Superbuild

Building Estimator Speeds Time-to-Market, Gains Flexibility, from Software + Services

Superbuild succeeded in creating an online estimator service to produce bills-of-material for contractors, but it needed a new business model if it was going to succeed in marketing that service. The company decided to offer its solution to major retailers and manufacturers that have direct contact with contractors-customers, and to adopt a software-plus-services approach that enables each organization to deliver the solution as its own branded service through its own Web site. Meanwhile, by using Microsoft® technologies instead of Linux technologies, Superbuild reduced its development and maintenance costs and sped time-to-market. The software-plus-services approach also makes it possible for Superbuild to offer its service for new uses, such as actionable business intelligence, and to offer it in new ways, such as on phones and in-store kiosks.

 

Situation

Whether a construction job is the building of a multimillion-dollar skyscraper or an addition to a single-family home, clients want binding estimates, and contractors need to find a way to provide them.

For larger construction companies, those estimates are derived from sophisticated software systems that may take an IT staff to deploy and maintain. But up to 85 percent of contractors “are guys with pickup trucks,” according to Dean Ekman, President and CEO of Superbuild. “And there just wasn’t a software solution out there for them. Small contractors aren’t in a position to buy, deploy, learn, or manage major enterprise resource planning packages, and those solutions don’t make economic sense for their businesses.”

Some proprietary estimating solutions have been available, typically on CD and often distributed as promotional offerings from construction supply firms. But, given the time-sensitive nature of pricing data, these discs are usually out-of-date by the time they are installed.

Ekman was aware of this shortcoming from his days as a construction contractor. So, he set out to do something about it. The result is superbuild.com, a Web site where contractors can go to input specifications for a job, and receive a bill of materials, complete with estimates for material and labor costs. By offering the solution as a service over the Web, Ekman eliminated the need for contractors to maintain any of the IT resources associated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions—his company, Superbuild, would do that for them.

The company’s original business model called for contractors to pay a fee for use of the service. But, like many other fee-for-service sites, Superbuild found that while customers liked its service, they were reluctant to pay for it. If the company were to survive, a new business model was needed, one that would attract large groups of contractors and major revenue sources. So, instead of providing the solution to its own contractor-customers, Superbuild decided to make its estimating service available to other companies that already had those customers and that wanted an additional service through which they could build customer loyalty and increase sales—companies such as major construction-supply retailers and manufacturers.

To support that business model, however, Superbuild needed a technology model that would scale easily to support rapid growth and be easy to enhance and extend to meet new business needs. The solution also needed to be easy for contractors to use and to always provide completely up-to-date information.

Solution

The technology model to which Superbuild turned to implement its solution was a software-plus-services model in which the calculation service is integrated into a Web-based application to Superbuild’s new customers.

The software-plus-services model means we can customize not only our service, but also the way … we provide it. And the use of .NET means we don’t have to recreate our code from scratch to do it. Gerald Baltrusch Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer, Superbuild

Though offering its solution as a service to construction retailers and suppliers simplified the ability of those retailers and suppliers to provide estimation services to their customers, it also added some technology requirements. For example, Superbuild would have to customize the appearance of its offering to match the branding of sponsor organizations. It would have to bring new versions of the service online quickly. And it would have to think beyond the Web to other formats and platforms that sponsors might want, such as onsite kiosks and mobile platforms, with their own, specialized clients and the potential for local functionality.

Superbuild management considered two technology platforms for the service. The first was the so-called LAMP stack: RedHat Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. The other was a Microsoft® application platform including the Windows Server® 2003 operating system with Internet Information Services 7.0, SQL Server® 2005 data management software, the Visual Studio® Team System 2008 development system, and .NET Framework 3.5.

The main attraction of the LAMP stack was the apparently lower licensing cost—but, upon closer inspection, that benefit faded quickly, according to Gerald Baltrusch, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer of Superbuild. “If you’re building a little applet out of your garage, LAMP may make sense,” he says. “But if you are developing a true, enterprise-level system—and that’s what we wanted—then the real costs of RedHat Linux and Windows® are a wash, when you consider the higher costs of support for Linux, the relative unavailability of that support, and all the components you’ll have to build yourself—such as security—that are prebuilt for Windows. The choice came down to the fact that we were already familiar with Windows, and we were comfortable that Microsoft is going to be around for a while. With Linux, who knows?”

The new superbuild.com solution, which is based on the Microsoft application platform specified above (with an upgrade to Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 planned), is currently being rolled out to several key construction retailers and manufacturers, which are offering it as a service on their own Web sites. The use of cascading style sheets and other Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 components make it possible for Superbuild to construct multiple Web front ends to the solution, each with the colors and logo of the organization offering it. A link on the retailer’s or manufacturer’s home page brings contractors to the page of the estimator solution built especially for that organization, and the appearance of that page makes it look to the contractors as though they haven’t left their vendor’s Web site.

