Pinnacle Custom knows how to take home construction efficiency to the extreme. The custom division of Chatham, N.J.-based The Pinnacle Companies was featured on 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' last fall, for which it took six weeks to plan construction and just 78 hours to actually build the episode's featured home.

Such a frenetic building schedule obviously is a virtual once-in-a-lifetime exception to Pinnacle's regular custom cycles, where eight to 10 homes are under construction at any given time. It does, however, speak to the efficiency that Pinnacle has honed by incorporating software into its business.

The Pinnacle Companies began using BuildLinks software two years ago in its custom division and has since benefited from a reduction in construction cycles and miscommunication, according to Pinnacle Custom vice president Steve Klenk.

So, when it's not constructing a home in three-plus days, a typical custom project is like second nature to Pinnacle Custom. The company's success provides a good illustration of how builders can take advantage of software; we'll take a closer look at Pinnacle's use of BuildLinks, as well as builders' success using Builders CoPilot and Vision Builder Online software.

PINNACLE CUSTOM AND BUILDLINKS

To better serve its high-end clientele base in northern New Jersey, Pinnacle was looking for a solution to centralize its selections, documentation and scheduling, says Klenk. The company's division has 18 employees, but it wasn't until the implementation of BuildLinks that everybody was on the same page.

"For scheduling, we had created a relatively primitive Word document that simply listed everything that was going into a home, with a running total as we added items and this document just grew, rather than having separate line items like BuildLinks uses," Klenk explains. "For documentation, like a photo gallery, contracts, exhibits and so forth, there was really no central filing system -- it was all over the place in the office or on site. Our scheduling was in an Excel spreadsheet, and we tried to incorporate some relationships between activities, some cause and effect."

Pinnacle began using BuildLinks at the beginning of 2005, according to Klenk, and implemented a two-part training program. Office personnel learned the software first over a one-month period; field personnel took roughly two months of training, though Klenk says it was more like one meeting to discuss exactly what they would be obligated to use the software for followed by remote training over the months' span.

"Once everybody got over the fear of the new system, they learned very quickly and, surprisingly, the guys with little experience and who were afraid of computers have really excelled with this," says Klenk. "The guys in the field -- the 'salty dogs' that are resistant to change and starving for information -- they realized that the greatest benefit was that [using BuildLinks] fed them information."

Klenk is not sure of the initial fee Pinnacle made to purchase the software, but the company pays $250 to add homes into BuildLinks' system, he says. Every home, after Pinnacle determines the architecture design and the construction time frame, gets added, and the centralized tracking makes it well worth the fee, Klenk says.

"We have enhanced the communication between our selections/decisions group and our construction group, created a better database and document storage system, and established a more uniform method for scheduling projects," he says. "The system virtually eliminates lost or missing selections forms and consequential mistakes."

Using the software's scheduling, selections and documentations modules has helped Pinnacle shave its previous 14-month construction buildout projects to 12 months, and its 12-month buildouts down to 101/2 months -- or about 12.5 percent to 14 percent.

Despite scheduling its average construction a year ahead of time, Pinnacle delivers on its estimates generally to within a few weeks of the date; it has virtually eliminated any three-month or so delays "that are really not unheard of in construction, and sometimes we're ahead of schedule," says Klenk.

He says the enhanced communication among all personnel was seen immediately upon implementation of the software, and that efficiency in that area provides perhaps the biggest benefit.

"I can't put a value on how much we've saved in not miscommunicating," says Klenk. "The bottom line is that it makes everybody accountable, right there in real time. Now there are no items that fall through the cracks -- I guess I would call that 100 percent improvement."

As for its role on 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' Klenk notes that it gave Pinnacle national recognition as a builder that cares, delivering for a needy family, and also recognition in its efficiency on the whole. "I've got to believe that somewhere if our clients recognize that if we can build a house in 78 hours and have the systems and processes to put it together, then we can apply the same things to their homes."

www.buildlinks.com

OMSTOCK HOMEBUILDING AND BUILDERS COPILOT

Unlike the custom division of Pinnacle, Comstock Homebuilding incorporated software to boost its efficiency as a production builder. The Reston, Va.based firm serves the Virginia-Maryland, Atlanta and Raleigh-Charlotte, N.C., regions as a production builder, completing about 500 homes per year.

Instead of multimillion-dollar custom projects, Comstock's homes average in the mid-toupper $200,000s, according to COO and president Greg Benson, but are featured in 50 communities. Benson expects Comstock to finish "a lot more than 500 next year," and points to the company's implementation of Builders CoPilot software that it helped develop working with IT consulting firm iConnect.

