Tuning Into Technology - FOCUS: Computer Technology

Some are cutting edge, some are comfortably unequipped. There are eggheads, and there are dinosaurs. There is a growing gap between those who are eager to try new technological tricks and those who prefer to stick to the tried-and-true ledger-line accounting and snail-mail billing. There is also a middle range, which seems to include most green industry companies.

Then, there is hesitation.

"There is fear of getting left behind, but fear of doing something about it," described Bruce Wilson, vice president business development, Green2Go, Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. "A lot of this is caused by lack of knowledge."

In which case, there is pressure.

Wilson estimated that the green industry is nearly four years behind in technical advancement - common in the service industry - and there is a two- to four-year gap between lawn and landscape companies wired with the latest equipment and contractors only beginning to integrate systems into their businesses.

I know my customers’ names and their kids’ names - and their hobbies, too. Sure, I have a computer, but machines don’t build relationships, people do. Technology? Call me customer-driven.

Many business owners understand the value of technology. They know of its potential efficiencies, organizational qualities and appeal to their computer-savvy customers. But this is not always enough to convince them to take the technology plunge.

"It takes a while to learn how to do that stuff, and then you have to relearn it and it changes all the time…then you have updates," reasoned Chris Combs, owner, Trans-Plants, Indianapolis, Ind. Her interiorscape company’s technology inventory includes several pagers, two computers to aid in billing and tracking sales, one cell phone that she operates and email - which she is admittedly stubborn to use.

"I learn customers’ names and their dogs’ names, and in the plant business, that’s what clients want - someone with personality," she explained.

Her seven-employee business runs smoothly on this simplistic plan, she said. "I really like the hands-on - I’m too old for this," she laughed. Her concentration is building relationships - strong ones. She compares her mantra to the television commercial where a CEO passes out airline tickets to employees seated on either side of a large conference room table.

"He said, ‘You’re going to start seeing the customers, and I’m going to see the one we just lost,’" she described. "And I thought, you know, that makes sense. Go out and talk to your customers, don’t send them email - I hate that."

Combs is considering launching a company Web site, but she "keeps putting on the brakes. I don’t know, I just don’t have a good feeling about it." She said she will probably give in soon, however.

My computer does the numbers, but you can’t always trust machines to do the work. I’ve been playing on the Internet. I’ll keep learning…when I get the extra time. For now, technology? Call me comfortable.

Nick Valenta loves his fax machine. His Ridgewood-N.J.-based company, Valley Landscape, treats this equipment like communication central. Since he added the fax to his business years ago, mailing costs decreased 50 percent and customers enjoy the convenience of faxing bid requests, he noted.

"I am happy with the systems we have," he confirmed. His other technological tools include Nextel radios and cell phones and two computers with accounting software. "I know companies that are completely up to date and automated, and some are still completely pencils and scraps of paper.

"I favor the middle ground - not completely automated or computerized, but partially," he continued. "It’s comfortable."

However, his company is by no means at a standstill when it comes to pushing forward in technology. Like many, Valenta prefers a gradual move into more advanced systems - baby steps.

"I think for some, it’s a fear of the unknown," he figured. "You hear stories of people spending thousands of dollars and not getting the right things."

Wilson agreed this scenario is not unusual. For those unfamiliar with the latest software, purchasing a package to meet the company’s needs can turn into a guessing game. Often, contractors have false expectations of technology’s capabilities.

"It’s like buying a tax package," Wilson compared. "It sounds like it does it all for you, but there are limitations. How much do you already need to know? That is why it is important to look at the support and training and the implementation of the new program. If you’re not tech-savvy, you’ll give up and put it away."

Valenta has not given up yet. He believes scheduling and routing software will eliminate math errors and increase operating efficiencies, but his primary obstacles are time, cost and knowledge.

The time investment required to fully install a new software program and train office managers to use the system could place a hefty burden on the company’s temporary financial health, Valenta noted. Plus, after 25 years of estimating the old-fashioned way, he is skeptical about change.

"When we originally put all of our books on the computer, which includes job costs and payroll, it took about two weeks of two full-time people to enter everything and set it up, and then it took a year or so of adding to the program," he remembered. Financially, Valenta knows that the efficiency of installing updated technology pays off in the long-run. When his company moved its payroll to the computer accounting system 15 years ago, the new system cut what used to be a two-day payroll task down to a half-day project - a 75-percent time savings.

