Improved turnaround time for reports from one week to less than 48 hours.
November 26, 2020
Executive Summary
Capstone Civil Engineering, Inc (CCE) needed to bring efficiency to its reporting process. The company wanted a solution that could be tailored to meet their requirements and budget. CCE was excited to move forward with eFieldData’s cloud-based SaaS solution to streamline its processes – from scheduling to field data collection and reporting.
Business Challenge
CCE’s reporting process was manual and time consuming. It was using a combination of spreadsheets, word documents and paper forms. Keeping track of projects and paperwork was both time consuming and frustrating. CCE realized that it had to harness technology to streamline its reporting process. It wanted real-time access to field data as soon as the technicians completed their field tests.
Solution
eFieldData's cloud-based SaaS solution with its mobile app reduced the redundancy of paper work. With access to real-time data, the engineers/project managers had all the data they needed in one place in the system at any point in time. Also, eFieldData’s dashboard provided a quick snapshot of all the projects, making it easier to keep track of pending and completed work orders.
Results
CCE managed to improve turnaround time for reports from one week to less than 48 hours. The time savings from reduced paper work and manual data entry translated to payroll savings of up to 20%.
“With the electronic reporting, PMs can go to the system and review reports immediately, and clients are getting reports in a timely and consistent manner. The system pays for itself – conservatively, 20% cost savings from payroll can be attributed to reporting,” said Charles M. Brown Jr, PE, President of Capstone Civil Engineering.
Business Challenge Story
A need to automate field data collection and reporting.
With headquarters in Charlotte, NC, Capstone Civil Engineering, Inc (CCE) provides a wide range of professional engineering services that include but not limited to land development, water resources, water supply and treatment, geotechnical engineering, special inspections, and construction material testing. The firm is 100% minority owned and certified as a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE). CCE is commitment to customer satisfaction, professionalism, and technical excellence that surpasses industry standards. Its clients include the state and local governments, and CCE is proud tocall the City of Charlotte amongst its clients.
CCE started with paper forms with carbon copies for field data collections, and moved on to spreadsheets and word documents. Despite issuing each employee a laptop, it was still time consuming and cumbersome to get reports out to clients – there were delays as the technicians were running from one job to another and it would be late when they returned to the office to turn in their reports. And, the engineers/project managers had to look all over the place to the get the data they needed to edit and review the reports that had to be emailed to the clients. Employees were getting frustrated with the chaos. CSE realized that it had to change its reporting process to remain competitive. It wanted a solution that would give its staff the capability to transmit data from the field as soon as the job was completed.
Charles M. Brown Jr, PE, the owner and president of CCE was excited to work with eFIeldData as they not only met his budget, but they also provided the personal touch to tailor their solution to meet CCE’s requirements.
Solution Story
Digital forms on mobile devices to collect field data, centralized scheduling and a dashboard that provided a snapshot on status of all the projects at any point in time.
When Charles Brown looked at the solutions used by the main players in the market for field data collection and reporting, he realized that their solutions were either in-house proprietary solutions or were tailored to larger companies, and were out of CCE’s price range.
eFieldData though, provided the same functionalities at an affordable price point. “I liked the personal touch from eFieldData – the hands-on approach from the owners/developers was important to me. Being a small company, I valued what eFieldData had to offer, and I thought it was a good fit for us,” said Charles Brown.
Furthermore, eFieldData is easy to use, and the employees at CCE have adapted to the changes well. With eFieldData, scheduling is centralized and assigned to one person – the reporting process has become more efficient – everything is in one place in the system, and it has become easier to manage projects. eFieldData’s dashboard provides a quick snapshot of all the on-going projects including pending and completed work orders - making it easier to determine what needs to be done by technicians or project managers to complete the work orders. Additionally, CCE uses eFieldData’s timesheet function to crosscheck their existing timesheets to make sure that billing is accurate.
Most importantly, CCE’s clients are noticing the changes. They are happy to get their reports in a timely and consistent manner.
Results Story
Employee productivity increased and turnaround time for reports improved significantly, resulting in payroll cost savings of up to 20%.
With eFieldData’s mobile app for field data collection, inspection and reporting, CCE has reduced its turnaround time for reports from one week to less than 48 hours. Employee productivity has increased, and CCE benefits from efficiency in terms of time saving and cost savings.
- “With the electronic reporting, PMs can go to the system and review reports immediately, and clients are getting their reports in a timely and consistent manner. The system pays for itself – conservatively, 20% cost savings from payroll can be attributed to reporting,”
- Charles Brown.
And his advice to other companies that are reluctant to change, “The two-week trial period was very helpful for me – it made me realize that eFieldData was very easy and user friendly. Give it a test run, the benefits will show very quickly.” In summary, CCE is very happy with the outcome so far, and it is looking forward to using more features of eFieldData.
About Capstone Civil Engineering, Inc
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and originating from Capstone Civil Group, PA (CCG) engineering department founded in 2005, Capstone Civil Engineering, Inc. (CCE) is a licensed engineering firm capable of providing quality service across the state. CCE offers a wide range of professional engineering services that include but not limited to land development, water resources, water supply and treatment, geotechnical engineering, special inspections, and construction material testing. The firm is 100% minority owned and certified as a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Small Business Enterprise (SBE). CCE continues to deliver to its clients superior engineering and consulting services.
About eFieldData
eFieldData, is a powerful cloud-based automated workflow solution from Vconnex Services, Inc that increases productivity and profits for civil engineering companies. Its intuitive, easy to use interface facilitates quick on-boarding, and empowers engineering companies to get their job done in real-time with mobile app for field data collection, lab management, and industry standard reporting (including ASTM and AASHTO). A big picture dashboard, allows you to keep track of who is doing what job when and where. The eFieldData Mobile App runs on both iOS and Android.