Benson says Comstock has been fully functional with Builders CoPilot for about three years. In the past, the company dealt with spreadsheet and other frequently-hard-to-find paperwork, which created headaches for a company that was working on so many single-family houses and condominiums at one time through its three regional divisions. The company wanted a solid system that brought all of its pieces to one place and could work with its current accounting system (Benson says most builders have a good accounting program already in place).

"There's a lot out there for scheduling, procurement, punch lists and so on, but nothing really tied it together well. People were buying parts and pieces, trying to create an information management system to put it together," says Benson. "We said we don't care what the accounting system is, we want everything in one module to be done and fed back into the accounting system."

Benson says the training was broken down by department, so each would become an expert on whatever functions related specifically to them. Such departments included legal, land development and acquisitions, accounting reporting, finance, production operations (including purchasing, scheduling, customer service) and sales.

"The idea was that nobody should have to get up from their desk to get anything," says Benson. "If you need to look up a sales brochure, blueprint or site plan, it's all loaded into the system, and the main menu is broken up by department."

Benson says iConnect's training at Comstock took days, but like anything, it required practice for employees to become experts, and then Comstock employees would train new hires on the software. He says the data and clerical functionality makes the software an asset for a production builder such as Comstock, in terms of reduced construction cycles, higher quality development, improved customer service, better workflow and savings on labor.

"Having data at everybody's fingertips, being able to watch the schedule on 50 to 60 houses at any time, we can use the benchmark system in the program that says [whatever items] should be here by now. The second something trips a benchmark, management is on the phone seeing what happened," Benson says.

The easy-to-use drag-and-drop software works intuitively and creates multiple levels of data, from regional to divisional on down, for employees to apply. It has led to significant savings in salary, Benson says.

"I would say $150,000 to $200,000 on pure overhead. We've had less people we've had to hire in the office -- you don't have to track paper or scream at administrators to answer questions, get approvals, hand-written signatures, manually post things into the data system," he says. "All you're doing is checking it off that this work is done or cutting a check -- you've just eliminated a lot of time and people."

www.builderscopilot.com

SCHNEIDER DESIGNS AND VISION BUILDER ONLINE

Lexington, Ky.-based Schneider Designs Inc. manages more than 400 construction projects per year, leading to the need for a more efficient way to manage the many aspects involved in each project. Its single-family homes and condominiums -- including a big renovation in downtown Lexington -- use enough contractors, subcontractors and suppliers to allow for too many mistakes to creep in along the way.

Schneider incorporated Software Information Systems' Vision Builder Online program over two years ago to help the 30-year-old business increase efficiency and decrease errors.

"We thought we had an efficient paper system, but we were running into a lot of human error," says COO Robin Schneider. "Every time we made a mistake in a home, like putting in the wrong carpet or paint color, it was expensive."

Vision Builder gives Schneider online tracking capabilities for every project, allowing for real-time access to the most up-to-date information. "This is really attractive because I can look at a snapshot of everything I have going on without leaving my office," says Schneider.

Along with project management, the company also uses Vision Builder for project design collaboration and goods and services exchange. Vision Builder allows builders, subs and realtors to access its secure Web site so all parties involved in a particular project can easily communicate.

"The ease of use is incredible," says Schneider. "It doesn't require any real mastery of computer skills."

The biggest efficiency boost for Schneider Designs has been the company's reduction in mistakes, though, which has led to thousands of dollars in savings.

"We haven't made one mistake as far as installing the wrong product or putting in the wrong options in a house since we started using Vision Builder," Schneider says. "It's saved us at least $30,000 a year in replacement costs alone. It's also added value because of the time we've saved, and we get a marketing benefit because the customer walks away more comfortable with the process."

Many of Schneider Designs' errors before using Vision Builder occurred because of gaps or miscommunication in the options choosing process, according to Schneider. Everything is more clearly documented with options stored in an online database, and the information accessible to builder, installer and realtor on the Vision Builder site.

Subcontractors who do not have computer access can also receive all the relevant information because all of the homeowners' features choices can be immediately printed, signed and dated after they have been made, and anyone involved in the project can obtain the receipt or it can be attached to a door or window for an installer to check.

"This application has given us a platform for growth," says Schneider. "We can now handle more volume and control more aspects of the process to increase efficiency."

www.visionbuilderonline.com