Technology is the Newest Roofing Tool

RCS Influencer Marty Stout says that technology is what makes his business model possible.

It is amazing what technology has done for our lives and for our industry. I am old enough to remember doing all of our payroll in a three-ring binder with a pager for each guy. I also remember the day we got our first FAX machine, we were sharing one with the business next door before that.

Today, we are using a variety of software to operate our business.  As was clearly demonstrated at last week's IRE, software is the new roofing tool.

From CRM's to drones and beyond.

Our business platform is Salesforce. We track everything from lead to completion of the job, warranty, and follow up for future repairs in this system.

Our accounting software is a MAS product and it is integrated with Salesforce so when a job is sold it is imported to accounting and when it is completed it is invoiced and recorded to our accounting program.

PDF Expert and ADOBE Acrobat X Pro support our continued movement toward a paperless operation we can review, approve, edit or sign any document from anywhere.

We use EagleView aerial imaging for our take-offs and use Microsoft Excel for working up our pricing. One Drive keeps everyone connected and sharing information in real time. 

Route4MeMapping Software routes our field techs and Pitch Gauge helps them confirm the steepness of the roofs they are inspecting.

FaceTime is used to help our field teams collaborate with our back-office staff and allows field techs to tap into Grandpa John's 60+ years of roofing experience, he can be in Seattle one-minute walking a roof in the rain and Tucson the next in 100-degree heat looking at a swamp cooler flashing detail.

We use FLIR One apps to turn our iPads into thermal imaging tools to better locate water.

Getting all of these systems to talk is an ongoing project that we don't think will be complete anytime soon.

Today's Technology is what makes our business model possible.  I am interested in what is next.

Martin Stout is president of Go Roof Tune Up, Inc.  See his full bio here.