Microsft Dynamics SL Case Study - Royal Professional Builders

Situation:

Headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, Royal Professional Builders constructs custom homes in Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. In the more than 20 years of its existence, the company has built over 3,000 homes, as well as a number of community centers, schools, and other facilities. To better manage a vast increase in business volume, Royal Professional Builders wanted to boost its service levels to customers and improve the efficiency and dependability of financial management. Three disparate software systems required intensive upkeep, caused information discrepancies, and slowed down business processes. Royal Professional Builders implemented and integrated Microsoft Business Solutions—Solomon and Microsoft CRM software (both now part of Microsoft Dynamics™). With a powerful business management infrastructure now in place, the company can manage its rapid growth and record revenue efficiently, with enhanced profitability and more reliable financial management capabilities. The company has 150 employees. Solution:

Royal Professional Builders reviewed its business needs and devised ways to address them. The priority was for a comprehensive, dependable project management and accounting solution. To meet that need, Microsoft Business Solutions–Solomon software soon became the leading choice.

Eventually, they also implemented Microsoft CRM software to equip themselves with all the tools that company managers and employees need to manage customer relationships and communications. Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000 serves as the business database application.

Benefits:

Royal Professional Builders now has a flexible business management solution that helps to promote the company’s business growth and streamline the management of customer relationships and finances. Says Eric Engstrom, CFO of Royal Professional Builders “Integrating Microsoft Solomon and Microsoft CRM gives us a holistic view of customer activity, construction projects, and financials. We always know where we are and can control where we are going.”

Says Engstrom, “With the help of the integrated Microsoft technology, Royal Professional Builders increased its sales volume from U.S. $17 million to approximately U.S. $55 million with only a nominal staff increase. We anticipate an increase of 83 percent in gross revenues from 2004 to 2005, and are relying heavily on the Microsoft technologies to assist in managing that increase.”

With almost 500 projects in varying stages of the process, from initial customer contact through construction to close of sale, the weekly job-review meeting was becoming tedious. As Engstrom explains, “Royal Professional Builders restructured the weekly job-review and allowed the participants who did not have to be there to serve customers and move projects along, instead.” The company still has a weekly meeting, but instead of operational details, managers use the time to discuss strategic issues.

The project management and accounting capabilities of Microsoft Solomon present the full financial picture of any project to employees of Royal Professional Builders. Because of the integration with Microsoft CRM, they can review almost all financial information in the Microsoft CRM screens as well. Management can ascertain the profitability of projects and manage the business for a better return on the company’s investments in lots, materials, labor, and infrastructures—including the performance of subcontractors.

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