Plugging In To Automation: Computers

"The future of computer software will be different than anything we can prepare for," acknowledged Dave Tucker, president, Sensible Software, Gaithersburg, Md. "Most software companies have a five-year plan in place, but we all stand ready to change course because we really can’t predict where things will be beyond six months into the future."

Several factors are driving these changes. A booming lawn and landscape industry is demanding products that are integrated and easy to use. The shortage of labor encourages contractors to automate as much of their businesses as possible. And contractors are looking for software that will help them beat their competition through better and faster service, more accurate and prolific proposal writing, stronger presentations and, when necessary, the ability to change course on a dime.

PART OF THE BIG PICTURE. Imaging software that allows designers to lay out a landscape on computer, then present that image on screen and in print form to customers has come into its own over the past several years.

While no software manufacturer provides true integration of computer aided design, imaging and business management functions, integrating these components is a focus of research and development in the software industry, according to Brian Dontje, owner, UDS Computer Software, Grand Rapids, Mich.

"Future products will create dynamic interactivity between the accounting and design functions," he predicted. "As contractors create the design, they’ll be creating the proposal."

The image, and the process of assembling the image on screen, continues to be a focus of ongoing development. Software manufacturers have been working to enhance the quality of the image and the ease of use to give contractors a competitive edge in productivity and the saleability of the projects they present to clients.

Stano Landscaping, Milwaukee, Wis., added imaging software about six months ago to aid in selling mostly residential clients on landscape designs. "Other companies in the market had been using imaging software at local home shows, and it’s really a good sales tool for a public that is so visually oriented," said Mitch Rolsky, vice president of operations. Designers on sales calls take a laptop computer and make changes for the customer on the spot. Each computer is also loaded with software featuring plant photography, so designers don’t need to carry plant picture books.

The imaging component of the software itself has been strengthened in different ways by improving the appearance of the trees, shrubs and structures in the image.

For example, Barton Greer, director of media relations, Diehl/Graphsoft Inc., Columbia, Md., said that creating photo-realism has been a central focus in software development. The company’s CAD product ships with a renderer that enhances the image on the screen.

"It allows users to create soft shadows and takes out the ‘jaggies,’ or points of distortion, within an image," said Greer.

AutoDesk has also been working on presenting the cleanest design possible, and its newest release of ProLandscape features "alpha channel blending," according to product manager Chris Lohman. The colors around the borders of the plants are graded so that plants placed against structures in a layout look more dimensional and don’t look as though they’ve been stuck into the picture, he noted.

Dontje added that the imaging component of his Image.Scapes software includes a feature that shows a proposed design in a night lighted setting. It also provides designers the ability to drop plant labels into a design to give to customers when the landscape is complete.

More and better image "editing" tools are also being designed into imaging programs. For example, DesignWare from Design Imaging Group, Holtsville, N.Y., includes a "copy shadow" function which allows users to create the shadow effect from trees on homes and structures. Another feature allows the user to alter parts of the image without losing the original picture scanned into the system. "You can ‘prune’ branches off trees and restore them on the image days or even weeks later," noted Garry Galpin, DIG president.

Jim Karo, president, Visual Impact Imaging, Hopatcong, N.J., noted that his imaging software contains a cloning feature that allows for the reproduction of patterns in a scanned image that closely matches the quality of the original image. It can also "paint in" features such as grass and mulch so curves and odd shapes can be easily drawn into the image.

With all of these image options, one of the last real appearance enhancements left is the ability to see the design in three dimensions. Dontje explained that current limitations are more related to the hardware than the software. "We could write that program, but you have to consider, for example, that a three-dimensional tree contains millions of colors," he related. "The program would simply be too large for the types of computers landscape contractors own."

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS. The trend in business management software is a carbon copy of the trend in the green industry to perform as many functions as possible so one vendor can service all of a customer’s needs.

Tim Shields, president of CompuScapes, Atlanta, Ga., noted that the most recent release of the company’s software, featuring enhanced estimating and job costing abilities, is a direct result of both the needs of diverse clients and the growing computer literacy in the market.

"Five or six years ago, I was worried more about educating contractors than talking about our particular product," admitted Shields. "Now, all levels of the market understand the value of having a good program in-house. For the smaller guys, it levels out the competitive playing field a bit."

Frank Acosta, president, Creative Custom Software, Port Murray, N.J., said his company has nearly completed a Windows version of its scheduling software, which should be released by the third quarter this year. Contractors have been demanding a high level of flexibility in scheduling different types of accounts, services and billing options. Every contractor believes that his or her system is the best, so we try to design the software so it fits into what they are doing, he explained.

"Most of our clients want to do their work during the day and be able to make easy, quick data entry at the end of the day," Acosta continued. "They don’t want to worry about the data on the other end."

"We’ve noticed that companies are moving more toward providing full- service landscape care," agreed Joe McPhail, vice president, Real Green Professional Service, Walled Lake, Mich. "Contractors getting into full-service need to have software that allows for flexibility."

Recent changes in Sensible Software’s CLIP program were also driven by the need for flexibility, explained Sharon O’Donnell, marketing coordinator. The company recently began offering the software at three levels Light, Classic and Pro geared to the needs of small, medium and large contractors. The software is easily upgradable, so growing companies can move up to the next level of the program when they need the additional power and features, O’Donnell noted.

