Save Hundreds Of Man Hours Each Week By More Efficiently Routing Your Field Team

“Workyard allows me to really consolidate time. I’ve saved a lot of time routing people by proximity and best case scenario situations. I’ve never been able to do that before”

Shiloh Hoggard, IT Business Relationship Manager  
Accord Group

Company Background

Shiloh Hoggard is the Business Relationship Manager for the IT department at Accord Group, a residential and commercial restoration company. Shiloh comes from the construction side of the business and brings a lot of logistics and production experience to her role.

Accord focuses on insurance restoration specializing in roofing, siding, and gutter damage caused by hail, wind storms, and hurricanes.

Shiloh supports a team of 20 in the field with plans to expand dramatically in the coming year.

The Problem

Last year Accord split their sales and construction into two separate teams. They quickly realized that they didn't have a way to measure their Onsite Construction Supervisor's (OCS) productivity.

"We were having a lot of issues understanding what was taking so long at job sites and why there was so much travel time in between," Shiloh says. "A lot of feedback we had, in the beginning, was that our OCS team felt like they were being pulled in lots of different directions. We wanted to understand if that was the truth or just a feeling," says Shiloh.

The ultimate goal for the company was to figure out how to be more profitable by better understanding what was happening in the field using data.

"We wanted to see and have visibility to what each OCS was going through each day, so we had grace and understanding for our teams in the field," she says. "We didn't want to make assumptions without data. We wanted to help them."

Shiloh explains that she's counting on the head office team to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, so the teams in the field don't have to burn valuable time figuring out logistics.

"Someone in the field might not be logistically minded. We want our corporate office to provide the support that makes it a remarkable experience for them."

The Solution

That's when Shiloh and the IT team found Workyard. They immediately saw that Workyard was a natural fit in helping them understand where each OCS is, how they're using their time, and how much time they spend on each job site.

"I love Workyard," said Shiloh. "It shows you what sites our construction team members go to and how long they spend at each job. With that data, you can start seeing patterns in how our field teams are working."

Shiloh has been sitting temporarily in the dispatch seat to use Workyard firsthand. She's sharing the data and discoveries she's uncovering in Workyard with the scheduling team, so they can start to think about more efficiently leveraging resources.

Shiloh explained how she's been able to educate the scheduling team with the data from Workyard. "I started putting it in front of my scheduling team, so they could see where the OCSs were and start thinking of better ways to assign them to jobs," she says.

"If I need to dispatch them to a job, and I have six jobs, where are they closest to right now that's gonna make the most sense?" Shiloh says. "Just getting that visibility in front of the team that's in control of where the workers go has been super effective."

That visibility is what's ultimately leading to saving her Onsite Construction Supervisors valuable time.

"For me, it allows me to consolidate time," says Shiloh. "I've saved a lot of time routing people by proximity and base case scenarios where I've never been able to do that before."

Workyard empowers the corporate office team to solve logistical problems, so the Onsite Construction Supervisors don't have to.

"It took the pressure off the OCS team to solve so many problems on their own and put it back in the hands of the team that can dispatch things more quickly," she says.

"If they're missing material on a job site and I'm watching them go from one supply house to another, I can tell they didn't source the material in advance and confirm that it's there. I know they're just randomly searching," says Shiloh. "They're in problem-solving mode."

"With Workyard, if I see it, I can spot that another person is already at a supplier. I can have them pull the missing supplies and bring them to that OCS."

For Shiloh and Accord, the improvements in scheduling efficiencies add up to a lot of man-hours.

"I would say I've saved hundreds of hours a week in time by not having 20 OCSs moving against each other," says Shiloh.

The benefit to Accord is that they can have a more controllable resource with somebody dispatching at the home office rather than wasting valuable time by having the OCS team problem solve on their own.

Shiloh ends by saying, "Our teams in the field love having the support, and it improves attitudes and overall culture. Even if it wasn't saving us hours, it's a big improvement in company mindset."