Tom Williams, the founder and owner of Tom Williams Residential, has spent the last 25 years in residential construction. In that time he has seen how technology has continued to change and assist in the building process. Being an early adopter of cell phones, smart phones, and tablets, Tom always looked for better ways to run his business even as the nails and wood frames that make up his custom home projects didn’t change. So one day at a continuing education program when Tom heard about a construction management software that could streamline his business, he dove headfirst into CoConstruct.
Embracing construction technology
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the Tom Williams Residential team is small but mighty. With three project managers, an admin, and a bookkeeper, the team completes a number of custom home builds, renovations, and remodeling projects every year. Part of the reason Tom’s team is able to work so efficiently is CoConstruct’s communication features.
With all relevant project information stored in CoConstruct, Tom’s team can keep projects moving smoothly no matter where they are. “Basically wherever I have my MacBook, that’s corporate headquarters,” Tom explained. “I can be in my truck sitting at a job site all day and working on my computer.” This flexibility extends to Tom’s bookkeeper and admin. The pair worked remotely prior to, during, and after the coronavirus pandemic keeping CoConstruct and QuickBooks in sync and entering project details into the system.
An up-to-date budget
For Tom, every project starts with an in-depth estimate which sets the roadmap for the entire project. “If I can set CoConstruct up really well for the project manager, then he can just basically take it with little or no questions and see everything that's going to happen with subcontractor quotes, purchase orders, and more,” said Tom.
Everything Tom does in CoConstruct’s estimating feature automatically deploys the relevant information throughout the project. For instance, when he fills out his estimates he also sets up his project budget. Having everything related to the budget centralized in one place saves Tom time and headaches in keeping tabs on how projects are progressing. “If I'm trying to remember who did something on a job, I can go to the budget, click on committed job costs, go to the purchase order, open up the quote and there's all the information,” said Tom of quickly finding answers using CoConstruct.
Before CoConstruct, finding this information was much more of a hassle for Tom and his bookkeeper. If Tom needed to find out what subcontractor performed a certain task on the job site, he would have to call his bookkeeper. This would interrupt her day and force her to look through the books for a purchase order or receipt to then relay the necessary vendor contact information back to Tom. All in all this disjointed process cost Tom and his bookkeeper valuable time and resources finding information that CoConstruct helps bubble to the surface.
Creating client confidence
Having all of his project information at his fingertips has translated into better client relationships for Tom. “I had a client that wanted to get an update on his budget,” said Tom. “So, we opened up CoConstruct and we were going through the budget and he would ask a question and I could click right on that line item and open up every purchase order that was written. And then if there was a particular item they had a question about we would click on it and I could email it to him instantly... We talked for about two hours and I had an answer for every question.”
Being able to easily answer any question posed in the moment with the customer helped create an incredible amount of trust between Tom and his client. It also gave the client tremendous confidence that Tom was fully in charge and in control of their projects.
By running all of their projects through CoConstruct, Tom Williams Residential saves time and money by centralizing all of their project information into one online location that their entire team can access from anywhere to keep projects moving and answer client questions.
