Background

Bradford Building Corporation is a family owned and operated, full-service builder serving Orange, Lake, Seminole and Osceola counties and the surrounding area in Florida. Bradford creates homes from scratch or by modifying an existing design to suit each home owner's needs and wants. The company prides itself on the ability to customize homes to its customers' final specifications and needs. To date, Bradford Building Corporation has developed nine communities in Central Florida and many of its homes have been recognized by The Home Builders Association of Mid-Florida's Parade of Homes.

Bradford Building Corporation strives to provide integrated management of the entire building process, from design to construction to warranty. The company's owners, Wade and Cam Bradford, are proud of the company's reputation as one of central Florida's finest custom builders. They are constantly searching for ways to improve their processes in order to ensure that each new home is better than the last and that each customer is completely satisfied with the building experience.

Challenges

Bradford builds approximately 80-100 custom homes each year, with prices ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. Customers range from 25 year-young professionals to 65+ year-old retirees and tend to be a high-end clientele with high expectations.

Overcoming geographical differences

Most importantly, more than 75% of Bradford Building Corporation's customers are not local to central Florida and 50% of them are from overseas. This geographical distance posed a number of challenges for the company. In the past, the company had to rely on phone calls and faxes to communicate with these customers. Selections, change orders and expectations were not always clearly communicated between homebuyers and project managers, architects, designers and other members of the building team. These miscommunications could result in costly errors and customer dissatisfaction.

Setting expectations

Bradford wanted a graphical tool that would ensure that everyone involved in the building process was on the same page; that homebuyers knew exactly what they were getting and that the home-building organization knew exactly what their customers expected.

Creating efficiencies

Bradford's number one challenge or constraint is labor, not sales. Because of manpower limitations, the company's owners must do everything they can to create efficiencies by providing accurate information, productivity increases and cost savings.

"When you boil it down, what we spend most of our time doing is telling people where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to be doing," said Cam Bradford, owner and director of operations, Bradford Building Corporation. "We needed a tool to improve communication, create efficiencies throughout the entire process, and simply eliminate excuses."

Without the right tools and resources, Cam Bradford was unable to address these challenges and continue growing the company.

Solution

He had tried traditional software packages, but couldn't find one to meet all of his needs ­ until he turned to BuildLinks Inc. for help. BuildLinks provides a web-based, collaborative, project management platform for residential builders that integrates project scheduling, online selections, and change order tracking into one single platform.

The BuildLinks system is accessed directly from Bradford Building Corporation's website, enabling 24/7 communication with homebuyers, subcontractors, employees, and vendors. Bradford began using BuildLinks primarily to manage the selection process prior to construction including cabinetry, flooring, paint, countertops, etc. and continues to leverage BuildLinks in new ways.

Results

To date, most of the communication enabled by BuildLinks has been between Bradford's staff and homebuyers, but the company is now expanding the use of BuildLinks to include subcontractors, vendors and other outside parties. One of the biggest benefits realized by Bradford is the ability to provide an up-to-date record for homebuyers and others involved in the building process. A great number of decisions have to be made during each building project, and BuildLinks provides a catalog of options and customizations that are available. This feature not only ensures that everyone has a record of selections and change orders, but provides Bradford with the opportunity to suggest more options (creating an upsell opportunity).

Closing the communication gap

BuildLinks helps Bradford Building Corporation fill in the gaps for remote customers, with daily schedule and/or status updates, photos and more. This stream of information makes customers feel more engaged and part of the process. Field supervisors and other employees also have access to the real-time updates and know what is scheduled next.

"BuildLinks eliminates fear of the unknown for customers, which is especially helpful for builders that deal with customers that are geographically remote," explained Cam Bradford. "It helps builders overcome a number of psychological barriers faced by homebuyers throughout the building process. With BuildLinks, homeowners know exactly what they are getting, and we know exactly what to deliver. There is no guesswork involved."

Eliminating excuses

The BuildLinks e-mail alerts have helped ensure that everyone knows where they need to be, and when. "The alert feature eliminates all of the excuses and gets materials and labor to the right place, at the right time," said Cam Bradford.

Integrating quality control

Leveraging BuildLinks' customization capabilities, Bradford has integrated their existing quality control checklist into the system. This allows project managers to easily check off tasks as they are completed, and can even include graphical instructions on how those tasks should be completed.

Identifying opportunities

So far, Bradford Building Corporation has only tapped a portion of BuildLinks' full potential, and Cam Bradford continues to identify new ways to use the software.

He is currently implementing plans to utilize BuidLinks as part of the upfront sales process, allowing homebuyers to leave the table with a record of what they want and an estimate of how much it will cost. The goal is to ensure that everyone is on the same page from day one, improving Bradford's ability to meet customer expectations.

The builder also hopes to take advantage of BuildLinks' wireless capabilities more extensively as the performance of wireless technologies and networks improves.

"I believe that if we fully leverage BuildLinks' capabilities, it will help us double the number of custom homes we can build each year. It would have been impossible to accomplish that without BuildLinks," explained Bradford.

Top-notch technology and team

Cam Bradford says he has been extremely impressed with how dedicated BuildLinks is to constantly improving its technology and service. Since purchasing the software, he has seen BuildLinks continue to make enhancements resulting in improved speed and ease of use.

"In addition to the technology itself, I have been extremely impressed with the responsiveness of BuildLinks' support team," he said. "The team is always extremely receptive and has helped us tailor the site and software to meet our specific needs." "My experience with BuildLinks has been remarkably different from, and better than other software corporations," he added.

BUILDLINKS, INC. 1500 PERIMETER PARK DRIVE SUITE 150 MORRISVILLE, NC 27560 888-700-9470 WWW.BUILDLINKS.COM