F. Rodgers Corporation: Double-digit growth leads contractor to switch from Timberline to WennSoft with Microsoft Dynamics
"When we used Timberline it might take as long as 20 minutes to run a job list. Today we can run it instantly."
Matt Warner
Chief Financial Officer, F. Rodgers Corporation
F. Rodgers Corporation (www.frodgers.com) is one of the largest insulation and
specialty contractors in the western United States, offering customers a diverse and
complete package of insulation and specialty services. F. Rodgers has locations in six states and, in fall 2007, opened their first location in Canada Edmonton, Alberta). The company consistently has more than 3,000 open jobs, maintains a fleet of more than 400 vehicles and owns over 300,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space for material storage and stateoftheart fabrication equipment.
When Matt Warner joined F. Rodgers in 1997 as systems manager, the Livermore, Calif.basedcompany employed fewer than 200 people, generating nearly $30 million in annual revenue from three locations. At the time of his hire, Warner helped utilize the recently implemented Timberline job costing software.
By 2005, Warner, now the chief financial officer, was overseeing the company’s search for a new business management solution.
“We were one of Timberline’s largest customers in 2005 and coming across problems they could not figure out,” Warner said. “We had pushed the limits of their capacity, including needing to reenter more than 60,000 pieces of data from a file their system had lost and could not retrieve. F. Rodgers needed something bigger and better.”
Following an extensive search process, that included members of the F. Rodgers IT staff – and with the assistance of sales partner Armanino McKenna, LLP of San Ramon, Calif. – the decision was made in 2006 to switch their financial accounting package to Microsoft® Dynamics™ GP and job costing solution to WennSoft.
“We completed normal daily processing that first day, including invoicing, cash receipts
and printing out checks,” Peters said.
Migrating data and implementing, a new business management solution can be a daunting task in corporation the size of F. Rodgers. Warner took advantage of knowledge gained in past implementations.
“One thing we did right this time was look back on what we did wrong last time,” he said.
“We needed the whole company to buy in from the start that the old system was no longer for us and we needed to move on. We had to sell our people and, over time, they came around.”
“There were some challenges the first two weeks, but we closed the month well and it went quite smoothly, overall,” Warner said. “We closed the fiscal year on schedule. In retrospect, it was as smooth a ‘go live’ as you could have.”
Improved Process, Increased Efficiency
The time savings for F. Rodgers was immediate and dramatic.
“When we used Timberline it might take as long as 20 minutes to run a job list,” Warner said.
“Today we can run it instantly. Accounts Receivable reports used to be big and cumbersome, but today they are run in just seconds. There are no negative performance issues at all with WennSoft or Microsoft Dynamics GP, which is a big plus.”
Access to data is a key area of improvement for F. Rodgers and their clients.
“In the past, it could take an hour to get a specific piece of data,” Warner said. “With WennSoft and Microsoft Dynamics GP, there is a huge difference in the speed of getting data, and that data is much more accessible. For customers who want more specific data, we can easily set up the tables they request.”
Another area of improvement that positively impacted the bottom line is the purchase
order process. Previously, purchasing data was exported into one file and imported to other files, leading to delays.
“We can put a PO number on a job before it ever hits the warehouse,” Warner said. “There may be three million dollars worth of costs that are being accrued; information that previously would not be in the system until the following month.”
Simplified Customizations
Warner knew that any software package utilized by F. Rodgers would have to allow for the proactive nature of technical staff members.
“We have always been hands on with technology and our staff is on the lookout for the ‘latest and greatest,’ he said. “The new solution had to be bigger and more flexible to add, make changes or adjust as our business needs change. Our previous provider was not open or flexible enough for our needs. Microsoft Dynamics GP and WennSoft have been quite open to modifications.”
WennSoft Job Cost gives F. Rodgers the ability to easily add custom fields or custom items to drop down menus, a feature staff members utilize often. Staff has also noticed improvements. “If we are working on a residential, multiple-home project, all we need to do is set up the job once, then make a copy of the original setup and change the site address or PO number.” Warner said “Our last system required each job to be set up one-by-one.”
Crossing New Borders
The future of F. Rodgers Corporation has already arrived. They now have 12 locations, over $200 million in annual sales and 300 office staff members, along with 125 field supervisors and 750-1,000 field employees.
Opening the Edmonton location not only provided a new customer base in Canada but also brought a series of new challenges, including branding a different until or currency and adapting to the metric system.
“What might have been an entirely new implementation took only a month.” Warner said.
“We were able to set up a separate server and separate package to dale with our Canada location. We will continue working with WennSoft and Microsoft Dynamics GP to optimize and improve the system at all of our locations.”