The Drywall Subcontractor

In 1998 MASI was referred to a drywall subcontractor in northeastern Massachusetts by an existing Master Builder client. MASI used a consultative sales approach to determine the prospect’s need for Master Builder applications.

After two meetings it was clear that Master Builder matched the prospect’s many requirements. The company was a union contractor with 110 employees performing union and prevailing wage work. Commercial project size was between $150k and $1.5mil. The company’s annual sales were approximately $10million.

The Problem:
With the exception of writing checks using Quickbooks Pro, all other functions where being performed manually. This included estimating, all payroll functions, union reporting, certified payroll functions, progress billing, time and material billing, prime and subcontract management (they used MS Word for this), request for change orders and approved change orders.

The company was very firm in their desire to computerize functions using one system that integrated all functions – accounting, job costing, project management and estimating. Prior to our meeting with the company, they had hired a national consulting firm at an initial cost of 50 thousand dollars to perform that task.

By the second meeting it was clear that, based upon our knowledge of the construction industry and specifically the union drywall subcontract vertical industry, we had changed our role from consultative seller of Master Builder to business consultants.

During our second meeting we were asked to review the agreement between the national consulting firm and the subcontractor. With a quick review of the contract and the work completed to date, it was clear that the consulting firm would NOT be able to deliver the desired contractual results without developing a construction specific integrated software solution from scratch. It was also clear that the contract would exceed the original budget. The prospect had already spent $35 thousand and had only received a few processes and complex reports on MS Excel spreadsheets.

The Solution:
We found ourselves in an uncomfortable situation as a consultant without an agreement selling the Master Builder Software. We identified the difficulty with the client prospect and agreed to make a proposal for consulting services that included reviewing all aspects of the business and developing an action plan. Our proposal for services included a fixed budget for consulting, training and Master Builder Software.

This ultimately lead to the restructuring of the business and the sale and implementation of Master Builder Software.

Our initial consulting direction resulted in an overhaul of existing banking, bonding, consulting, receivable collections, tax preparation, general line insurance brokerage and training. Our consulting role grew as we added new areas of focus that included business planning, tax planning, insurance consulting, legal contract addendum preparation, limited employment practices law, estimating processes, computer software training, process management, and later, business transition services.

While this was a very complex project, we were able to successfully complete it because of the commitment by the client and his team together with a very talented group of professionals called the MASI Network. In all the consulting addressed, we were able to recommend a business, tax, or legal professional that had a background and specific knowledge in the construction industry and, in many cases, an understanding of the Master Builder Software.  

To learn about what MASI can do for your contracting business or to review additional case studies, feel free to Contact Us.

 *In fairness to our clients who may not want to receive unsolicited phone calls,
all Case Studies listed do not include the company names.

Full company names will be furnished upon request.