Case Study: Carrara Marble

Over the past fourteen years, Carrara Marble & Mosaics has established a reputation for quality. When you're working on a multi-million project, like the Sears Tower, the Hilton or AT&T headquarters, it's obvious -- you can't afford to make a mistake. The work must be done right the first time. This attention to quality, however, carries through to all jobs -- from a residential threshold to a custom conference table to a master bath renovation.

For Ed Tomassetti, the MIS Director of the Chicago-based firm, that policy also applied when it came time to select the right CASE tool for the company's AS/400 environment. For the 11-year veteran of IBM, a quality solution meant finding a tool that provided the performance he needed without the steep learning curve or price tag generally associated with that type of application development product.

"I knew that I didn't have time to school for months before I could get productive with a CASE product. I needed to be able to generate applications quickly off of our existing databases and construction accounting applications," he stated. Tomassetti was familiar with the mrc-Productivity Series' reputation as a powerful report writer. But when he learned that mrc could best solve his application request backlog quickly -- and within budget, he was naturally elated. "When we compared price with power and function, it became clear that the mrc-Productivity Series was the right tool."

Addressing the Application Backlog

Carrara Marble uses a vendor-supplied package for its accounting applications on the AS/400 Model B20 as well as some PC database applications. A major criteria for selecting a CASE tool was the ease with which it would work with the accounting software, a package that Carrara found to be most satisfactory. During his product search, Tomassetti identified a number of CASE products that were highly effective when dealing with all new databases and programs but failed to meet his requirements when presented with this type of retrofit environment.

While the Carrara management team recognized a number of areas outside of accounting that could benefit from the addition of new applications, those new systems also needed to be tightly integrated with the accounting databases.

Further, Tomassetti realized that DP's ability to respond quickly to this application demand would have significant impact on improving the efficiency of key business operations, such as inventory management, collections, project management, customer service and sales management.

Tomassetti selected the mrc-Productivity Series CASE tool to begin addressing that application backlog. With just the basic two-day training session, Carrara's DP staff was ready to start building mrc applications. "Currently, we're finishing up an inventory management application. When we started the process, we weren't even sure how inventory worked within our accounting application. Today, we have all the inventory data entered into the accounting package and can extract it for multiple reporting and on-line inquiry functions using the mrc-Productivity Series," Tomassetti explained. "What this means is that we've taken Carrara from a position where only a handful of people knew what inventory was to enabling any number of authorized staff to call up the status of any piece of raw stone in our warehouse."

In addition to providing a much needed window into the company's inventory, Tomassetti has developed an impressive array of new business applications with the mrc-Productivity Series in less than 18 months. These applications include:

• Real-time Accounts Receivable Management with its automatic initial and follow-up call reminders, what-if cash flow analysis and problem account reporting. Tomassetti is currently enhancing this application to include a graphical representation of payment trends based on job, customer, job classification and project manager.
• Direct Labor Verification enables management to confirm the accuracy of employee time, job numbers, general ledger numbers and cost codes before the data can be posted to the accounting application.
• Bid Management helps Carrara to manage incoming bid documents from multiple sources for upcoming projects. This application is being expanded to allow management to analyze the reasons that projects were lost.
• Contract Management allows administrative personnel to access information regarding the production and installation status of each element of an open job. Further, this application assists in managing changes in the scope of the work in a timely fashion.

Quick Response, Quick Payback

This immediate access to management information is a primary benefit to installing the mrc software. According to Tomassetti, who is largely responsible for researching and responding to myriad information requests, the software makes the difference between getting the answer in five minutes compared to what might have taken days before. Further, the application development capabilities have enabled DP to generate the required applications efficiently enough to preclude adding technical staff.

"People have gotten very excited about the types of programs we've developed. