// Project Management Software
“I was in need of a software solution to better manage my operations; the series of Excel files and Google spreadsheets were becoming increasingly difficult to manage as my company grew. I looked at JobBoss, E2 Shop Systems and the like before partnering with Crows Nest. While the software itself was impressive, the level of service Crows Nest provided before and after signing on is what made the decision obvious”
“The value that Crows Nest brings to our shop is the piece of mind that we are scheduling all of our jobs appropriately all the way from design to production through the shop, through finishing in our finish room, all the way to installation.”
“The duration of the implementation was much shorter than what I have experienced in years past even though the functionality is probably greater and that is a tribute to the Crows Nest team, getting enough information from me ahead of time to set up the system to be usable day one. This really is one of the selling features for me”
“Crows Nest has increased our efficiency for our installers because the installers now have one central location on their phones where they could tap into Crows Nest out on a job site and pull up anything they need to know about that job if for some reason it isn’t in their install paperwork. So that has been huge to be able to centralize the system to where anyone in our organization can tap into it at any time and every single job is set up the exact same way.”
“Crows Nest is the fourth major ERP software that I have worked with and I have to say, it’s the most straightforward. Quite honestly, the other ERP packages I’ve used are so complex that if anything changes, you have to jump through hoops and change your process to match the system. Crows Nest is a software package that you can begin using from day one because it has all of the basics you need to get started.”
“We’ve got a number of people here who are all working on projects, and it’s one central place to keep everything, all the information we need for a project. And it’s more scalable, if a project manager wins the lottery and doesn’t come in tomorrow, we’ll all know where to pick up the ball because of course it’s in Crows Nest.”
“Before Crows Nest, we did not have a central database for our estimators, project managers and shop personnel to keep tabs on customers and projects. We were constantly asking each other who’s the contact for this project, what’s their contact information and what’s the production status? Now we maintain updated records and notes on everything in one system that’s accessible to everyone. Adding up all of the hours for each employee, we save 40 to 50 hours per week in terms of reduced meetings, less time walking around asking questions and fewer mistakes. That translates into about a 30 percent increase in productivity.”
“When we were looking at software packages, we were comforted to know that if I needed customization on a report it wasn’t going take forever to get and it wasn’t going to be ungodly expensive. Two of the most important things that people should know about Crow’s Nest is that it was super-fast for me to implement, plus having that customization piece is really nice.”
“We purchased Crows Nest because we were looking to automate our scheduling which we were still doing by hand on a calendar. What we received when we purchased Crows Nest was much more valuable to our company than just a scheduling program. We now use Crows Nest for scheduling, purchasing, receiving, labour tracking, job costing, and employee information. We have found this program to be very versatile and adaptive to our specific business model. Looking back now, out of all of the purchases we made Crows Nest has made the most significant impact to our company. I can’t imagine running my company without it.”
“Shipping. Being able to scan items through Crows Nest…. knowing where they’re located through GPS has been really crucial for us. It saved us a lot of remakes because installers were able to tell them ‘we scanned it onsite’, it shows that it’s there. And, it’s really saved about 80% of the remakes. We also use the scan function throughout our shop so we can tell where the item’s located. We scan the items when ready to ship. We scan on the truck, and then we scan it when it’s off the truck on the job site. And that’s really helped us through any kind of shipping issues. And it’s seriously saved us 80% of the remakes that weren’t necessary.”
“I’m the CEO working from home. Our co-works from home, estimators, engineers, and purchasing agent. A lot of our people work from home. Our product managers work from home as well as go to the job sites. And Crows Nest allows us to do that with all the access, to all the information we need to be able to run the company successfully.”
“We don’t use any Excel anymore, we don’t use One Note or Calendar anymore… Everything is pretty much in one place and that’s actually increased our productivity, I would say more than 35%.”
“The data Crows Nest gives us on a real-time basis all the time is tremendously valuable. Much more valuable than you can often get with larger pieces of software that take years and years and many consultants to develop and implement.”