Funderburk Roofing sends productivity through the roof

The Challenge

Since 1991, Funderburk Roofing's skilled professionals have been providing high-quality commercial and industrial roofing installations across the American Mid-West. Based in Glendale Heights, IL, the company has been lauded for its services, receiving numerous awards, including Versico's Commitment to Excellence award, Firestone's Master Contractor award, and SPRI's National Contractor Achievement Award 2001.

Despite its strong reputation and various accolades, Funderburk knew it could further tighten business processes.

The company's foremen would pick up work orders at the office before heading out to job sites. They would complete their work, capture photos using ruggedized construction phones, and then move on to the next job. They would return to the office, either at the end of the day or the following morning, to hand in the paperwork from each visit. Office manager Debbie Slivka would have to remove the memory cards from their phones to retrieve and print photos.

Relying exclusively on manual processes meant that the foremen would often be delayed in submitting their paperwork.

"Some of our guys don't live real close to here. Some of them live a good hour away, so they did not come into the office every day," says Debbie.

This wasn't just an inconvenience to office staff; it was an inconvenience to Funderburk's customers.

"It would sometimes take days to get field reports out to our customers."


The Solution

A Verizon rep suggested to Debbie that Funderburk could harness tablets to mobilize its processes - and recommended ProntoForms as a solution provider.

Now, all work orders are submitted directly to the foremen's tablets. "They're able to email me reports back as soon as they're done with the job, so I can turn around and get a field report basically immediately over to the property manager," says Debbie.

Funderburk did try another mobile platform, but soon abandoned it once they realized they could not customize the forms - which they were told they could do.

"One of the big advantages with ProntoForms is that we can design a form any way we want."

Funderburk has equipped all nine of its foremen with ProntoForms.


The Benefits

ProntoForms ensures that Funderburk's field workers complete forms in their entirety.

"Some of our guys didn't always fill in all the details, but now, they don't have a choice. They have to fill specific areas out before they're allowed to go on to the next page," says Debbie. "When you've got guys in the field that you can't supervise personally, that's a very nice feature to have."

Foremen are spending less time on the road. If somebody lives in Plainfield and we have a repair in Romeoville, he doesn't have to pick up the paperwork and drive all the way back. He could go right from his home to the first job site and have everything he needs right in front of him."

Less time on the road means that foremen are spending more time on job sites. "We get more jobs done during the day than we used to."

Funderburk's customers are noticing the difference, too.

"They are quite surprised when they realize they've just called in a roof leak and we've gotten somebody over there in an hour. Next thing you know, they've got the pictures and the field report and the damage has been repaired."