Profile at a Glance: Established in 1976 as a general contracting firm, Olive Mill has specialized in countertop fabrication and installation since 1986. The company sells solid surface, granite and quartz countertops to a mostly retail residential clientele in the Anaheim area.
The Problem: Olive Mill’s existing system for project management and scheduling was in the hands of a single employee, who had created the program. Because no one else at Olive Mill understood the system, options for growth were severely limited, plus it put the company in a potentially precarious position should this key employee ever leave the company.
“In the process of running our business we have a lot of people relying on us to get information to them quickly and accurately,” says Andy Graves, president of Olive Mill. “Because there was literally only one person on earth who understood our scheduling system it jeopardized the entire operation if he were suddenly out of the picture. We needed a more consistent and collaborative approach to managing our front office operations.”
The Moraware Solution:JobTracker introduced an easy-to-use, single entry management system that has revolutionized Olive Mill’s operations. Olive Mill uses JobTracker for job costing, inventory control, ordering and scheduling. Because it requires a consistent method for entering and retrieving information, JobTracker has helped company managers develop and implement standardized procedures for virtually all of Olive Mill’s processes. Important information regarding scheduling, job costs and inventory is always readily accessible to company personnel, both in the office and remotely over the Internet.
“We use it for all the scheduling,” says Graves. “We keep all our pricing in it. We do all of our purchase orders out of there. We do not use it for quoting because we have a quoting program we have used for years and it really works well. The next step for us will be proposals and contracts, which will transfer all the information seamlessly through the entire process.”
“JobTracker lets us attach project photos with every job. When a customer calls for service on a countertop installed two years ago, we can pull a picture of the job and get a visual feel for the layout, colors, edges and so forth without having to make an extra trip to the customer’s home.”
“The other great thing is it is a web-based program. The information resides on a single server, which means I don’t need to have JobTracker installed on the machine I am working on to use it. Thus, you can go anywhere you want, type in a URL and you have your information.”
“No matter which sales person is selling a job, they always need an update to the calendar when closing the sale. They can go into JobTracker and view the current status of the calendar and know the information is up-to-the-minute accurate. That is because when anyone changes anything regarding a project, it is automatically changed for everyone. No more double scheduling or disappointing customers because of a lack of reliable, timely information.”
“It’s nice to know the folks at Moraware actually understand the countertop business. It makes it easy.”
“The program is really, really good. Could I go back to not having JobTracker in my business? No, no, no, no!”
