Sample Success Story/Case Study

1. Customer
Skender Construction
Industry
Construction
Location
Chicago, IL
San Francisco, CA
System
Sage 300 Construction
and Real Estate
Sage Estimating
Skender Construction is a busy Chicago-based general
contractor, generating $350 million worth of work each
year. Clearly the company is doing something right. In fact,
it’s doing many things right. The contractor has won an
impressive list of awards, including Contractor of the Year
and Interior Contractor of Year. But perhaps the awards
that best represent Skender Construction are those that
speak to the company’s core values—Best Places to Work
in Illinois, Community Service Award, and Family Business
of the Year. The construction management software that
has been at the foundation of Skender Construction for
decades is Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate and
Sage Estimating.
“Our employees are the number one reason we are where
we are today,” says Jerry Ball, Skender’s CFO. “Sage 300
Construction allows us to focus on the things that really are
important—our culture, our employees, and our clients. It is
a great tool to run our jobs and our payroll processing much
more efficiently.”
Flexible, scalable technology
When the company first implemented Sage 300
Construction back in 1988, the CEO understood that in order
to grow the company from its current $1 million in revenues,
it would need to invest in a scalable business management
solution that could grow and expand with the company.
“We selected Sage 300 Construction because of its flexibility
and scalability, and for the breadth of functionality it offers,”
says Ball. “We use multiple aspects of the software, including
job costing, project management, financial reporting,
mobility tools, and Sage Estimating.”
AWARD WINNING SKENDER
CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES TO
BUILD ITS SUCCESS
with help from Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate and Sage Estimating
Chicagoland contractor has
been building its business with
Sage 300 Construction for decades

2. “Skender is always going to be at the forefront
of technology, and will continue to rely on
partners like Sage to be sure we remain
competitive in the industry.”
Jerry Ball, CFO, Skender Construction
Skender embraces technology as another way to give its
employees the flexibility and technical support they need to
do their jobs. For example, Ball points to the importance of
the mobility tools incorporated into Sage 300 Construction.
“Having the ability to be more mobile is really a necessity
more than a luxury,” he says. “Sage solutions allow Skender
to be a more mobile company. And in doing so, they allow
our people to have more of a work-life balance.”
Sustainable growth through
lean times and booms
In addition to a top-notch team, Skender contributes its
success to strategic long-term planning and diversification
that allowed the company to continue to grow—even during
the recession—and to its technology investments, including
Sage 300 Construction and Sage Estimating.
And as the construction industry rapidly rebounds, one
significant challenge is a shortage of skilled labor. Ball
notes that the company’s use of Sage 300 Construction and
Sage Estimating helps mitigate that challenge by actually
enabling the company to operate with fewer personnel.
“We can all operate more efficiently, doing things
quicker, better, and faster,” he says. “In this way Sage 300
Construction is helping us be more competitive.”
Timely access to job data
Sage 300 Construction helps Skender keep its projects on
time and on budget because it delivers accurate data and
forecasting capabilities. “For example, we have a particularly
complex hospital project that’s actually made up of 100
smaller jobs,” explains Stacy Laughlin, Skender’s assistant
controller. “With Sage 300 Construction, we can structure
our project reports to include all the smaller jobs, in detail or
in summary.”
Integrated estimating ensures
profitability and consistency
Skender uses Sage Estimating for all of its budgeting,
bidding, and pre-construction work. “It helps ensure
profitability because we’re able to implement consistent and
efficient processes,” says Laughlin. “There’s no need to enter
data into two systems; the data flows from one to the other
seamlessly.”
Ball says that the tight integration between Sage 300
Construction and Sage Estimating benefits not only the
company’s staff, but its customers as well. “As we move a
project from the estimating phase into the job phase, it
is seamless to our customers. The reports from the two
applications have the same look. And the two applications
operate similarly with the same interface, so our project
managers don’t have to learn two different packages.”
The broad construction industry specific functionality
and integrated toolset form a winning combination
for Skender. “It’s very comforting knowing that all
our information is in one product—and Sage 300
Construction really is that product,” concludes Ball.
“Skender is always going to be at the forefront of
technology, and will continue to rely on partners like Sage
to be sure we remain competitive in the industry.”
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