Field Enablement and Business Process Platform

Enterprise system digitizes business functions within Stone Martin Builders including material order placement, processing and fulfillment

The Overview

The BuilderLinq enterprise system digitizes many business functions within Stone Martin Builders including material order placement, processing and fulfillment. Using the Place Order Module Stone Martin employees can order homebuilding supplies from any job site - users can search for parts, build up an order and place the order from the field. All orders can be managed by back-office administrators including order approval, automated injection into the Stone Martin ERP system to vendor selection, order placement and purchase order emailing.

  • Client

    Stone Martin Builders

  • Industry

    Home Construction

  • Technology

    .NET, App Development, Azure, React, SQL Server

01

The

Challenge

Timely material provisioning and delivery is particularly crucial in custom homebuilding and a large amount of human time is traditionally involved in getting it right.  Stone Martin are active building out entire communities and workers in the field and are often in need of materials in the flow of construction.  At Stone Martin’s current scale, the traditional way of ordering and provisioning materials was impacting their ability to build homes.

02

The

Solution

The solution that Stone Martin and MercuryWorks staff devised leverages Stone Martin’s custom BuilderLinq system.  The new Place Order module fully integrates with Stone Martin’s ERP system, provides a mobile-friendly enterprise app for field use usually on a tablet and automates multiple processes in the supply chain.

03

The

Results

The enterprise web application Place Order module carried out the full original vision along with multiple additional business rules to take advantage of business process improvements.  The end solution gave rise to an entirely new vendor portal to facilitate quick fulfillment and vendor payment for the materials and services needed.  From auto-approval of orders within specified spend limits to automatic vendor selection and ordering, the Place Order module speeds up material and service ordering.

Dig In

App Features

Man with hard hat and tablet at construction site

Feature

Field Enablement

The Place Order module provides a set of capabilities and features to Stone Martin employees to place and manage orders along with associated details like available order types and templates.  Field staff need no longer recall primary vendors for materials in their area or proper routing for manual orders – they can simply punch in their order needs and submit.

person building flow chart on laptop

Feature

Process Automation

The Place Order Module automates several functions that were previously handled by office staff.  One key automation is that of spend limits: each user role is assigned a spend limit and if orders come in below that limit, orders are auto-approved.  Also, orders are automatically assigned to vendors based on the part type and location and sent directly to the assigned vendor’s order manager.

braided rope unwinding

Feature

Enterprise Integration

In addition to enterprise level security and role management, the Place Order Module integrates heavily with Stone Martin’s ERP system.  From official part lists and vendor lookups for order accuracy and ease of entry to order and purchase order creation, every action in Place Order results in validated and accurate data entry and updates in their ERP.

Login screen

Feature

Role-based Permissions

The Place Order Module separates capabilities by role assigned to different employees within the company.  For example, while foreman can request materials and services, billing admins can approve orders, place orders, access all orders and receive actionable updates while global admins perform all billing and fulfillment functions AND create and assign roles to employees and directly place purchase orders.

Even More

Other Key Highlights

25% Processing Cost Decrease

With highly specific orders coming in from the field, automated approvals and vendor selection and payment, Stone Martin has actualized growth in orders without adding staff

10% Order Fulfillment Time Reduction

ERP integration and purchase order automation has reduced the elapsed time between order need and delivery, getting material and service out to the field more quickly

30% Vendor Payment Cycle Reduction

ACH payment automation and messaging along with a self-service vendor portal has reduced the amount of time it takes Stone Martin to approve and make payment

"Thanks so much for being diligent and receptive to all our requests and most especially the change requests that have really dialed the new Place Order Module into a new cornerstone. Also, thank you for keeping the momentum up on all the other projects simultaneously - we can't even imagine doing it with anyone else."

Scott Lowery

CTO

Behind The Curtain

Core Technology

.NET logo

.NET Core

C#, Entity Framework and the .NET Core were used to implement all business logic and data marshaling for the application. Enterprise authentication practices and Core tie-ins provide a locked-down and robust security platform.

SQL Logo - Careers

SQL Server

Provides a robust data storehouse and query platform to store all enterprise data, marshal data for integration and provide a source to the app’s API tier. In-cloud SQL Server was used to provide instant scalability and rapid querying.

Microsoft azure

Microsoft Azure

Provides database storage, web app, authentication and web services. Azure provides an ideal solution for back end mobile applications with a multi-data center Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud solution.

React framework

React

The React JavaScript framework provides the UI base for the entire system, providing rapid and smooth data fetching, storage and screen painting. Supporting use of modern CSS provides interaction and responsive display.

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