Now Is The Time For Technology: High-tech Management

There are no criteria for a company to be technologically innovative. Tools are available for any company, regardless of its size or focus, to run its day-to-day operations more efficiently. “If a company isn’t willing to adapt and change, then it’s going to stand still,” noted Randy Ferrari, vice president of landscape services, Minor’s Landscape Services, Fort Worth, Texas. “The ideas that bring us the most success are those which are cutting edge and that result from us being open to ideas about reengineering our business.”

Here are several examples where that is taking place right now:

PASS THE CHIPS. “Instead of having traditional job cards, we have data collectors for our crews,” explained Ed Laflamme, president, Laflamme Services Inc., Bridgeport, Conn. “A data chip goes on each clipboard, at all of our account sites and on all of our trucks. The foreman is responsible for touching the data collector to the chip and recording the appropriate information, such as clocking in at the job or clocking out.”

Laflamme said the chip can be programmed to record whatever data is desired. “The foreman also records data about all of the personnel with him or her, and this is downloaded to our computer network at the end of each day,” he said. “Then our data manager can determine all of the hours spent doing what by each crew.

“We use the information for payroll and job costing,” Laflamme continued. “Typically, companies write the information down, then the bookkeeper sorts the information, then it goes to payroll and is reentered, then to job costing. This program does it all and has allowed us to eliminate one full-time position.”

SAY CHEESE. Groundmasters Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, dresses up its sales proposals with images taken via a digital camera. “We just take the picture and plug the camera into the computer to come up with an image we can work with,” explained Mike Rorie, president.

Rorie pointed out how the image can make one bid stand out from the competition. “With commercial accounts, it’s difficult to actually get in front of the final decision maker. This image gives the salesperson something for the property manager to show the decision maker,” he said. “Otherwise, the bid is just another piece of paper.

“It’s also beneficial for production crews,” Rorie continued. “Now the designer can show production what he or she envisions for the project.”

The camera has presented challenges for Groundmasters, however. “It is expensive office equipment, and it required we purchase another computer. The training time is also an investment beyond actual dollars,” Rorie admitted. “But we’re using it wherever possible now.”

NETWORK NEWS. Jay Long and many of his co-workers at Ruppert Landscape Co., Ashton, Va., spend a lot of time traveling between various branch offices, and oftentimes they need a form on the computer in Georgia when they’re in Delaware. Networking the company’s computers makes the form immediately available to anyone regardless of location.

“Currently, all of our training records and information are kept separately from other personnel information, so that’s all being entered twice,” recognized Long, director of employee development. “With a network, the information will be entered once and everyone in the company can access it. This is pretty important because of how decentralized our operations are.”

The network will also create company-wide consistency regarding the software tools each branch works with and the skills office workers have. “We’re going to be entirely Microsoft Office oriented,” Long said.

Long isn’t too concerned about employees being comfortable with the new technol-ogy. “Most people today are dealing with a lot of high-tech tools,” he noted. “The challenge is getting people to use the technology to the fullest level of its expertise.”

NO CODES BARRED. Actually, more and more information at Hillenmeyer Nurseries, Lexington, Ky., is kept in bar code format. “We’re using bar code technology at the point-of-sale for our retail operation and inventory coming in and going out of the wholesale yard for our own installations,” remarked Stephen Hillenmeyer, president.

“This gives us immediate numbers for exactly what is on hand in our inventory,” he explained. “It will probably take us a full year to get all of the bugs worked out, but we’ve been using the system since January and we already see some benefits.”

Hillenmeyer said the improved inventory tracking was especially valuable in the springtime. “When the yard is full of material, it’s nice to know what you have without sending someone out to do a physical inventory,” he said. “Once the job is sold and the work order is completed, those materials are taken out of our computer inventory so they can’t be resold.”

The bar code technology also influences sales efforts. “If we don’t have something a customer wants in stock, it might take us three weeks to purchase it and get it in the yard,” Hillenmeyer noted. “This way, we can focus on selling exactly what we have to better manage our cash flow, and we can also do a better job of turning over the inventory still in the yard late in the season.

“Tracking the movement of this year’s inventory should also be valuable to us next year when we’re purchasing new green goods,” he noted.

A REAL TALKING TO. Whether it’s a company with four employees or 400 employees, like The Groundskeeper, Tucson, Ariz., communication is key. That’s why The Grounds-keeper is overhauling its entire communications network in favor of a complete system that integrates cellular capabilities with two-way radios and alphanumeric pagers.

“Right now, we’ve got a combination of all of those devices out in the field, and we want to make it easier for people to talk to each other,” explained Dave Ramsze, regional vice president. “Our crew leaders currently carry two-way radios to communicate with each other, but the added cellular capabilities will be great so they can communicate with customers as well.”

The benefits of having all of its communications on one system with a digital T-1 line allows the company’s employees to be reached no matter where they are by only calling one number. “By integrating the system with our answering service, any call coming in to any of our five branch offices can be automatically transferred directly to the appropriate person’s phone without going through another receptionist or dialing more numbers, even if that means transferring the call to the cellular phone.”

In addition to the improved communications the technology offers, Ramsze sees other benefits to The Groundskeeper. “Customers don’t want to be bounced around to different people when they call in, only to end up in voicemail. They want to talk to a real person,” he related.

X MARKS THE SPOT. The Davey Tree Expert Company, Kent, Ohio, has developed a series of software programs designed to supply arborists with as much information as possible about the trees they care for.

“TreeKeeper is our flagship database management program which takes customized attribute information on trees and allows the user to maintain the landscape in a cyclical manner with built-in monitors for work reporting, budgets, job costing and so on,” explained Greg Ina, supervisor of GIS technology.

The TreeKeeper database can operate in conjunction with Davey’s Geographic Information System. The GIS allows users to take all of the information gathered about the trees on a job and use that to produce a detailed map pinpointing the location and attributes of each tree.

“This type of program allows anyone involved in grounds management to move from a reactionary mode of management to a proactive approach,” Ina noted. “Having all of the data in one central database leads to the development of cyclical trimming cycles, improved record keeping and scheduling, truck fleet management and other areas of operations.”

Users of the GIS system can call up a job site on the computer and visualize the location and health of each tree on the site.