Maestro Technologies - Intelligent management software for the construction industry.

Consolidating business management solutions to improve the end result.

St-Catharines, Ontario, Canada Read full version

Based in St. Catharines, Ontario, Cotton Inc. is a business that is experiencing steady and strong expansion. Founded in 1987 and providing service in the Niagara area, Cotton has tripled its size, activities and staff over the past 10 years. This expansion has been well-managed by wisely integrating general construction, home building, trucking, forming, ready-mix concrete and property management into six distinct companies. Cotton employs more than 150 people and operates a substantial fleet of trucks and machinery.

To respond to its rapid growth, Cotton was looking for a flexible, versatile and easy-to-use solution that ran on Windows. They needed software that could be used by all six companies - as diversified as they are - a solution that was well-priced and that included excellent service and reliable follow-up. In 2001, Cotton integrated maestro* construction management software for the needs of all of its companies.

Specific condition

Cotton has a very complicated trucking system. They purchase their stone from roughly 15 different suppliers, but they are unable to download data directly from the suppliers individual databases. They had to find a system that was capable of tracking transactions with precision, from the supplier to the customer, and to invoice them accurately . This data - the number of tickets entered into the system and subsequently tracked from suppliers to hired truckers and finally to customers - is the highest volume of data produced by Cotton.

Cotton needed also to track actual time, costs and working conditions against initial budgets to allow for more competitiveness on future contracts.

Client’s benefits

After trying different technologies that didn’t meet expectations, because they didn’t offer modules for billing concrete or managing garage activities, Cotton began using maestro*. With more than 50 modules that work together flawlessly integrated into one system, maestro* offers direct access from each separate division to all six companies.

Now as the accounting department performs its weekly invoicing, everything bought and sold is recorded in its proper place simply by entering a single ticket for each transaction. These tickets have individual numbers and they can be reconciled with invoices issued by the suppliers, hired truckers and those that are issued to the customers.

Supplier tickets are entered only once, with the system designed to track them directly to customers. Every time a stone is loaded onto a truck, it is invoiced to the customer. With maestro*, accounts receivable and payable are entered at the same time; there is no duplication, no loss of time, no loss of profit.

Highlights

• One single solution for six different sub-companies
• User-friendly, versatile, flexible
• Dynamic and helpful staff, very client oriented
• Adaptable and expandable
• Increased quality of services and more reliable follow-up
• Improved competitiveness
• No more data loss, better results!

Read the interview with Gerry Penney, operation director with Cotton