E. M. Rose specializes as a homebuilder, but these are not “normal” homes. Typically these homes enclose 20,000 square feet or more. They often require several years to construct, at a cost upwards of $350 per square foot. In this type of construction, the builder is at the owner’s disposal 24-hours a day, and weekly project meetings can involve as many as a dozen professionals participating, from the owner and architect, the general contractor, interior decorator, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, landscape architect, etc.
Eric Rose, president of E.M. Rose, decided in 1999 that it was imperative that technology be deployed throughout the company by placing computers on-site, using the web, and generally working in an electronic world instead of everything having to be on paper. Eric felt it was important to move toward technology because it was clear that the future in competition was going to be scewed by technology and of course as we have all found out,m new tools would become available to better compete for and perform new projects.
The biggest challenge Eric Rose encountered came from a search for technology that would not change his personnel’ and his company processes, but would improve the efficiencies of his staff, allowing E. M. Rose to work smarter and communicate more thoroughly. Rose wanted to grow his company while maintaining the company’s attention to detail, quality, and superior customer service and to the greatest extent possible, without the addition of new office staff.
He began searching with IBM, asking to see all software in various disciplines that had been certified to run on IBM Netfinity Servers. In particular, Eric Rose wanted IBM certified software for construction accounting built on Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine and project management software built on Lotus Notes and fully integrated with the SQL accounting package. After looking at all the software that met those qualifications – there were fewer than he imagined – Eric Rose selected Geac StarBuilder job cost accounting and StarProject for Notes project management software. These two cutting edge applications provided the web-based, SQL server and Lotus Notes based technology and functionality that would form the basis for a broader deplopyment of spophisticated technoilogies including document management, electronic document routning and review systems, document sharing with version and access control, unified messaging, and more.
These technologies provided he means to share information and speed communication, while avoiding multiple versions of documents and providing access to up-to-the-minute project information to every employee and project team member, no matter where they are. On this foundation , Rose also implemented unified messaging, which routes all voice messages, faxes, and emailsthrough the Notes email system to his Notes mail client. Captaris(Fromerly AVT) provides the software CallXPress for Notes, and Right Fax Server which captures faxes and delivers them through the email system.
The Captaris Unified Messaging System provides extensive voice messaging functionality and remote access and control of each employee’s various messages allowing them to receive them, forward them, copy them or archive them from anywhere to anywhere. Through CallXpress E.M. Rose can also communicate with any vendor without having to leave their email client even if the vendor doesn’t have email yet. One of E.M. Rose’s basic requirements of IBM, was that the sophisticated level of technology E.M. Rose was seeking to deploy, didn’t cut them off from their less sophisticated business partners. “We recognized that the construction industry, particularly residential construction, is slow to adopt technology”. When E.M. Rose wants to send an email message to a vendor, the system can determine automatically whether to send the message, including attachments, via email or in the absence of email, via fax. If it determines that it must use fax to communicate with a particular vendor, the system creates an image of the email and the attachments and automatically creates a cover page, resulting in a complete and properly formatted fax. All the while, the E.M. Rose employee never left their email client and all their sent messages are saved in the same place.
Another program, Pylon Pro from AvantGo,enables E.M. Rose employees to receive all of their voice, fax, and emails on their Palm 705 devices so that all employees gain access to the information on their active projects. Using caller ID, voicemails and faxes can be identified quickly on the Palm and if the employee has been waiting for a call or fax from a particular number, they can call into the office and have the actual fax forwarded to them automatically or they can listen to their voicemail, they can even have their emails read to them by the computer systems while they are on-site or on the road.Employees of E. M. Rose are never without access to all the information needed to complete their work. Now, E. M. Rose builds fine homes using cutting-edge technology.
The impact of this technology selection is very clear in Rose’s mind. A major competitor to E. M. Rose employs nine project managers and annual revenue totaling $40million, earnings of $5 million for each project manager. In contrast, E. M. Rose employs only one project manager and boasts revenues of $15 million, three times his competitor’s earnings per project manager. These revenues increased $7 million from last year. In addition, where E. M. Rose managed only two projects at any given time a year ago, now they manage four simultaneously, with no additional staff.
E. M. Rose achieved their goal of deploying technology without requiring their staff to learn no ways of doing their jobs. “We knew we had competent people, our reputation bears that out, we didn’t need to be taught new tasks by software”, we simply needed software to allow us to do our work to a higher level of quality, faster and more efficnetly. E.M. Rose hasn’t changed the way their staff works, they changed the tools they provide so their staff works smarter by adopting new technology.