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Stop 'Chasing Your Tail'
In the race for technology, the winners
are those who learn to merge high-tech
tools with business strengths.
BY FRED ODE
Business writers and motivational
speakers love to
compare business to
sports, and racing analogies are
ubiquitous. One story you may
have missed, however, is the one
about Clear Mary, an amazing greyhound
racing dog.
Clear Mary was a very fast dog,
trained to run and chase the electric
rabbit round and round the
track. One day, she took off out of
the starting gate along with many
other dogs, and then suddenly she
stopped. She watched the tail
ends of the other dogs racing after
that rabbit, and she looked at the
rabbit whirring around to the other
side of the track. Everyone was
shouting, “run, run,” and “look at
that stupid dog.” Suddenly, Clear
Mary jumped the guardrail and
sped over to the other side of the
track. Leaping at just the right time,
she caught that rabbit as it was
going by.
Sometimes business owners
and decision makers can feel a bit
like the greyhound racing dog when
chasing after ever-changing technology.
Just when we get close to
what we think we need, something
better, faster or smarter comes
along. And we keep running. But
maybe we need to be more like
Clear Mary. Maybe we need to
stop, think about the skills we already
possess, and go after the
technology that can improve our
strengths and give us true business
advantage.
A true-life example
In Northeast Ohio, one familiar,
long-established concrete contractor
is demonstrating how to blend
experience and craftsmanship with
efficient, cost-cutting technology
products. Cleveland Cement Contractors
(CCC), established in 1944,
has its stamp on many postwar
downtown buildings as well as other
major developments in the area.
With a second office in Richmond,
VA, the company posted 2004 revenues
in excess of $45 million and
employs up to 400 workers at any
given time. Having produced a
variety of concrete installations in
many states in the nation, Cleveland
Cement is the recipient of numerous
commendations and awards, including
the Builders Exchange
Craftsmanship Award.
According to Marin Ziemianski,
controller at CCC, the company is
certainly not the most sophisticated
high-tech contractor around, but it
is continuously and systematically
incorporating essential technology
components into its operating
budget. For example, communications
and data exchange with its
Richmond office has improved dramatically
since the company added
a terminal service through its Windows
2000 operating system. That
has allowed CCC to centralize
computing resources and manage
its remote users through a high speed,
dedicated connection.
The new communication and
networking technology has simplified
many areas of operation at
CCC, from finding jobs and preparing
bids to faster communications
between staff and offices. “We
recently purchased an HP Plotter,”
Ziemianski said. “So we are now
able to easily print out blueprints
and determine if it’s something that
will work for us. We have one staff
member who has been prospecting
plan rooms, such as the one
Builder’s Exchange has, and we’ve
come up with a couple of nice jobs
from them.”
Another major technology upgrade
came four years ago when the
company replaced an outdated
DOS-based accounting system with
a construction-specific job costing
system designed specifically for labor
intensive contractors. The contractor
used to have a hard time tracking
real-time labor costs since data was
collected and posted just once every
week. “The data was always somewhat
suspect because of redundant
data entry and no verification. Now
we always know where we are at with
labor and the accuracy of payroll
gives us a lot more flexibility,” Ziemianski
said.
“With our old system, we could
only keep two years of data on the
server, and our Richmond office
could send us only monthly batch
files,” Ziemianski said. “We are now
able to get data much faster and with
less effort. The data entry workload
decreased so much, in fact, that
when two support people left, we
didn’t need to replace them.”
Perhaps the best example of
how CCC merges business
strength with technology lies in
their equipment and machinery
investments. Having perfected
the scientific and engineering
aspects of concrete installation,
the company is now increasing
its overall efficiency thanks to the
help of some high-tech tools.
With the purchase of a new computerized
sensing system that
tracks concrete temperature,
CCC is able to more accurately
predict concrete curing rates,
which in turn can save time and
money on projects.
CCC’s most recent equipment
upgrade includes a self-leveling
laser screed that uses an
on-board computer to measure
screed elevation and automatically
make contouring and leveling
adjustments. This fully programmable
machine is capable
of producing the highest quality
concrete work. “Not only can it
automatically set curbs and pitch
for drains, but it is very good at
doing warehouse floors that
need to be super flat,” Ziemianski
says.
Keep moving
Always expanding (but never chasing),
CCC is considering a few new
technology purchases this year. The
primary focus in 2005, according to
Ziemianski, will be to further improve
communications. He’s considering a
VPN network that will allow project
managers and other off-site people
to have access to their system. “One
of the other things we want to do is
have net meetings,” he said. He
would also like to update their jobsite
cell phones with the new Blackberry
mobile communication device
that combines mobile phone, walkie-talkie
and PDA with qwerty keypad
into one hand-held unit.
Regardless of which technology
products Cleveland Cement
Contractors decide to pursue,
chances are they will make the
right decisions. And that’s
because they know their business
as well as their strengths. Like
Clear Mary, they’ve discovered the
path to success.
Fred Ode is the founder and chairman/CEO of Foundation Software,
Inc. For more, visit www.foundationsoft.com or call 800-246-0800.
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