Challenge

New England is home to one of the top 75 U.S. general contractors for heavy civil and transportation construction, including highways and bridges, airports, mass transit, railroads, flood control and concrete structures. In business more than 100 years, the company also manufactures construction aggregates, bituminous concrete and cement concrete, with some 50 plants scattered around the country. Each year, this contractor completes $800 million of work in 20 or more states, operating from field offices in 15 states and employing close to 5,000 workers during peak construction season.

The complexities of its business prompted the company to implement a comprehensive J.D. Edwards solution that would help increase margins, streamline operations and maximize the productivity of equipment and labor resources – plus help it respond quickly to changes in the marketplace.

Management chose a solution that included end-to-end project management for job set-up, budgeting, job cost, subcontractor and labor management, forecasting and billing; workforce management for HR and payroll issues; enterprise asset management to maximize the utility and production of equipment, while minimizing maintenance costs and downtime; procurement and subcontract management to automate processes and management of subs; a financial foundation that automatically feeds data into the appropriate financial application; and related tools and technology to optimize the company’s J.D. Edwards investment.

Within a few weeks following implementation of the solution, the construction firm found it needed additional support to fine-tune some of the applications. Particularly critical were its payroll and job cost applications, both of which required issue resolution to meet business needs.

Solution

The company asked Integrated Concepts, Inc., to provide post-go live support with the new JDE ERP system, and ICI President Ann O’Neal elected to direct the project herself. An ICI team of seven consultants, including developers and business analysts, joined with a handful of implementation team consultants still on site. Led by Ann, the group went to work to stabilize the system, educate the corporate office user community and create reports to support their best business practices within the J.D. Edwards solution.

Initially, the ICI-led team addressed the most critical needs – paying employees and tracking job costs – which required changing the software setup to handle those functions according to the client’s unique specifications.

Over the next eight months, the team resolved issues and fine-tuned applications within other JDE modules, including Sales Order Management, Accounts Receivable, Procurement and Accounts Payable, to meet the company’s business requirements. ICI then embarked on an extensive training program to teach the client’s employees how to use the new applications and make the most of their features.

Training for headquarters staff encompassed hands-on education for Accounts Payable, Procurement, Contract Billing, Inventory, Job Cost, Accounts Receivable, Sales Order Processing, Human Resources, Payroll, Fixed Assets and Equipment. In the field, ICI undertook training of office managers, engineers, foremen, plant managers and technical mechanics for applications specific to their jobs.

Results

For this client, one of the most desirable functions of the J.D. Edwards solution was the job cost application. Previously, the company tracked project costs through a number of manual processes. With its new, customized solution, the company now can accurately and efficiently track the labor, materials and equipment costs of building a road or a bridge. The solution automated those manual processes to deliver timely data and financial statements on each project, every step of the way.

The company has been able to gain construction efficiencies, maximize profit margins and improve equipment utilization, while minimizing equipment maintenance costs, improving control of subcontractors and more. Designed to meet its unique needs, the company’s solution provides a single, integrated environment that takes full advantage of current technology to increase overall operating efficiency and constrain costs, while allowing flexibility for future growth.

Senior leaders have been generous with their praise and invited ICI to stay on to develop further enhancements to their new system. A senior vice president had this to say about ICI’s work: “I personally wish to thank you for all of your effort in helping us get to the ‘offensive’ position in this endeavor. I admire you and your team’s ability to undertake a difficult and often thankless job, and only with hard work and perseverance, accomplish the goal.”

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