CASE STUDY
Blue Native Landscape & Irrigation
Blue Native Landscape & Irrigation has hired several new employees this year to keep up with all the new business made possible using Arborgold’s all-in-one business management software.
“Arborgold gave us the foundation that we needed in order to scale our business.”
— Carlos A. Perez
Chief Technology Officer
Situation
Blue Native Landscape & Irrigation was founded in 2017 when a need arose for a landscape company that could focus on the Florida Keys and its unique landscape. The landscaping company maintains 7 crews with 40 employees, and it kept all of its records on paper, from the calendar to the schedule, including numerous Excel spreadsheets to store business data.
They created job bids and estimates on Quickbooks where the estimator entered a best-guess scenario for time, labor, and materials. Since the manual record-keeping left them unable to determine their profit margin on their projects, the company could not bid as aggressively as they needed.
Many landscaping and irrigation construction and maintenance businesses like Blue Native have no visibility into various business expenses, such as employee compensation, equipment costs, extra hours, and travel time to the customer. Manual documentation made data difficult to analyze for job costs or net profit.
Instead, the company wasted time troubleshooting problems without direction, leaving no time to market and grow the business.
Solution
The estimate builder tool instantly generates these business metrics:
- Job Total
- Break-even Point
- Labor Cost
- Profit Margin
Blue Native hired Carlos A. Perez, Jr., as Director of Technology to implement Arborgold business management software, a solution for marketing and operations in the tree, lawn, and landscape industry.
Arborgold is highly customizable, and Carlos found ample opportunity to modify tools specifically for Blue Native’s use.
When he rolled out the estimate builder it generated immediate improvement. The estimator enters the employee cost, desired overhead margin, material sourcing and cost, and the price for the project.
Thorough training helped employees use the software effectively. The estimate builder generates project bids for new construction. Another tool captures billable hours Blue Native uses to gain insight into resources spent on warranty work.
Benefits
“None of our business growth would have been possible without Arborgold Software.”
— CARLOS PEREZ, CTO, BLUE NATIVE
Using Arborgold, Blue Native streamlined its communications between the field and estimating team. The project manager uses the mobile application in the field to locate workers via the scheduler, which simplifies dispatch by showing crew availability and allowing easy schedule changes.
Estimators appreciate the ability to create and modify estimates on the fly. Original estimates are easily updated for differing site conditions.
Also, the project manager takes “before” pictures at the site and appends work notes. The crew takes an “after” picture to show the work was performed as directed, eliminating the need for additional field visits that previously cost them hours of their time.
Blue Native leverages the ability to track billable and non-billable hours to monitor warranty work. For example, before implementing Arborgold software, the company couldn’t tell if they were performing excessive warranty work for products that needed to be replaced or removed. This feature helps Blue Native avoid jobs that won’t be profitable.
Arborgold’s top-notch customer service made Blue Native Landscape & Irrigation an advocate for Arborgold’s software. “We were using another solution just for scheduling before we had Arborgold. We asked that company to make simple changes for us, but they couldn’t do it,” said Carlos.
Results
REDUCED RISK
Improved accuracy in
bidding and operational
data reduces unexpected costs.
MORE AGGRESSIVE BIDS
Better data on business operations allows Blue Native to generate more aggressive bids without impacting profitability.
OVERALL BUSINESS GROWTH
Blue Native expanded its sales and estimation team and hired a Director of Business
Carlos observed that launching a solution like Arborgold will expose every weak point in the operational process. By uncovering issues, the company can analyze and resolve them to make the company stronger.
According to Blue Native’s Director of Technology, none of this business growth would have been possible without implementing Arborgold Software.
Arborgold business management software offers:
- Routing and rerouting employees based on their GPS location
- Real-time inventory tracking to right-size purchasing patterns
- Tracking and comparing project actuals vs. plans, providing production rates
- Lead and customer management
- Supply chain and project management
- Intelligent scheduling and payroll
- Custom invoicing from any device
- Flexible estimating and bidding
