Profile at a Glance: Established in 1995, Tower Industries manufacturers and installs cultured marble products, Meridian Solid Surface and Lumistone Glow-in-the-Dark Solid Surface in its 50,000 sq. ft. plant located in Massillon, Ohio. The company also fabricates and installs natural stone and Cambria quartz surfacing. Tower sells mostly to the wholesale residential market.
The Problem: Although a high-growth company, all orders were written by hand. Customers calling for status on orders were asked to wait on hold for someone to go to the file cabinet and pull the order, call the plant, relay the order number to plant personnel and wait for them to physically find the project to report on its status.
“Communication was a big part of the problem,” explains operations manager Peter Martin. “We were spending all our time writing orders, and there was no time to coordinate any additional information with the plant. If a customer called in to get a price, depending on who they talked to, they would get different pricing for the same item. It was severely limiting our ability to grow into the company we wanted to become.”
The Moraware Solution: JobTracker allowed Tower Industries to automate the order process from quotations through scheduling, inventory control and billing. Key employees now have the ability to ascertain order status within seconds by glancing at the JobTracker screen. The quotation process is standardized, which eliminates discrepancies due to human error.
“JobTracker allows us to respond to our customers much more efficiently,” says Martin. “When customers call about job status we can search in our system by their PO number, by our order number, by
the customer’s last name, the delivery address – anything that is in that job – and give them an answer while they are on the phone. It has been a huge, huge benefit to our company. Now we are poised for substantial growth by the end of this year. JobTracker is absolutely one of the keys to our future growth.”
“The software manages our price and product lists,” he continues. “When we do a quote we select from a menu of every item that we offer and put it into the quote. The program prints out a proposal that we can send to the customer. It also automatically estimates materials for that job.”
“Once a proposal becomes an order, the installation is scheduled automatically. If our lead times change, I can go in and make changes to the system and the appointment status turns a different color on the schedule. It is important to have the color coded schedule. I can tell in an instant by looking at the screen whether we have all our appointments for the next day confirmed or not. It has enabled us to actively manage our schedule – much more than we ever have before.”
“I also like the fact that the software is hosted on a server, which means I can log onto the system from my house at night or on weekends to make changes. It is easier to make price changes over the weekend when the system is not being used. I have access to all elements of the system at home the same as I would have from my desk.”
“If we didn’t have JobTracker, we would be in a heap of hurt.”
