Shumate Mechanical, Inc.
"We were doing business and making money the first day we implemented WennSoft. Our customers were not impacted and that is what we were looking for."
Eve Harrell
Commercial Operations Manager, Shumate Mechanical
Full-service mechanical contractor has one year to take reins from previous corporate infrastructure and set up their own system. With WennSoft, they find easy transition, improved bottom line and increased customer satisfaction.
Shumate Mechanical (www.shumatemechanical.com) provides a full range of HVAC products and services to residential, commercial and industrial businesses in Atlanta and throughout Georgia. With 500 employees, including over 125 service technicians, Shumate offers installation, replacement, engineering, design build, new construction and maintenance services.
In 2004, Shumate became independent from parent company Lennox Industries. The new standalone entity had 12 months to extract itself from Lennox’s infrastructure and needed to find a new software solution. After attending the 2005 WennSoft Users Group, Shumate decided to implement the WennSoft Job Cost and Service Management Series along with Microsoft Dynamics™ GP.
“Summer 2005 was tough,” said Frank Steinocher, Shumate’s chief information officer. “In four or five months, we converted our database, tested the system and implemented WennSoft. A fast track like that can lead to hiccups, but we made it work.”
“We were doing business and making money the first day we implemented WennSoft,” said Eve Harrell, commercial operations manager. “Our customers were not impacted and that is what we were looking for.”
Improved Processes
Among the positive consequences from purchasing the WennSoft solutions was an additional unexpected one for Shumate.
“Buying this one product has made the entire team stronger,” Harrell said. “The implementation process helped us bond, created better communication between each other and helped us work more efficiently. A company that grows larger tends to cut down communication, but this has helped us communicate and grow faster as a company.”
An immediate positive impact was noticed by Shumate staff members.
“The greatest thing for us was the visibility of information,” Harrell said. “Entering information into one system was important, but the ability to retrieve it through many different kinds of reporting gave us the ability to provide people the specific information they needed.”
The WennSoft implementation led to a marked improvement in internal processes.
“Our project managers enter all core costs on a job, but the little things that are ordered by others add up over time,” Harrell said. “We now have much better control over costs and make sure we bill appropriately. Billing, specifically, has come to par with what is earned and that pleases us greatly.”
“On the service side, we schedule, dispatch and bill daily,” Steinocher said. “Documents are sent electronically between departments. Paper has been greatly decreased. We always know the status of a project. Our chief executive officer can check status at anytime. And we know what workflow is sitting where when we reach the end of the month.”
Previously, Shumate was updating projects by week or by month. With WennSoft solutions, adjustments can be made by staff while in the field day-by-day. The benefits are apparent.
“Residential service is able to watch labor and billing on a daily basis,” Steinocher said. “Staff can see how much money is getting posted to each area or how much revenue is coming in vs. costs generated each day. Changes can be made on site as needed to make sure we are profitable week-to-week.
“The ability to gather information in many different fashions to make quick and efficient business decisions is so important. That has taken us around that next bend and will help us in the next decade.”
Customer Service
Shumate appreciates the value of quality customer service. And they see it in action with WennSoft.
“We are very pleased with the way WennSoft listens to customers,” Harrell said. “Each time you bring on a new customer, he has his way of doing things. That can help a customer you have had for 10 years if WennSoft is willing to adapt and listen. They will meet our needs and that’s awesome for us.
“The service department is thorough and will stay with you.”
Bottom Line and Eye on the Future
Harrell is emphatic about the impact WennSoft has had on Shumate’s bottom line.
“A 3 percent increase on gross margin for commercial in the first year with Job Cost due to process modification and project information visibility,” she said. “Three percent is phenomenal.”
“On the residential service side, the additional reporting capability lets us monitor success on a daily basis and shoot for double digit profit,” Steinocher said.
Shumate has an eye on increasing customer awareness of projects in real time.
“We want to boost our web presence to interact with customers,” Steinocher said. “Shumate purchased Customer Portal from WennSoft to help enhance the experience of our customers – both commercial and residential. They will be able to view project status at 11 p.m. or anytime they wish.”