Check out Dataforma’s new functionality and features in our quarterly newsletter!
The Dataforma Pulse
What’s going on in the World of Dataforma
OCT 2020 | Vol. III
Keeping You Informed DF Style
Thank you for your partnership, your feedback & your amazing contribution to the roofing & field service industry. It has been quite a year for everyone & we are all hoping for brighter days ahead.
We hope you enjoy this volume (III) as we are continuously working hard to provide value & up-to-date tech functionality to our awesome Dataforma partners. Loads of new features happening the end of 2020 & beginning of 2021. Here is a sneak peek.
Inventory – End of Quarter
A little delayed, yet almost here…
Tired of walking through the yard & searching for hours trying to find those 10 rolls of modified?
Our inventory module is coming to you soon. Allowing users to instantly see how much material is in which warehouse.
Allocate the jobs through AP & see real time costing!
Client Portal Reword
Facelift Time!
It’s almost time to show off your shiny, new client portal! We’re giving a facelift to the interface for your clients & finally getting rid of that old, blank white page. Clients will also be able to see open purchase orders & have a more intuitive interface to navigate their info. A few more months away… Yay!
Daily Job Reports!
Don’t use work arounds, don’t use paper and don’t buy third-party systems!! Dataforma is already working on customized field reports so your foreman can communicate all of their job info directly from the dataforma mobile app! Mobile users will be able to access any customized reports from their mobile app so your office staff can instantly see all work completed on each job, each day: safety reports, work completed, or any info you want – all in Dataforma!
Look for this feature upgrade in Jan/Feb 2021! Happy New Year!
Email Integration… Almost Here
ETA – End of Nov
We are in the final phases of testing & should release functionality around the beginning of November. Web application users will soon be able to integrate their Outlook or Gmail accounts – we are super thrilled about this one!
How cool will it be to automatically send invoices from Dataforma! No more creating, saving to desktop, creating an email & uploading.
Uploading Photos / Thumbnail View
We are upgrading the way our document uploader works! Web application users will be able to rename, add comments, crop, and rotate photos when uploading. Users will even be able to drag entire folders into the uploader.
As this is a long term solution / rollout –
Look for pieces of functionality to come out as they are ready. Rather than one big upgrade! Oh you thought that was it?! Wrong! The document viewer will soon include thumbnails. Users will be able to select from small, medium or large thumbnails so you will no longer need to roll over pictures to see the images!
Happy Customer
“Dataforma customer for life”
Kim Baxter – VP of Operations
NRP – National Roofing Partner
Time Card Upgrades
You haven’t started using time card?! Shame. Shame.
Foremen can now capture hours (down to the cost code) from the mobile app and admin users can set policies to apply those hours to regular time, overtime and double time! No more spending hours calculating payroll, Dataforma does it instantly. Users can also set automatic breaks so lunch is always accounted for.
Creating / Editing Contact / Building In Mobile App
We’re always adding more to the mobile app and now you can create contacts and buildings from your mobile devices!
Dataforma still checks for duplicates so don’t worry about bad data. Let your field users create new contacts they meet when they’re out drinking working!
Coming your way soon!
Happy Customer
“Dataforma has proven to be an invaluable tool in managing our service department. Having history of the building at your fingertips when a leak call is placed immediately assists in seeing outside proposals, warranty information, building details, and the history of service.
Marina Esquival – Service Manager
Many thanks for the referrals of other roofing organizations sent our way. Your testimonial is our best marketing tool. Please contact Brian Cook, Sr VP of Sales at bcook@dataforma if you are interested in our referral rewards program.
Customer Spotlight – Raincoat Roofing
Oct 2020
Raincoat Roofing – A Conversation with Eric Suess Raincoat Roofing
“Roofing redefined for your peace of mind” based out of Broadview, Cheicago, is a very well-known Commercial Roofing business that prides themselves on their superior customer service, core values and a solution-oriented approach on how to do things differently. Above all the mantra still remains to Always Do the Right Thing.
We had the chance to sit down with Eric Suess, 2nd Generation Commercial Roofer and Vice President of Raincoat Maintenance to learn more about what makes Raincoat Roofing so successful. Raincoat Roofing started in 1981 as Raincoat Roofing Systems founded by Richard and Carol Marubio. Raincoat Roofing Maintenance was then added to Raincoat Roofing Systems in 1997 by cofounders Jeff Suess (Pappy) to some and Scott Savage, both hard-working industry professionals with sound credentials and stellar reputations. And most recently to adapt to focusing on technology, energy codes, and creative unique solutions in the insulation business, an affiliate, HEC was added to the Raincoat family in 2018 and is co-owned and operated by Raincoats sales manager Matt Baker and Jeff Suess.
