When it comes to software the possibilities are endless — or at least that’s how John Caramanico Jr. feels.
Caramanico is the president and owner of C. Caramanico & Sons in Philadelphia — a fourth-generation, family-owned business. The company uses all kinds of technology and various software platforms, but Caramanico says the best ones have been those that’ve provided bonus benefits beyond the scope of what they originally purchased the software for.
“We like to use technology to make us more efficient,” he says.
“It’s really helped with inflation that’s in the market now,” he says. “We can update a price right now, and an estimate that’s made one minute later has that new price in there.”
This seamless process helps keep everyone on the same page and allows for updates in real-time, Caramanico says.
“With crude oil pricing, our fertilizer, mulch, our pipe prices are all being affected, and prices are changing daily, so being able to have the power to update our pricing in the system and that it’s active as soon as we hit save, is very powerful for us,” he says.
But the unexpected advantages don’t stop there.
Caramanico says investing in GPS and fleet monitoring software has made a substantial impact on the company beyond what he expected.
“Our trucks are GPS monitored and we got that for safety originally,” he says. “We wanted our trucks, crews and drivers operating in a safe manner. So, we wanted to monitor things. We wanted to do scorecards and really reward safe drivers.”
However, everyone in the office has benefited from being able to see where trucks and crews are at in real-time.
“It’s also helped with account management,” he says. “It’s helped with the ‘Where is that crew?’ or ‘Where are they on the site?’ questions. Some of the campuses we take care of are pretty big, so having that capability that with a couple clicks we can see where they are, when they’ll be there and give real-time information back to our customers is a big deal.”
And the data stays on file even after a crew leaves the jobsite. Caramanico says that’s been big during the winter months.
“The GPS for snow and ice operations is good for liability,” he says. “Those records are always recorded, and any questions customers have on service times and dates we can log in and see the truck. It’s been very beneficial.”
Breakdowns and repairs are even being handled faster thanks to the software.
“Even from a repair standpoint, if a mower goes down, our mechanic can log in from his phone and is able to get directions to where that truck and crew are located,” he says. “No addresses need exchanged and it’s really efficient.”
Caramanico encourages anyone looking into investing in new software to consider these extra perks. He says that often times the return on investment goes further than one would think.
“When we first decided to do it, my focus was safety but now we got all these added benefits that we’re using all the time,” he says.