Brett Harward, chief executive officer, Frontrunner Technologies, Glendale, Ariz., agreed that the industry needs adaptable software, but he added that companies need guidance to understand the capabilities of today’s software.

"There are companies out there using DOS and Windows 3.1 applications that are getting the most they can out of that software, but they have no idea what computers can do for their businesses," he said, adding that Frontrunner offers business consulting as well as its management software. "We feel we need to educate people about the power of a computer program to help them elevate their business."

For Stano Landscaping, a change in software is being implemented to adapt to an aggressive growth strategy planned by the company, explained Rolsky.

The company is implementing accounting, contact and business management software that isn’t specifically geared to the green industry, but that Rolsky said will provide flexibility. This flexibility comes at a cost of between $15,000 and $35,000 for the business management portion of the software, Rolsky revealed. The main benefits to the company include ease of customization and expandability. "We’re paying for cutting edge", he added. "With this software, we can adapt it to the way the company runs now, so our people won’t have a significant learning curve."

THE MARKETING EDGE. Lawn care, maintenance and irrigation contractors who rely on the conversion of leads from a database for new sales rely on computer software to help make their marketing programs as effective as possible.

Maris Franke, president, Practical Solutions, Columbus, Ohio, noted that software is growing more sophisticated in its ability to analyze databases and separate hot and cold leads. Software can take purchased databases and compare them to the company records to determine who the most likely candidates are for a potential sale. This increases the effectiveness of any targeted direct mail.

Don Mayle, president, DK Enterprises, Pocono Summit, Pa., said that computer software today can also take advantage of the information gathered about a site, such as the lawn size and number of trees, to generate an individualized sales piece with a price list for the customer.

Mayle noted that one contractor he works with performs "drive-bys" of large muti-unit developments with consistently designed landscapes. He puts the information on lawn size and plant material into a computer and generates a "personalized" price list of services which he mails to all of the addresses in the development.

GOING MOBILE. Contractors who are satisfied with their current software for managing accounts agreed that the next, and perhaps biggest, wave of technology will be the use of hand-held, mobile computers.

Hand-held units have the ability to take information about the day’s route from the company’s computer system and present it in an easy to understand format for the crew people. Most systems give the user a destination, a checklist of work to be done and require the user to check in and out of job sites by touching an electronic device to a prompt area on the screen. At the end of the day, the information is downloaded into the company computer eliminating the need to manually input the information.

Tim Doppel, president, Atwood Lawn Care, Sterling Heights, Mich., uses a green industry-specific program to run his lawn care business, which is integrated with the QuickBooks accounting program. Having used a computer since he first went into business, Doppel said the computer system allows him to run the office with one full-time and one part-time secretary.

He’s happy with how smoothly the business is operating now, but believes that "the next big leap will come when technicians can take the computer into the vehicle, and we’ll no longer be printing invoices. I know the equipment is out there, but right now it’s so expensive that I can’t justify the productivity benefits," Doppel said.

"The amazing thing is, I know this isn’t pie in the sky," he continued. "In five years or less, they’ll probably be less expensive, and we’ll be able to afford it." Doppel estimated that a sticker price of about $1,000 per vehicle to install such a system would be affordable enough for him to seriously consider making such a purchase.

Computer software manufacturers say that the era of the affordable in-vehicle computer is indeed drawing near.

"We’ve really just seen the tip of the iceberg with hand-held computers," said Shields, noting that software companies are making incredible investments in programming to bring the hand-held computer to the market.

One of the benchmarks of hand-held computing came last year, when Microsoft released its CE operating software for such smaller units. Nine manufacturers of hand-held hardware have embraced the software since then, which is causing prices on the units to fall dramatically.

The benefits and justification for making such an expenditure are easy to see, once contractors consider the time savings that such a system creates, Shields explained. "The landscape service process is highly complex. When you really look at all of the functions routing scheduling, timekeeping, the route sheet, time in and time out of job sites the cost to have one person keystroke all that information costs about $20,000 to $25,000 per year in salary."

Of course, in-vehicle computers are only as good as the route plan, and software has made some tremendous leaps toward easing the burden of creating an effective route. Joe Kucik, president of Real Green, said that the ability to set routing parameters, such as square footage, hours required on the site and revenue generated by the job, is an important part of a strong routing software package. Real Green’s Lawn Assistant II uses user-preset parameters and mapping software to generate routes in minutes that used to take hours or days to produce.

Some software developers are taking the hand-held concept even one step further. Todd Reinhart, partner, Mobile Data Collection Corp., Normal, Ill., has been working on integrating a hand-held computer with a global positioning system.

The GPS is a tracking device that, when mounted on a vehicle, can monitor and record the route and activity of a service vehicle throughout the day. The unit communicates with a satellite, which relays information about the truck’s location, movements, speed, stops and starts to the company computer. This information is translated into reports that allow accurate route monitoring for maximum productivity.

Reinhart said that the landscape industry will soon have the ability to pinpoint costs and maximize efficiency. "For years, the manufacturing industry has had total knowledge and control over the cost of the work they do," he related. "Automobile manufacturers know to the penny how much it costs to put every bolt on a car, but the service industry hasn’t had that."