Dad Jeff worked at Clark Roofing as a Vice President working for CEO and former NRCA President Mike Promen before founding Raincoat Roof Maintenance with Scott. Mike was well known in the roofing industry and had multiple associations with high-level companies and people introducing JEff along the way. With a prior position in roofing at DC Taylor in Cedar Rapids coupled with his time at Clark Roofing, Jeff gained an abundance of roofing knowledge. And Scott and Jeff formed an undeniable bond having worked together for over 30-years.
Currently Raincoat Roofing Systems is a tear-off business of 5-8 crews (made up of 6-8 people per crew) focused on replacing roofs (flat and steep slope), various coatings, re-roof and repairs. The Maintenance Division of Raincoat provides roof repairs, handle 24X7 emergency calls, and in-depth inspections. This Division runs 8-9 (2 person) crews and is a different entity keeping each service line separate from the other.
As someone who was constantly immersed in the roofing world through his father, it was an obvious choice that Eric would join the company and he began working at Raincoat in 1997. Overtime, his sister’s husband Zach Riberdy, joined the group solidifying another family member in the next generation of Commercial Roofing talent in the Suess family. Eric and the rest of the executive team constantly strategize on how to separate themselves from the pack. As a prime example, Raincoat certainly hit the nail on the head with their idea to use service vans instead of pick-up trucks in the cold Chicago climate. Be different. Eliminate the headache of snow all over the equipment. Work hard and work smart.
Aside from their ability to think outside the box, the company really lives by their core values as a guiding force for business management, customer service and how you treat others. The three core values ingrained in all current employees are Do the Right Thing, Always Willing to Ask, and Respectful. Eric, along with his father, Scott and the management team invest in their employees to empower themselves. Treat people the way they want to be treated. Like family.
There is a ton of pride in the underpinning of this company. You can find Eric driving around the city pointing out to his two boys, ages 8 & 3 “that Raincoat roofed that building over there,” including the iconic, historical Chicago Theatre/ Marquee’s Barrel Roof. And Jeff, as a former graduate architect before the roofing bug hit, loves to find the most intricate complicated roofs stating, “If it’s goofy, we’ll roof it”! Raincoat has a reputation of getting super creative with their solutions.
As companies grow, typically their technology footprint will grow as well. In 2015, Raincoat began using Dataforma, all-in-one service work management software. The company was introduced to Dataforma by National Roofing Partners (NRP), for which all NRP contractors use Dataforma. Raincoat also works with Greg Hayne, a consultant to Raincoat who they have worked with for many years. In the beginning, Raincoat utilized minimal software features. March of 2017 began the year they started learning more about the functionality and incorporating it into many facets of business correspondence. Eric will readily admit that as far as technology goes, they were the late-comers.
Over time and especially this year during the pandemic, technology became a necessity for all of us working remotely. Raincoat adapted like the rest relying on Dataforma to continue paperless work orders, project details and scheduling. Dataforma had the ability to handle the much-needed remote business needs and Covid became a reset button to rely on the “office in the Cloud”. In addition to technology adaptation, their organization became proactive with sanitizing trucks, safety, daily PPE checklists and even taking photos along with written documentation of all employees. The idea was to be proactive not reactive. Raincoat has also adapted to other various forms of technology over time including Eagleview and Pictometry for aerial surveys and drones for inspections. Zach has even obtained his FAA certification as a licensed drone pilot.
As a native Chicagoan, the Suess family and most employees follow the Chicago Bears, teh Cubs, the Blackhawks and most definitely the Chicago Wolves, a 25 year-old minor league hockey team that has been sponsored by Raincoat for the last 3 years. Conversations around sports is prevalent throughout the company, which is considered to be one big extended family. Eric and team are involved in multiple peer groups and roofing organizations sharing best practices and solutions in the roofing industry. Like many companies, they are focused on maintaining their footprint in the market. Yet above anything, it is of the utmost importance to continue the values that the organization was founded on – honesty, loyalty, dependability, quality, dedication, skill and fairness.
We at Dataforma are certainly honored to work with such an amazing, humble, hard-working company. Thank you Raincoat, for your dedication to the people and communities you serve and for the stellar reputation you have built over the past 39 years. Cheers to your 40th next year and for many more decades and generations ahead of you.
We here at Dataforma are extremely honored to partner with wonderful organizations of all sizes. We enjoy sharing your stories in social media, creating articles and various channels to learn more about your culture, growth, employees and your passion in the roofing industry. We would love to hear from you – please reach Ingrid Bennett, VP Business Development at ibennett@dataforma.com
As always, THANK YOU for you for trust in Dataforma. – Daryl & Mark & the Dataforma Team
