I use summary reports—which can be five or six pages long—for accounts receivable aging, payables aging, current job costs, cost versus profitability, and general overhead.
"If I look at the summaries, and I have a question," Miller continued, "I can instantly look at the line item of the summary where I have a question through the inquiry on the screen. Then, I can drill down, also on the screen, to the level I need to pinpoint any deficiencies or problems."
Profitability
The system helps the company maintain job profitability by tracking payroll and materials. Information (on payroll, materials, or anything else) is entered only once into the system; materials are entered on a daily basis, and payroll is logged in weekly. As information flows into the system, the company can get "snapshots" of job costs.
"Our project managers and cost control people can very quickly take a glance at the information and know that, for example, the materials are accurate to within a day and that labor is accurate to within a week," said Miller. "Armed with current information, they can make any necessary corrections on a job."
Likewise, the system helps them determine the profitability of certain types of jobs—which, in turn, influences the future jobs that they pursue. The system also helps Miller and other senior managers monitor the company as a whole, including their work backlog. They can track the efficiency of each department in the company, and thus determine those that are doing well and those that might need improvement.
Purchasing, warehouse, and field staff employ the system to track pricing and location of materials, using a purchase order with a tracking number assigned to each purchase. They can use the purchase order number on look-up screens to locate any item—at the main office, a job site or elsewhere—that has been delivered to the company.
Customer Benefits
The "technology is key" philosophy is appropriate for a company whose customers in Pittsburgh, and throughout western Pennsylvania, are known internationally for their technological advances. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Carnegie Mellon University, and other leading medical and educational institutions are among its clients.
Miller Electric also performs industrial work for local companies, such as PPG, Heinz, and Sony (of Western Pennsylvania) from its 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Allison Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Those customers benefit from the company's use of construction management software, says Miller.
"We keep a great deal of job detail in the system, long after a job has been completed," said Miller. "If a customer calls us and asks, 'Where did you buy a particular item?' we can tell him immediately. Likewise, if we've wired an office space for a customer, and a few years later they decide to occupy an additional floor of their building, we have the ability to call up the old details of the materials used on the job. The system can match brands and catalog numbers, so that the owner has reduced maintenance considerations in the future, and the building has a better appearance."
The system also helps promote safety. Using the software's historical payroll tracking information, Miller identifies and awards employees and job sites that have been accident-free.
Document Imaging
Miller will soon be using one of the newest advancements in computer technology: document imaging, which helps ease the pain of information storage and retrieval, while dramatically reducing "document clutter." Miller Electric's advice was included in the design of the recently launched Document Imaging system in Forefront.
"Like any other contractor, we're saving copies of vendor invoices and job documentation in paper files, which takes a tremendous amount of storage space," said Miller. "We'll soon be storing that information on the computer. Besides giving us more office space, it will increase our efficiency. Our administrative staff will spend less time retrieving and refiling documents for others in the company."
Document imaging, Miller explains, also will benefit his customers.
"We'll be able to store the operation and maintenance manuals in the computer that typically are placed in a three-ring binder and get stuck on a shelf," said Miller. "Those manuals, in three-ring binders, occupy too much shelf space for us to maintain for our customers. However, if we can scan and record this information on CD-ROM (or other computer media), our customers can depend on us to retrieve electrical information about their building."
Everyone Wins
Miller explains that the use of technology corresponds to his philosophy of running a business.
"Our local union uses the motto 'On Time, On Budget, and Right the First Time' and has a little pictorial diagram of an equilateral triangle to summarize that relationship," said Miller. "The customer forms the base of the triangle, and the two sides are the contractor and the IBEW. I firmly believe that the use of technology helps us hold up our end of the triangle—as it has for the past 35 years.
"Our firm's growth and our ability to serve our customers relies on our ability to perform our duties in a timely, cost-effective, and reliable manner," he continued. "Our partnership with Dexter + Chaney, our customers, IBEW Local No. 5 and others allows us to do this in a progressive way."
Reproduced by permission from: Electrical Contractor, November, 1999.
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