Sponsors of the Superbuild solution can also include their own products and prices in the inventory shown to contractors, in categories as broad or narrow as they wish. A window manufacturer, for example, might want the estimator to show its own products plus lumber, paint, and related installation materials. A broadly stocked construction retailer may include sections such as electrical supplies, plumbing, and lumber. Phase one of the solution deployment provides an information service on products and their costs to the contractors. A subsequent phase of the solution will add transaction capabilities, enabling contractors to make purchases automatically, based on the estimated bills-of-material.

Because contractors register and log in to the site, the business rules engine is aware of a contractor’s ZIP Code and can be programmed to display only items available at stores in that contractor’s area. The integration of information among multiple organizations—such as a retailer and its vendors—is handled by Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 R2.

Superbuild also used Microsoft technologies to enhance the user’s experience with the estimator solution. For example, the solution uses ASP.NET AJAX to speed screen refreshes, for greater responsiveness and interactivity. And it uses the Microsoft Silverlight™ 2.0 browser plug-in to animate text and graphics to increase the visual appeal of the solution.

Benefits

The Superbuild estimating solution is expected to build customer loyalty between contractors and the retailers and manufacturers who deploy it, and to provide a base for business intelligence solutions that can be used by those retailers and manufacturers. The use of a software-plus-services approach and the .NET Framework make it possible for Superbuild to quickly develop service versions for new customers, and to develop the service for new form factors such as phones and in-store kiosks.

Builds Customer Loyalty

By providing a detailed, up-to-date, and practical response to contractors’ estimating and bills-of-materials need, Superbuild executives expect that their service will help increase customer loyalty for the organizations that deploy it.

“Major construction supply retailers and manufacturers want ways to help ensure that their customers keep coming back,” says Ekman. “The Superbuild solution is an extremely valuable tool that helps contractors to do their jobs faster and more effecttively, with less hassle. That’s a key way for retailers and manufacturers to build customer loyalty with this audience.”

Customer loyalty is a particularly salient issue for so-called “big-box retailers” who don’t want to lose established contractors to lumber yards and other specialty providers who are willing to provide what has been, until now, a labor-intensive estimating service. Big retailers have competed by outsourcing or maintaining staff to provide such estimates—but both of those options have been relatively expensive. “Now, major retailers and manufacturers can have the best of both worlds: a competitive tool to enhance customer loyalty, and a highly cost-effective way to provide that tool to contractors.”

Provides Broad Base for Business Intelligence

The software-plus-services approach also gives Superbuild the flexibility to use the information it processes in a variety of ways. For example, by aggregating the bills-of-material data that it provides for contractors, Superbuild can develop forward-looking information on what products and quantities will likely be purchased at specific stores or within specific ZIP Codes.

That information goes beyond the point-of-sale information available today, which only shows what products have already been purchased. The advance information available through Superbuild data will enable retailers to fine-tune their just-in-time inventory systems, reducing inventory costs and increasing profit margins.

The software-plus-services approach enables us to add new services—such as business intelligence—to the information we already generate as a result of our estimator service. Gerald Baltrusch Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer, Superbuild

“The software-plus-services approach enables us to add new services—such as business intelligence—to the information we already generate as a result of our estimator service,” says Baltrusch. “That, in turn, greatly increases the value of that information to our customers. We can, for example, show retailers more information about the anticipated behavior of their customers. And we can provide information in ways that make it possible for retailers to apply their own business intelligence to the information, increasing its value to them still more.”

Cuts Time-to-Market to Three Days

Galtrusch estimates that if Superbuild used a more traditional approach to creating its estimator service for each of its retailer or manufacturer customers, it could take three to four months per customer. By using the .NET Framework, Superbuild has reduced that time to three days per customer.

“If we’d chosen LAMP or a similar environment, it would have taken months longer to create all of the components that the .NET Framework provides prebuilt,” says Baltrusch. “And we would have had continued issues in maintaining and supporting each version of our service, and in keeping each service version up-to-date as new technologies became available. It would have been a nightmare. We couldn’t have done it. Instead, the choice of the Microsoft .NET environment made our software-plus-services business model practical.”

Facilitates Use on Phones and In-Store Kiosks

The software-plus-services model has also made the company’s business model more flexible. By delivering its value through both software and services, Superbuild is not limited to delivering its service through the Internet. Instead, it has the flexibility to offer the estimating service on a variety of form factors, including in-store kiosks and Windows Mobile® phones.

“The software-plus-services model means we can customize not only our service, but also the way in which we provide it,” says Baltrusch. “And the use of .NET means we don’t have to recreate our code from scratch to do it for each service iteration, as we might have needed to do with another platform. The same code base can be largely recompiled for each service iteration, cutting time-to-market.”

Software + Services
Software-plus-services is an industry shift driven by the fast-growing recognition that combining Internet services with client and server software can deliver exciting new opportunities. Microsoft is dedicated to helping individuals and businesses take advantage of these opportunities. By bringing together the best of both software and services, we maximize capabilities, choice, and flexibility for our customers. The broad software-plus-services approach unites multiple industry phenomena including software as a service, service-oriented development, and the Web 2.0 user experience under a common umbrella.

For more information about software-plus-services, go to:
www.microsoft.com/softwareplusservices

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Superbuild services, visit the Web site at:
www.superbuild.com