Case Study: Morley Builders Increases Efficiency with AEC Cloud
Case Study: Morley Builders Increases Efficiency with AEC Cloud
The Problem: A Need for Streamlined Data Entry and Greater Efficiency
Morley Builders is an employee-owned construction company that provides services through two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Morley Construction Company and Benchmark Contractors Inc. Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, the company needed a way for its employees to maintain large amounts of drawing and specification information and stay connected, while working at construction sites or in the office.
“We work on a variety of building projects, from commercial and retail to multifamily residential complexes,” said Erin Khan, Project Manager at Morley Builders. “We needed a way for our 200 employees to easily input project data and share information.”
The Solution: AEC Cloud’s Office Business Applications
While researching various options, Morley Builders heard about AEC Cloud’s office business applications (OBAs). “We talked with other vendors about developing a custom solution, but the development time and cost were prohibitive,” explained Ernest King, Operations Technology Manager.
“Then we found out about the business application offered by AEC Cloud, and it sounded like the right solution at a great price.”
An OBA is an application written for Microsoft Office applications based on .NET technology that uses web services to connect to a Line of Business (LOB) application or any other application. OBAs built on the Microsoft Office Business Application framework are a great way to extend LOB applications so companies can capture critical information in spreadsheets and work offline.
In 2014, Morley Builders began using AEC Cloud’s Drawings & Specification OBA. The application allows employees to quickly input a large amount of data all at once, which saves time – especially at the start of a project, when certain information is repetitive.
“Previously, our employees had to manually input large data sets of drawing and specification information, which was very time consuming and labor intensive,” Khan said. “Now, we can input data much more quickly. The OBA interfaces with Microsoft Excel and our spreadsheets, which makes it easy since most end users already know Excel. You can also see a lot of data at once for editing, instead of just one record at a time.”
Morley Builders recognized the value of working with a company that understands the construction industry and supports the software it uses. “AEC Cloud has extensive knowledge of the software we use and how it all works together,” King said. “The Drawings & Specification OBA has a direct connection to Prolog, which makes updating information very easy. We just have to push one button to make a batch of revisions.”
Morley Builders also appreciates AEC Cloud’s technical expertise and customer service.
“In addition to delivering on the OBA, they also investigated and helped us solve another Prolog integration issue we had been experiencing for months,” Khan said. “Their knowledge and willingness to go the extra mile for us as a new client really sets them apart from others in the industry.”
Morley Builders plans to continue partnering with AEC Cloud.
“AEC Cloud stood out with their volume of offerings through the OBA Store,” Khan said.
“The Drawings & Specification application was easy to install, works seamlessly, and has increased our efficiency since we started using it in our production environment. We’ll watch for other solutions from AEC Cloud that may work for us in the future.”
About AEC Cloud’s OBA Store
The OBA Store is the online source for Microsoft Office Business Applications (OBAs). We have standard OBAs for most features supported by Prolog and are always looking to build them for other Line of Business applications based on client demand and Vendors opening up their web service technologies. Get a free account to access and browse to the largest catalog of OBAs for the AEC Industry!
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************ About Morley Builders Morley Builders is owned by nearly 200 employees and has a total craftsman payroll that ranges from 300 to 600, depending on the number of self-performed field projects under construction. Morley Builders has more than 65 years of experience in the construction industry and contracts its services through two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Morley Construction Company and Benchmark Contractors, Inc.
For more information, visit www.morleybuilders.com.