CMiC MARANT Construction deploys CMiC to integrate the back office with the field and drive brilliant project execution.
The Challenge
Ontario, Canada-based commercial interior office general contractor MARANT Construction Ltd. has maintained its leadership role in the industry with a strong investment in its people, that ranges from a quality work environment and associated training to powerful tools and technology. When the company realized that its technology was limiting the efficiency of project managers, coordinators and superintendents, it reevaluated existing practices.
Carlo Martini, Vice President of Project Delivery Services at MARANT, explains, “We used predominantly Excel, Word and a separate accounting software. There were data entry mistakes and misses, activities that weren’t invoiced properly and unrecorded changes. And, it was challenging to do a timely and accurate project health analysis.”
Key emphasis was placed on a solution that could standardize processes across project delivery mechanisms, eliminate the chance of redundant data entry and calculation errors, and improve cost control from a financial perspective. Subsequently, MARANT evaluated the industry’s leading ERP and project management platforms. System requirements included cloud-based on-demand capabilities for access anytime, anywhere and seamless accounting/project management integration.
“Simply put, we wanted the ability to effectively manage multiple projects at once, larger projects with fewer people, more accurate information and all information in one place,” says Martini.
After the evaluation of a dozen solutions on the market, Martini says, “Many of the options were not cloud-based, didn’t have a financials connection, had limited construction functionality or all three. CMiC had it all.” MARANT selected CMiC in 2014, which was rolled out to the company in 2015.
Learn why MARANT Construction chose CMiC to drive brilliant project execution.Download this Case StudyThe Solution
“The CMiC platform unifies our processes and drives efficiency. We are able to avoid duplication of data entry and standardize templates and processes. CMiC has also allowed us to incorporate our financial data within the project management platform, eliminating the need for external financial software.” – Carlo Martini, Vice President, Project Delivery Services, MARANT Construction Ltd.
The MARANT Project Delivery Services group includes 10 project managers, 10 project coordinators and approximately 30 site superintendents, assistant site superintendents and laborers across three divisions located in Toronto, Ottawa and Kitchener/Waterloo. CMiC’s purpose-built construction platform for accounting and project management provided the team almost immediate value.
Martini confirms, “We were able to better manage multiple projects concurrently, with less time spent on coordination and administration. CMiC has made us far more efficient by unifying our processes across the entire corporation.”
That efficiency was demonstrated in several ways. For instance, MARANT project managers used to rely on Word for purchase orders, which required re-entry of client data every time. With CMIC, it’s a click of a drop-down menu. “Once we enter a value and pick the subtrade, the client name and address are populated automatically,” Martini says. “We no longer have to write out every purchase order, so we save time and reduce the chance of error.”
He and his team also like that all input is coordinated among subcontracts, change orders and invoicing, a capability that Martini says drives standardization and represents huge data entry time savings.
The Result
“A big advantage to our team is unification and improved interaction. Our project managers are responsible for jobs across the country and with CMiC, any one of these individuals can jump on a project and pick up the pieces if someone is out on vacation or sick. We don’t have to hunt down files to get up to speed,” says Martini.
He concludes, “All our information is in one place and it’s more accurate. We avert the chance of input errors and have standardized our project management process and approach, providing much greater consistency across our different teams.”
CMiC has benefitted MARANT Construction in the following ways:
- Greatly increased time efficiency.
- Collaboration between accounting and project management.
- Unification of data across the entire company.