Construction Management Solution Increase Project Capability and Delivers Critical Business Information Faster 

Executive Summary

To support its continued growth, electrical contracting firm, Leer Electric Inc., implemented the Construction Management solution from Gary Jonas Computing. In addition to bringing new levels of efficiency and accuracy to key internal business processes such as Project Management, Job Costing, Payroll, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, the new system gives executives, project managers and administrative and financial staff the information they need, when they need it.

Customer Profile

Since 1973, Leer Electric Inc. has been providing all phases of electrical wiring, maintenance and service work to commercial, industrial and residential customers in Central Pennsylvania. President Steve Leer attributes the company’s continued success to its unwavering focus on electrical construction, its commitment to putting the right people in positions best suited for them, and the uncompromising workmanship of all 175 employees.

Recent electrical construction work by Leer includes major projects for Pennsylvania State University, Shippensburg State University, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Bethany Village, Best Buy, Euchred Drugs and the Pennsylvania Department of General Services. In addition to construction, Leer operates a service department providing repair and 24-hour emergency service.

With a reputation as a trusted leader in the electrical industry, Leer was recognized by the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal as the second-largest electrical contractor and seventh-fastest-growing company in Central Pennsylvania.

Business Challenges

Information technology has become a critical part of Leer’s steadily growing electrical contracting business, enabling key business processes, such as Project Management, Job Costing, Payroll, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, to become fully automated and highly efficient.

When they first started the business however, there wasn’t much computer usage at all, so virtually everything was done manually, severely limiting the number of projects the Leer team could properly manage. Although some progress was made when Leer computerized its operations, the first system they implemented was not Windows based, so it did not integrate well with modern spreadsheet and word processing applications that had become commonplace.

”Our earlier system was very cumbersome and because our staff found it difficult to use, a lot of training was required,” says Steve Leer. “It was also not Y2K compliant,” he adds.

To give staff the tools to do their jobs better, and to handle the amount of work required to support Leer’s continued rapid growth, the executive team realized they needed a new construction management system.

The Jonas Solution

After identifying the top products on the market, and having several vendors demonstrate their solutions, Leer chose Gary Jonas Computing because its product offered a fully integrated system that combined the tools necessary for successful construction management.

Commenting on their choice of Jonas, Steve Leer explains, “In addition to finding the Jonas software the easiest to use, it was the only one that was genuinely Windows compatible, so we could easily exchange data with other Windows applications.”

Even though the installation went smoothly and the Jonas team had Leer’s new system up and running in only one month, several challenges had to be overcome. Because government work, or work on projects that involve any government funding, requires Leer to produce a ‘certified payroll’ for example, Leer requires a sophisticated payroll system. In addition, all invoices pertaining to state and federal government jobs must follow the format defined by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Although the Jonas system already made provision for this, some changes and fine tuning of these requirements were needed.

“The Jonas Payroll software was easily adapted to enable us to handle all kinds of state and federal prevailing wage work, and the flexibility of the product made changes to the Billing and Receivables modules relatively easy to make,” comments Leer. “The Jonas people jumped all over these changes right away and made the system work effectively,” he adds.

Benefits for Leer Electric

Due to the efficiency and accuracy that it brings to their internal processes, the Jonas system has enabled Leer to handle many more projects with the same amount of staff. Steve Leer predicts that it would require twice as many people to handle the same amount of work without it.

One of the key values of the new system for Leer is the up-to-date information they are able to get in a timely manner, especially financial information required by the banks and bonding companies, who have expressed their amazement at how current the information is and how fast they can get it.

Commenting on how his executive team, project managers and various administrative and financial departments can get the information they need, when they need it, Steve Leer exclaims “One of the reasons we chose Jonas in the first place was because of its extensive reporting capabilities. The report generators give us the flexibility to create virtually any type of report and to configure it the way we want.”

The senior management team is especially excited about the Executive Dashboard module that pulls information together from all the other modules into one spot where they can quickly see key business metrics and get bottomline information needed to make important business decisions.

“Instead of having to go to each module and figure things out, the Dashboard figures them out for me and gives me what I need,” enthuses Leer.

Looking Forward

Steve Leer is enthusiastic about what lies ahead. “We feel we’ve barely scratched the surface as far as what the Jonas system can do for us. We want to do a lot more training and pick up more of the efficiencies the system has to offer.”

Since they only chose the modules they thought would best suit their needs initially, Leer now plans to implement a number of the additional modules Jonas offers for its construction management system. The Equipment Rental module will help them track equipment usage so they can charge individual projects for example, and a Dispatch module will further improve their service business.

“We liked the fact that we didn’t have to take the whole Jonas package right away;” says Leer, “but now that we’re comfortable with the system, we’re ready to add additional capabilities to further improve operations and support our business growth.”

“Overall, this has been a great experience, and the Jonas people have stayed right with us,” says Steve Leer. “At a time when computer systems can be very expensive, we feel we got a good system for a good price and we’re getting a lot of value back from our investment.”