Central Electric
Central Electric embraces Kojo to revolutionize their business
The Story
Central Electric is a family owned business with nearly 5 decades of history in San Antonio. They have seen the industry’s fluctuations and persevered. Chris Martinez, the second generation President, was determined to bring the business into the future. He recognized the need for transformative change when looking at the way they planned, sourced, requested and received materials. Although many of their jobs were similar, planning was reactive and based on memory. This meant a lot of redundancy and human errors, especially when the industry was experiencing a labor shortage. Material requests from the field came in many forms and they purchased materials as they needed them. With the company more than doubling in size since Chris took the lead, he could no longer have eyes on every purchase order, invoice and delivery.
"Today, there's a tech solution for everything. If I order a pizza, I can watch that pizza go through each step until it's delivered. Why can’t we use technology for end-to-end materials ordering and delivery?” Chris questioned, knowing that the construction industry needed to embrace the technology that is available to them. He needed people to understand the cost of not getting onboard with technology.
The Solution
Kojo flipped the script for Central Electric in every step of their materials process. Planning was now proactive. The purchasing team could finally rely on data to show them what materials they need by using prior BOMs to create a systematic list of materials. Field teams used the Kojo mobile app to get transparency into BOM, order statuses and to make materials requests, just like how they would order a pizza via a mobile app.
Dashboards showed them analytics from their jobs so that they could access information at a moment's notice and make smarter decisions for the business. With Kojo’s invoice matching feature, what used to take hours was now automated and free of human error. Chris was confident that what he ordered was what he got and paid for. If not, he could fix it with his vendor in just a few clicks.
Reflecting back on how they used to operate before Kojo, Chris is now more confident than ever on his decision to adopt a purpose-built tech solution for managing materials. Moreover, Chris is optimistic on what technology can do for the industry as a whole. He sees Kojo as an example of “rising tide lifts all boats,” and hopes Central Electric’s success with Kojo will help galvanize other electrical contractors to embrace technology, too.
Their Favorite Features
Their Key Results
- Kojo’s technology provides sourcing insights to help Central Electric make smart purchases based on the market, allowing them to save money with vendors.
- Kojo connects all Central Electric teams with better communication, dramatically reducing time wasted on emails, phone calls, and texts.
- Kojo eliminates accounting errors. Chris can even credit Kojo with catching an invoicing mistake worth $200,000.
