SEATTLE, WA, Feb 10, 2017 – For more than 97 years now, Raleigh, NC-based David Allen Co., Inc. has been adding value and enhancing the appearance of many of the nation’s most noteworthy buildings. Providing superior professional service, high quality materials and competitive prices has placed the company at the top of many customer’s preferred lists. The company has grown from its humble beginnings in downtown Raleigh in 1920 into a major provider of quality tile, terrazzo, marble, stone, carpet and other flooring products and installations.
Today, David Allen Co., Inc. features six offices in six key eastern US markets – Raleigh, NC, Ft Lauderdale-Miami, FL, Birmingham, AL, Columbia, SC, Washington DC and Charlotte, NC. Among its many high-profile projects: embassy buildings and the White House in Washington DC; airports and shopping malls through the country; and currently, the new stadium for the Atlanta Braves. The company employs around 500 employees and craft professionals.
However, when its current business- and construction-management software couldn’t keep up with growth and fast changing needs, the company turned to Dexter + Chaney, the leader in cloud-based construction ERP software and developer of Spectrum Construction Software.
“We didn’t feel like (our previous software) was keeping up with changing technology and our changing needs,” said Chris Horvath, David Allen Co.’s internal control manager. We saw better products in the marketplace and we knew we could leverage better, more current technology by going with another software system.”
Horvath said his company was burdened with having a lot of manual processes that often created delays and the need for additional work. One key area where previous software fell short was with purchase orders. “That was one of our big pain points,” Horvath said. “It was difficult to get information out of the software and there were just a lot of inefficiencies. Because we had a difficult time getting the data out, it led to poor reporting and poor data analysis on our projects.”
When the company decided to seek out new software, it engaged a consultant who provided a short list of the top software providers for construction – including Dexter + Chaney. After whittling that list down further, engaging in demos, and visiting with software providers’ executive teams and offices, the choice became clear.
“We were looking for a company that would be a long-term partner with us – someone we’d feel comfortable with and who had a similar company culture as we did, and who put a big emphasis on customer service and customer satisfaction. And that was Dexter + Chaney,” Horvath said. “I went out to Dexter + Chaney’s User Conference last year, and our vice president of finance, Bo Martin, went out toward the end of last year and met with Dexter + Chaney’s management. Both of us were really impressed and felt we could work well with them.”
Dexter + Chaney president and CEO Norbert Orth said that feeling was mutual. “We strive to develop long-term relationships with our clients, working with them directly to grow their business and achieve their goals,” Orth said. “With David Allen Co., it was clear from the very start that this was an organization built on strong principles and sound strategies, and it has very smart people in place that have guided the company’s solid growth over the years. Now, we can provide them with the right tools to help them better understand their data and scale for future growth.”
Horvath noted how attentive both Dexter + Chaney sales engineers and representatives of business partner and reseller CDP Inc. were during the demo process, taking time to understand each issue that David Allen Co., Inc. faced and working to find the right solution.
As for Spectrum, Horvath said the intuitive Spectrum Dashboard was a hit among his company’s decision makers. Also key was achieving better data integration that Spectrum provided between project managers and the accounting staff – both onsite and offsite. “We really love that Spectrum is browser-based and we feel this will be a great improvement over what we had, where we were dealing with (third-party programs and virtual networks) in order to access data remotely,” Horvath said.
About Dexter + Chaney
Dexter + Chaney has been providing complete construction management software for more than 35 years. From the office to the field, from accounting to project management, Dexter + Chaney software is used by more than 1,000 companies. Their clients come from all segments of the industry – heavy/highway and utility, general contractors, electrical, mechanical, and specialty subcontractors – and are companies of all sizes, from locally owned subcontractors to some of the world’s largest construction firms. Dexter + Chaney’s web-based software applications allow customers to get work done anywhere using any device with a web browser and without the need to download any software.
For more information, visit www.dexterchaney.com.
About David Allen Co., Inc.
Founded in 1920 by gifted stonemason David G. Allen, the David Allen Company recently celebrated 97 years of excellence in stone, terrazzo, and tile craftsmanship. Chairman Robert Roberson, who has been with the company since 1957, credits the company’s continued success with the ideals Allen himself fostered and the company’s stable and knowledgeable management team. Today the company furnishes and installs interior and exterior ceramic tile systems; marble, slate, granite and stone; terrazzo; epoxy flooring; Precast products of terrazzo, concrete and resinous materials; soft flooring (carpet and vinyl); and underlayment and polished concrete. It also designs and installs prefabricated and in-place panels for the exterior cladding of buildings and support systems using stone, tile, and hard surface materials, and it designs and installs corporate art from stone, terrazzo, tile, and metals.
For more information, visit www.davidallen.com.