All of us who own an integration company know how truly difficult it is to manage your company and all your projects. It can be head spinning when busy! There are a lot of tools out there that can help you, some niche and require a handful of them to make your own recipe. Some are built end-to-end but cost more than most of us can afford. That’s why we built ProjX360. For me, it was created from my own need as a custom integrator to help manage our own integration company (HTA Certified Creative Sound & Vision). It’s specifically for companies like us, so we’re not relying on companies outside our vertical for vital information.
In our projects, there are so many moving parts with construction delays, supply chain production backups, project lengths and many more. Due to these constraints, it was so important to create internal processes that managed our company workflow. For over two decades at this, some of the big issues we have experienced in my integration company are:
• Project Management
• Operations
• Procurement/Inventory
• Time Management of the Project
One of these challenges, at the core of Project Management, is the transition of a project from sales to production. Making sure “how” the project was sold and the expectations that were set between the salesperson and the customer is crucial information for production’s success.
In our integration company, we have an internal design meeting. If this is a new construction project, we do this meeting about 120 days before final installation. We will also have a prewire walk through with the salesperson, client or builder and the project manager before any movement.
In the internal design meeting, we have the salesperson, project manager, purchasing, and the lead technician and programmer. The salesperson will explain how the project was sold and any obstacles they think we might encounter; this is all documented in a Project’s “discussions” for a very clear thread. We make sure all the product that was specified is correct and that we will be able to get it in time for the installation. If there are product changes needed, we create an internal change order to make sure all the correct product is ready for ordering.
How much time do you lose because of the little details that are missed? Do your technicians know exactly what they are doing before setting foot on site?
During the production of a project, we have created different process checklists like:
• Prewire Checklist
• Trim Checklist
• Final Checklist
• QC Checklist
These checklists are in each Project and provide the different steps or items that need to be completed for each of these phases. Yes, we have workorders per phase to track against, but these capture the details that so often get missed. We have a weekly JIP Meeting (Jobs In Progress) to review every single contract that’s ongoing. In this meeting we have sales, engineering, project managers, purchasing, and the lead technicians. Using ProjX360, we filter the projects (locations) by status that are going on this week (the week of) and two weeks out. We talk about each one and discuss any issues ongoing or forecasted.
How do you handle all the changes throughout a project?
We all know there’s no perfect project! Changes happen, that’s a major constant in our industry. All projects have changes that come into play while the project is going on. Instead of creating an exorbitant number of change orders, we created an “add/delete” form for the technicians to log anything that is added or deleted during each phase of the project. Using ProjX360, the technicians will also create a “discussion” with the appropriate team members to discuss these changes and needs.
After each phase, the project manager and salesperson will go through the “add/delete” form and create the client’s change order. This reduces the amount of change orders you are sending to your customers, so they don’t feel they are being nickeled and dimed. Plus, it is easier for you to track and ensure you are paid for them.
Are you making or losing money on your projects?
The most difficult thing to track for our projects is the amount of time they really take to complete successfully. We typically know why and what we are buying the product for but what we don’t know is: “are we correctly bidding these projects with enough labor hours?”. You need real-time labor feedback.
Having your technicians and employees track their time against the project is imperative, so you can see afterward and especially during if the estimated time really took what your sales team thought it would. This is a critical view we get from ProjX360. Timeline budgets are the first sign to tell us if we made money or not. It’s also going to give us the first red flag for scope creep, if we missed a change order, and if we’re most likely going to be over budget on that time or phase.
Do you know if you have everything for the project before it starts and where it all is?
Managing inventory is one of the biggest challenges. Most of us don’t stock a lot of inventory like a retail store; we usually order just in time per contract. This can be a difficult task; making sure you have all the products before the project starts.
Tracking product that goes out but doesn’t get used; we must ensure it is back in our inventory, so we know that we have it available for another project. Making sure the vans are stocked with the standard materials the technicians need on a regular basis is important to reduce the number of repeat trips (especially the non-billable ones). This alone used to cost us thousands of dollars every year, until we had this process in place. One of our key team members is our inventory manager who makes sure all this happens. ProjX360’s Inventory Management Module is an important tool, and it requires someone with the skill and discipline of your processes to make it truly useful and efficient.
Bottom line, if you don’t have process in your business to help manage these aspects, you will lose money. You need a system that will give you feedback and insight to make the right decisions, daily. This is why we created such a tool with ProjX360, the industry’s end-to-end management software. ProjX360 can help you manage your company from:
• Sales
• Proposals
• Project Management
• Scheduling
• Time Tracking
• Service
• Inventory Management
• Custom Reporting
ProjX360 was created from my own need as a custom integrator to help manage our integration company, let us help you manage yours.
ProjX360's contact information is to the right (or below if viewing on a mobile device). Contact them to learn more about what they have to offer sales@projx360.com or call 844-688-5584.
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