Successes - Thielemann Construction Co.
Thriving Construction Business Manages Growth with Westbrook Fortis SE

Organization
Thielemann Construction Co., LP has been serving Brenham and Washington County, Texas and surrounding areas for more than 50 years. It is a family-owned business that focuses on custom residential construction and commercial projects. The company works closely with architects and designers, and design-build projects, as well as providing in-house drafting services.

Challenge
Construction projects generate numerous invoices, legal documents, architectural plans, correspondence and e-mails. “We had a huge paper workflow and wanted to gain more control of it,” notes Tricia Schroeder, a partner in the firm. “In our business, we constantly refer back to bids, estimates and quotes. We wanted to get our hands on these documents more quickly.”

Over the past few years, the scope of work the company takes on has widened to include more higher-end, custom projects. Dealing with paper records became increasingly unmanageable. “Some of our files were getting to be four or five inches thick,” says Schroeder. “You might know that a document is in a certain paper file, but still have to spend time going through it page-by-page to find what you need.”

Hundreds of invoices from sub-contractors and suppliers come into Thielemann’s accounts payable department every week. The invoices have to be associated with one of five job superintendents and with the correct project. A project can last from a few months to several years. “Our projects are custom – not cookie cutter. They range from small remodels to multi-million dollar custom build projects,” Schroeder says. “We needed a system that could accommodate this range of complexity.”

Solution
The company implemented Westbrook Technologies’ Fortis SE™ document management software in January of 2007. Invoices are entered into Thielemann’s Sage Timberline Office accounting system and then imported into Fortis. Superintendents scan correspondence and other documents associated with the project into the Fortis repository. For the second half of 2007, approximately 7,160 job management documents and 3,000 accounts payable documents were added to Fortis.

Most of Thielemann’s job superintendents complete all of their accounts payable approvals through the Fortis system. Every document associated with a project, including original estimates, correspondence, contracts, drawings, and surveys, is indexed in Fortis and can be accessed easily and quickly. E-mails are sent directly into Fortis from Microsoft Outlook® and are indexed along with other scanned and electronic documents.

Schroeder says that the time job superintendents save by using Fortis has allowed Thielemann Construction to take on more projects without hiring additional managerial staff. “For the first time in 50 years, we’ve hired an estimator. Superintendents have always handled estimates themselves, so that’s a big step for us,” Schroeder says. She credits Fortis with helping superintendents to get more done in a typical work day. “They’re not spending as much time chasing after paper. Job superintendents don’t have to go rifling through to find receipts and documents. And with all this information at their fingertips, they spend less time on administration and can more easily monitor the cost of a job.”

Today, Thielemann uses Fortis in accounts payable and on the operations side of the business. Schroeder anticipates using Fortis for HR-related documentation and for Thielemann’s property development company as well. The company is also considering using Fortis to scan in plans and documents from work that was completed before the software was implemented.

“Some members of our staff started using e-mail and computers only within the past five or ten years, so it’s still relatively new to them. Implementing Fortis is a huge leap for us,” Schroeder says. “With Fortis we can be ahead of the game technologically, not behind. When the rest of the construction industry catches up, we’ll already know what being paperless means.”

>>Click here for printable PDF