"Maybe one needs lessons on technology," Valenta remarked. "To just go into it on your own is difficult. Some things I can figure out and some things I can’t. If there are fourteen things on the screen, what do you pick out? Some people just know. Maybe it’s because they’ve tried it 100 times and they’ve figured it out. If you do it enough times, you’ll learn slowly."

Wilson remembers this learning stage - it wasn’t too long ago when he traded his mower for a mouse after more than 30 years as a contractor. "With my previous company, if I didn’t become technology proficient, I was going to hold the company back," he said. "To learn technology, you have to force yourself every day to get on a computer, otherwise you can’t remember what you learned.

"Gradually, you will get it," he added.

We have computers with state-of-the-art software. Web site? Our clients log on for appointments, our technicians search it for tips, and our competitors study it before launching their own. Technology? Call me cutting edge.

Joe Loyet keeps company matters in the palm of his hand - literally. With Palm Pilots, he tracks labor, scheduling and routing. His St. Louis,-Mo.-based company, Loyet Landscape Management, traded its Franklin Planners for Palm Pilots in 1999, and is now issuing them to more than the sales staff and branch managers.

"Instead of giving crew leaders a printout saying, ‘You have to go to XYZ,’ the information will be on the Palm Pilot," he explained. "You turn on your Palm Pilot when you start work. Then, when you get to your first job, you hit ‘Yes,’ and you begin your work. When you’re done, you punch out. So, you have all the time you are on the job and the drive time to the next job."

Quick customer turn-around and "being one step ahead of your competition" is crucial in a growing industry, Loyet stressed. "We want to be on the leading edge of things - I want to get that bid out as quickly as possible. The biggest problem in this business is people go out for a sales call and they have to come back to the office and do all of the paperwork."

Loyet cured this time-management malady last year by supplying each sales person with a laptop computer equipped with a spreadsheet program. Now, the company owns five laptops and 12 Palm Pilots, and customers are shocked at the speed they return bids, he boasted. "We want our sales person to do the initial call, do the take-off, enter it in his laptop, come back in the office, print it off, and get back into the field as quickly as possible."

Sounds cut and dry. And for Loyet - a self-described "challenger" - integrating new systems addressed the inevitable.

The generation entering the industry is prepared with technological background.

"When younger people come into a company they expect a computer," Wilson added, recommending contractors be sensitive to employees’ expectations. "Otherwise, you can easily drive them away."

For those who consider a computer a significant step away from their trusty traditional method, now is the time to move, Loyet advised. He, too, recommends a gradual technology transition.

"There is a risk with technology - whether it will work like you want it to - but you have to look forward and go for it," Loyet urged. "Don’t procrastinate. If you’re going to procrastinate, it’s not going to happen. Take the ball and run with it."

Procrastination hardly explains Derek Blumburg’s attitude toward integrating technology in his Savage, Minn.-based business, Quality Seasons Landscaping. With a laptop on his truck’s passenger seat, a wireless Internet connection and a network of computers hooked up to an accounting, scheduling and routing software program, he admitted that his technology tactic is rather aggressive.

For Blumberg, connection leads to competitiveness. So, he is connecting quickly. "Technology is the way you operate, deliver quality and deliver it fast," he said.

Quality Seasons purchased its first laptop last year, adding this tool to its basics, which includes Nextel phones, a paging system, cellular phones, email and a Web site, along with several office computers with business software. But make no mistake, Blumburg’s business didn’t start by pointing and clicking away at the market, he confessed.

Quality Seasons started with a push mower, pencil and paper. Today, a customer might find him in the driver’s seat of his car, perched at a make-shift desk strapped to the passenger seat, which holds his laptop and office supplies. Blumburg might be sending customers an email from his truck, or checking the weather to alert his technicians of severe conditions.

His technology know-how has expanded quite a bit over the years.

"If I could start over, turn the key off and start from scratch, from all that I know now, I could be where I am in this business in three years, and most people could probably say the same thing," he compared.

Clearly, a better operating system positions companies for success, he stressed. "Some guys have a stack of paper and they get around to entering it into the computer some day. If you’re talking about business systems, having a better operating system is an advantage, because time is money."

Blumburg’s only fear concerning technology is that he will not have enough.

"The only intimidating thing to me is not having the information," he said. "Most of us in this industry are go-getters, so whatever didn’t stop you from getting into business, how could that stop you from getting technology? If you are a builder of business, you won’t fear technology."