CMiC Buffalo Construction Consultants deploys CMiC to support their rapid growth while maintaining excellence in project delivery.
The Challenge
Buffalo Construction Consultants (BCC) is a full-service construction management firm serving the Western New York region. The firm was founded in 2017 and realized annual revenue of less than $1 million during their first year in business. However, they had grown to over $40 million by 2019. Prior to starting BCC, co-owners Joe Mannarino and Bill Mahoney were involved in the solution evaluation process as part of a digital transformation initiative at their previous organization, where they were preparing for a major transition from SAP to CMiC. Although Mannarino and Mahoney left before the deployment of CMiC was completed, they knew CMiC was the software they needed to run their new venture.
As Mannarino and Mahoney established BCC, they used Excel and QuickBooks in the interim while they completed training on the CMiC Accounting & Financial Controls suite. “We were not versed in the details of CMiC and needed the time to configure the ERP to our custom workflows, ensuring the collection and management of the right data,” remarked Reinard, Construction Technology Manager at BCC. “It was just a matter of when to flip the switch.”
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“Every week, processing payroll was a burden. It would take me hours to correct timesheets in Excel and then make corresponding job cost entries in QuickBooks. When we switched to CMiC, that process turned into seconds.” —John Reinard, Construction Technology Manager, Buffalo Construction Consultants.
BCC implemented CMiC FIELD in January of 2018, after a four-month effort. “Since the beginning of 2018, CMiC has been instrumental in supporting our growth – and has become a critical component of our corporate strategy,” stated Mannarino. While BCC was certain from the beginning that they wanted to use CMiC to run their entire business, the key was implementing the accounting system and accurately converting data from our previous system. “Had we decided to stay with QuickBooks, we would have outgrown it quickly,” added Reinard. “We predict the same would have happened had we picked another project management solution.”
With this approach, BCC’s phase one priorities included the rollout of submittals, RFIs, change management, and subcontract creation as well as standardizing their AP processes, with the automation of the time entry process planned for the second phase of the deployment. “The scalability of CMiC allows us to implement new functionality as we grow,” said Mannarino, President of Buffalo Construction Consultants. “We were able to immediately start using the modules we needed, with the flexibility to deploy additional functionality as the processes evolved.”
The Result
As planned, throughout 2019 the BCC team continued to roll out the CMiC platform in multiple phases. By centralizing their financials, BCC realized immediate results, especially in the standardization of their AP processes. Prior to CMiC, BCC relied on an email chain to send and receive signed invoices, which could be forgotten in inboxes or even “lost in translation.” Today, when a vendor invoice comes in, it is scanned and entered into CMiC to be routed for approval to its corresponding project manager. Because the invoice is a part of the CMiC workflow, once client payment is received, it automatically triggers another workflow that releases the checks. From the project manager’s point of view, they can see what invoices come in from their dashboard and what requires their immediate attention. Each entry shows all impacted cost accounts and includes an attachment of the invoice.
When changes occur on a project, the BCC team now relies on the CMiC Change Management module to organize all project costs by cost code and to stay on top of potential change orders, which provide a complete picture of the project budget. “For us, CMiC Change Management is the most important functionality in the entire CMiC platform because it is critical to what we do every day,” stated Mannarino. “The ability to print out the most up to date cost reports by subcontractor allows us to communicate in real time with our clients.”
Other time savings realized by BCC have resulted from the novel approach for compiling daily reports and timesheets. “Every week, processing payroll was a burden. It would take me hours to correct timesheets in Excel and then make corresponding job cost entries in QuickBooks. When we switched to CMiC, that process turned into seconds,” said Reinard.
Reflecting on their decision to implement the full CMiC suite, the BCC team believes that their numbers are indicative of their success. In as little as three years, their headcount has grown from 12 to nearly 50. “As we roll out new projects and onboard new staff, we have a standardized system of managing everything we do every day,” said Mannarino. “The proof is in our ability to grow our business while maintaining excellence in our delivery of complex projects.”
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