Subsidiary of Quanta Services Shows Significant Improvement in Multiple Areas
Of the Company’s Asset Management Program
Service Electric Company (SEC), an electrical contractor specializing in the construction and maintenance of electric transmission, distribution, and substation systems, was in search of a platform that could bring all their fleet and warehouse operations into one place. At the same time, they also wanted a tool from a company with which they could develop a partnership to build custom workflows and features to maximize adoption.
With the company’s purchase of YARDZ, a powerful platform that gives companies total management of their owned and rented assets, as well as a number of associated functions, SEC got all that, and more. In fact, the company – a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR), the largest specialty contractor in the nation – has achieved the kind of tangible results that most companies can only dream of from their asset management software.
Numbers Are Off the Charts
The numbers tell a compelling story:
- Application Consolidation: The implementation of YARDZ helped SEC consolidate or eliminate 11 different software applications.
- Increased Automation: The platform has automated over 20 manual steps in the process including scheduled maintenance, work orders, “rental not to exceed rate” analysis, call-offs, asset assignment, and logistics.
- Asset Assignment: SEC has raised its overall accuracy from 45% to an eye-popping 95%.
- Time-Saving Documentation: Fleet administrators have reduced the time it takes to perform their daily documentation tasks by 67%-75%, equivalent to four hours a day, or 1,040 hours per year.
While these measurables highlight YARDZ’s impressive performance, this implementation did not happen overnight; rather, it was a testament to the value of patience, timing, and careful product vetting.
The story began when SEC’s Florida office began using YARDZ to manage its extensive fleet and equipment inventory. The main driver behind SEC’s purchase decision was the need to have all their assets (rented and owned) as well as tools contained in one central location. Richie Gasaway, Vice President of Fleet & Services for SEC, recalled the genesis of the relationship.
“YARDZ came to us pitching the rental aspect of their tool, where they actually track all your rentals from all your suppliers,” he said. “The platform gave us notifications to let us know when rental periods were over, so we didn’t have pieces of equipment hanging around when a job was complete, which helped reduce our overall rental spend.”
Next Step: Customization
After seeing the potential, SEC asked YARDZ CEO Jason Perez if he could add specific functionality and workflow around work orders, warehouse, logistics, driver dispatch, and other management functions to the core program. SEC had been performing these functions manually with whiteboards, paper forms, and software that was ill-equipped to address these tasks.
SEC participated intimately in the design and flow of new features through YARDZ’s customer voice development process. The result for SEC was the ability to automate and create efficiencies for a variety of fleet and equipment management and other internal functions.
“YARDZ worked hard to incorporate our specific way of doing business and adding those functions into their tool,” noted Gasaway. “Not only were we able to maintain tight control with the core program right away, but we also had the ability to effectively operate our maintenance and inspections process right from the program as well.
“The ability to document the entire lifecycle of an asset in one place with photos, historical files, repairs, telematics, financials, utilization, idle time reporting, and asset replacement has afforded us a single view to accurately budget our equipment refresh and develop sound strategies for the future.”
About two months after the buildout of the enhanced program features, a “soft” rollout of the custom features began throughout the company’s Florida region, as SEC started using the new equipment maintenance function. Soon they had implemented the logistics and dispatch portion; shortly after, the full management capabilities of asset inspections, dispatch, logistics, and other new features of the platform were ready for deployment.
Based on its satisfaction with the platform, SEC signed up for the Enterprise Plus program, which allows for unlimited user accounts, unlimited assets, and unlimited projects. What began as a regional pilot program was transformed into a comprehensive, company-wide initiative.
All Equipment in One Place
First and foremost, the YARDZ technology platform allows SEC to see all their rented (and owned) assets in one place. This helps them manage their equipment and ensure that each piece is allocated effectively and cost-efficiently to the places it’s needed most, as well as saving money on duplicate and overdue rentals.
But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. From the beginning, SEC wanted a platform that was not only effective but flexible. For SEC, the definition of “flexible” incorporated very specific parameters. They wanted:
- Customizable processes
- Robust user permissions
- Multiple ways to view and work
- One-click / One-page access
- Multi-tenant capability
- Custom development for features, workflow, and reports
The need for flexibility was required for a more overarching reason: it meant standardized data could be provided to headquarters on a corporate level, while unique workflows could be shared at the business unit level or by region.
Not to be lost in all these benefits is the positive impact that having all assets in one place creates. And speaking of consolidation, YARDZ’s capability as a rental aggregator tool is a significant feature, as the company built rental intelligence into the platform using logic and regression analysis to convert bad data into good.
On the rental side, by analyzing the Net Rate Variance of SEC’s rentals, YARDZ identified $140,000 in Rate Overages over the last three years.
Through the platform’s integration prowess, SEC can also take corporate data from their BI tool and Telematics/GPS provider, associating it to the lowest variable to drive behavior change at the source. What this means is that big data becomes usable data down to the user, organized to understand performance to manage regions, divisions, projects, and people more effectively.
Tons of Dashboard Data
The Custom Reporting feature is one that provides SEC with insights into multiple areas, such as the Work Order Dashboard that lets the company review work order data by region, category of work, and individual technician level to drive better performance; and the Replacement Schedule, which measures replacement thresholds by depreciation schedule, model year, purchase date, mileage, and engine hours. Compliance reporting keeps SEC on track with their on- and off-road fleet to ensure they comply with regulations, avoiding costly fines and keeping employees operating the safest fleet.
Perhaps the most critical reporting comes from the Safety Dashboard. Designed with weekly, monthly and quarterly data, SEC has reduced the time to identify driver safety risks by tying data directly to region, driver, and periods of time.
Despite the overwhelming success of the implementation, the job is still not done. SEC is collaborating with YARDZ to bring even more customized functionality to the platform. The SEC team is working with YARDZ to use fuel data to help identify potential theft or anomalies through spending behavior and proximity analysis of asset and fueling locations.
The YARDZ platform also helps the field at SEC report all its equipment-repair needs with simple-to-use QR Codes. Now, workers and operators can take photos and video, plus note issues in the field. This provides better visibility for the mechanics who can go into the history of each vehicle, and in one place see the vehicle’s complete repair and maintenance history. What’s more, repairs and maintenance tasks are color-coded by priority, so the most urgent jobs are done first – and no job is overlooked.
The latest development in the partnership is employee and equipment timesheets to ensure seamless transition for the field into an easy-to-use workflow that matches how contractors work, simplifying multi-task order costing and building logic to reduce human error.
Obviously, the numbers – as in the measurable results – showcase the success SEC has experienced with the YARDZ platform. But Bruce Schwerin, SEC’s former fleet manager, put it in more esoteric terms.
“I was able to say to YARDZ, ‘This is my vision, this is what I’m looking for.’ And they took my vision and made it a reality.”