VP of Operations
Jerry Harris Remodeling, Chesapeake, Va.
2021 Revenue: $6.5 million
Cutting out inefficiencies doesn’t always mean your goal is to increase the number of projects you do. It helps the overall satisfaction of the customer and it makes project managers’ lives easier, which turns into making production managers’ lives easier, and in turn, our lives easier. Their peace of mind leads to better efficiencies, profits, and a happier crew overall.
Best innovation: We previously worked through a combination of Microsoft Project and paper. I helped move everything to the cloud. My guys had binders with long write-ups and constantly printed new schedules. We found Smartsheet and thought it was perfect because it combined several areas. No more rifling through paper, everything is at your fingertips. It took two years and lots of late nights, but it’s helped productivity and allows me to send subs a specific schedule for them. Clients get schedules every week too. It’s app-based so everyone has it on their phones. Any questions, set of plans, orders—everything can be done from anywhere.
If I’m traveling, I can still react and have our hands on it. It helps with communication too. When a task is done, instead of a long report written out, they can mark it done and I can see how much of a percentage of a project is complete. With supply chain issues, I can see everything and how it will affect the project before I react or overreact. It gives me better adjustability. If we were still working on paper, I know I would have missed a lot of the issues that came up during these times.