Fast Forwarding to the Digital Age
August 30, 2022
How One Small Ready Mix Producer Automated its Systems in Two Years
By Victoria K. Sicaras
When in the midst of running a busy concrete operation, making a technology upgrade can feel like a Herculean effort. It takes time and dedication to research solutions, roll them out, train employees and change processes that may have been in place for decades. For a company that isn’t large enough to justify having an information technology (IT) department, modernizing outdated systems can seem even more daunting. Yet B & B Concrete did just that with amazing speed. Operating without an IT department, the company was able to automate nearly all its core business systems, from truck tracking to accounting to sales and dispatch, within a two-year time span.
The producer’s digital transformation was accomplished, in part, by choosing cloud-based solutions that can integrate with other software and technology tools. At the center of the company’s success was a dispatch system that could link processes across all business areas, thereby eliminating information silos and thus improving coordination between departments.
McMillan and B & B Concrete Production Manager Clay Cruse began searching for web-based replacements that could be accessed from anywhere, despite what’s going on at the corporate office.
“We also wanted a solution that could easily scale with us. And we wanted it to perform as a business operations “platform” to link processes across the operation – from sales to dispatch to quality control – and keep everybody connected, regardless of department,” says McMillan.
The producer chose BCMI Corp.’s ready mix dispatch platform which stores information in a cloud server to provide up-to-the-minute access to fleet statuses, plant volumes, customer accounts, quotes, project history and more. The dispatch solution is fully integrated, which means it can easily connect with other software to harvest all sorts of data, including product and pricing information, concrete mix designs, plant activity and customer history. The platform’s optional features include CRM, a customer portal, invoice e-mailing and paperless ticketing (eTicketing).
Since implementing cloud-based systems, B & B has significantly reduced capital purchase costs for IT infrastructure. Plus, the producer has minimized paper and postage costs thanks to the ability to send electronic tickets and email invoices.
“We also have insight into many more performance metrics in real time which is impacting business decisions,” says McMillan. “Ultimately, we anticipate our new platform will result in more consistency across our footprint, particularly in how we manage customer relationships. It will improve efficiency by reducing administrative burdens at the operations level and for our accounting department.”
Teamwork is one of the producer’s core values and McMillan says the technology upgrades have helped employees work more effectively as a team.
“Being a small company, we have a lot of cross-functionality and responsibility. The system changes have resulted in better connection and improved communication across the company,” says McMillan. “I also think that going through a digital transformation that impacted so many of our core business processes simultaneously conditioned our team to be more open-minded about change.”
In a short time, the producer has moved from largely manual processes to being a technology leader in its region. In particular, B & B’s adoption of eTicketing has prompted discussion among other producers in the state as well as the Mississippi Department of Transportation about the acceptance of eTickets.