Toronto, Ontario – June 22, 2021: With a strategic technology enabled focus, specialty contractor Appleton Lathing Corporation has increased revenues by 50% and expanded scope and scale of projects over the last five years while maintaining the same 100-person employee base. This year, the firm, which specializes in walls, ceilings, finished carpentry, plaster and EIFS, has taken another giant step in its digital progression, implementing the CMiC construction management platform as its enterprise-wide accounting and project management system.
Tim Van Wyk, President of Appleton Lathing, said, “With the national labor shortage that began to emerge a few years ago, we realized that we needed to find a way to do more with less if we were going to meet our growth and efficiency objectives. Along with BIM and project planning tools, we’ve greatly improved field crew efficiencies. The next step was to bridge the data gap between the office and the field with a workflow that delivers real-time data for decision making and analysis. CMiC will do that.”
Appleton Lathing, like many others in the industry, saw disconnects between independent project management and accounting systems. “We really wanted a purpose-built construction solution that could handle project management, accounting and HR—all in one, eliminating data re-entry,” said Van Wyk. “But more than that, we also wanted a technology partner that was fully committed to investing in the continuous improvement of that platform.”
Prior to the investment, Appleton teamed with business and technology firm, Palmer Consulting Group, in January 2020, to evaluate available solutions on the market. Palmer had experience with CMiC and was very familiar with Appleton’s processes and needs. Six months later, Appleton invested in CMiC. “During evaluations, we figured out very quickly that CMiC’s R12 platform was the best fit for us,” Van Wyk affirmed.
To ease implementation, Appleton formed a super user team, made up of champions for key areas, such as accounting, HR, estimating and project management. These individuals would be advocates and advisors for the implementation of CMiC, which began in July 2020 across the company.
Van Wyk added, “Our goal is to be fully functional on the platform – across the office and field – by the end of 2021, although we are already realizing value. We can see where we’re going to save money by eliminating duplicate entries. We believe that CMiC FIELD, once it comes online, is going to accelerate the cost and time savings by eliminating double, triple and quadruple data entry from the field. More importantly, once every piece of the CMiC suite is online, we’ll have real-time data to make better-informed decisions.”
“We are delighted to partner with Appleton Lathing on its technology journey and look forward to helping this forward-thinking firm continue to meet its growth objectives while delivering the highest quality projects,” commented Laurent Amar, Vice-president of SMB Sales at CMiC.
When asked about advice to others looking to make a similar transition to a complete office and field solution, Van Wyk said, “Invest time in planning for implementation. Much like planning on a construction project, enterprise software implementation requires all parties to fully understand how every different piece of the solution is going to affect their workflow. We spent four months just walking through the transition process and addressing potential issues – and that time spent was well worth the investment. It’s been a great partnership with Palmer and the CMiC team. We believe this is the right product for us, and with it, we have the ability to take our company to the next level.”
About Appleton Lathing Corp.
Founded in 1959, ALC is a third-generation, family-owned contractor that specializes in walls, ceilings, finished carpentry, plaster and EIFS. Based in Neenah, Wisconsin, the company is a market leader in innovation and the use of construction technology to make projects safe, efficient and price competitive. The company has completed over 50,000 unique projects in Wisconsin and Michigan’s upper peninsula.
About CMiC
As an industry pioneer, CMiC delivers complete and unified ERP and FIELD solutions for construction and capital projects firms. CMiC’s powerful software transforms how firms optimize productivity, minimize risk and drive growth by planning and managing all financials, projects, resources, and content assets – from a Single Database Platform™. With customers throughout North America, CMiC serves one-quarter of ENR’s Top 400 Contractors and hundreds of small and mid-sized construction firms, from general and specialty contractors to heavy/highway and project owners. For more information, please visit www.cmicglobal.com.