API CASE STUDY

How STACK’s Integration Revolutionized Ewing Irrigation’s Workflow

The Challenge

Evan Mecham, Commercial Services Manager, explains that when Ewing was preparing to revamp their commercial services site, they noted just how much duplicate work was being done and knew they needed to make a change.

At this point, the Ewing team knew the answer would be a web-based solution that would integrate with all of their existing systems. With the volume of takeoffs performed by their estimating department, getting the integration right was crucial to the company’s continued success.

As it stood, Ewing was using a CRM, takeoff software, and quoting software. Evan says there was constant duplication of work, and so many steps in a process that Ewing recognized was unnecessarily complicated. Each estimator was responsible for counting, quoting, and keeping the CRM up-to-date – the amount of manual data entry across platforms was unsustainable.

Ewing built their new commercial services site to handle scheduling and project loading, and then began seeking out a takeoff tool that would integrate seamlessly with it. As they searched, Evan says, they found that a lot of the takeoff software options that have been around for a long time are just not willing to do integrations, or if they were, the cost was so steep that they’d never see a return on their investment. Even as such a major irrigation supplier, Evan says, it seemed that no one wanted to take Ewing seriously.

It was also extremely important to Ewing to choose an evolving tool with a responsive product team that would be flexible and continue to develop the platform according to their feedback and needs.

The Solution

With Ewing’s proprietary commercial services site, contractors can submit their projects via a portal. The customer is able to input whatever job name they prefer, and an internal Ewing project number is simultaneously created for tracking the project.

The project then goes to Evan’s production team, who reviews it and hits a “Send to STACK” button, after which the PDF plans are sent directly to STACK, using the Ewing project number as well as the customer’s preferred job name.

Evan’s team then goes deeper, looking at what needs to be counted in the plans, and enters the items into their interactive materials database. Once that is complete, they hit another “STACK It” button, which then sends all the data directly to STACK via the integration.

When the estimating team, which is spread across Ewing’s national regions as well as abroad, is ready to perform the takeoff on a project, all of the information is already within the STACK platform, organized and prepared for them.

STACK built custom categories for Ewing, making the takeoff process even simpler. It’s easy to see directly in the sidebar of STACK exactly which materials need to be counted, so the estimators can get right to work. Once they’re finished, they hit “STACK It” again, the two systems communicate with each other, and all the quantities they’ve counted are then brought back into the interactive materials list, where Evan’s team exports the materials and counts into their quoting software. They then put the final touches on the estimate and send it off to the customer.

Evan says the process is instantaneous and smooth and removes all of the rework from Ewing’s workflow.

The STACK integration has completely changed the way Ewing is able to serve their customers. Without STACK, Evan says, “life would be a headache for so many reasons.”

The Results

Seamless Integration with API Partnership

Ewing streamlines their workflow allowing the production team to “Send to STACK” after contractors submit projects through Ewing’s proprietary commercial services site. The production and estimating teams can also hit “STACK It” – a functionality adding data to project plans in STACK from Ewing’s interactive materials database, as well as sending data from STACK back into Ewing’s systems to finalize a quote.

Increased Collaboration with Robust Integration

With the powerful integration between Ewing and STACK, Ewing’s estimators now have access to all project data anywhere, anytime – a valuable feature with their estimating team reaching across the globe. Multiple employees can be working in the same project doing counts simultaneously with real-time updates. With an estimating team spread across time zones and countries, Ewing staff can be working on the same project 24 hours a day.

Immersive Training, Amazing Customer Service, and a Strong Relationship

Ewing’s teams received in-person training in STACK’s platform to ensure quick, seamless onboarding. They also shared feedback and feature suggestions to increase efficiency that STACK listened to and implemented, giving Ewing a voice in product updates and upcoming roadmap.

Cloud-Based Platform = Regional Representation and Improved Relationships

With STACK’s 100% cloud-based platform, Ewing was able to reorganize their staffing to the appropriate locations across the country. Each regional office hires its own estimating team and they’re trained remotely. This decentralization of the estimating team allows estimators to build relationships with their local sales teams and with the customers they serve

Increased Efficiency

Using STACK has increased the Ewing estimating team’s efficiency at least threefold. Evan reports that the estimators are now able to complete three to four jobs in the time it previously took to do a single takeoff.

They’re now able to get a big job of more than 20 plan pages out the door in about 3 days, allowing them to provide faster turnaround for customers in an industry in which speed could make all the difference in winning bids.

Ewing Outdoor Supply is the largest family-owned supplier of landscape and irrigation products in the United States that supplies contractors with irrigation supplies, water-efficient and sustainable solutions, landscape and turf products, and more.

Trade

Supplier

Revenue

$625 million

Company Overview

Founded in 1922
Headquartered in Phoenix, AZ

STACK Customer Since

2018

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If you want to see results like this, you can get started today. Meet with an expert from our team and they’ll show you how.

“Thanks to our integration with STACK, we are able to serve our customers much quicker than before!”

Evan Mecham
Commercial Services Manager, Ewing Outdoor Supply