When Dixie Electric, Plumbing and Air, a Montgomery, Alabama based company, found out that it’s construction and business management software was going to be eliminated, they didn’t fret. The company knew this was an opportunity for growth and a way to consolidate it’s operations.
Dixie Electric, Plumbing & Air chose Dexter + Chaney’s Spectrum® Construction Software. Dexter + Chaney, the forerunner in construction ERP software performed in the cloud, provided a software package like none other, said Vice President Rodney King.
“For me, Spectrum just seemed like it was very intuitive, especially with the way you could drill down into the different features through the Spectrum Dashboard and the Info Bar. The dashboard also really appealed to our owners as a way to see data any way they wanted to,” King said. “We liked that it pulled together information from all of our business groups into on one system. Spectrum wasn’t just a contracting solution or a service solution but really combined both. The web-based aspect, was huge, especially now that we have our new branch in Opelika, Alabama, where the manager needs access to our software. It was important that he could just go to a browser, access the system securely and get working right away.”
King stated companies using Spectrum said there were very impressed with Spectrum’s Employee Kiosk feature. Employees are able to manage their time, download pay stubs and many other things. Spectrum’s Document Imaging was touted for its document management. Service managers were excited about Spectrum’s service management abilities that will let service techs go from tablet devices out in the field, to dispatchers like Spectrum’s Dispatch Board. The company’s whole construction group was excited about Spectrum’s project management proficiency.
“Having the full breadth of this functionality and features available to us and integrated completely with each other was big,” Kind said, noting that its previous software, American Contractor, wasn’t as connected. “We were doing a lot of work in Excel and trying to bring that data over into our existing software. We wanted more functionality with our software than what we were getting. Not having to work in multiple systems anymore and no more redundancy with data entry, these are major positives for us.”
The company has built a reputation over its 100-plus-year history of being a reliable, trusted electrical, plumbing and HVAC contractor. The necessity for a construction software package that increases competence and unify its operations is important to help manage the company’s massive growth, King said. So much growth that its business has grown beyond its Montgomery to include a 60-mile radius around Opelika, Ala. and Auburn University. The company has built up thousands of customers through the years, with almost all coming back for repeat business.
“We’ve had some good customers on the general contracting side. We built their buildings many years ago and they reached back out to us later for help with things like lighting retrofits or regular maintenance requests,” King said “That launched our commercial side. Then we had some of those building owners ask if we could do work on their homes, so that led to the residential side of the business as well. The ball has just been rolling ever since.”
“We’re proud to have Dixie Electric, Plumbing & Air as one of our newest clients,” said Dexter + Chaney President and CEO Norbert Orth. “This is a company that has spent more than 100 years taking care of and building strong relationships with its customers—making their lives a little easier. With Spectrum, I’m confident we can return the favor and take some of the pressure off of managing a successful, growing company.”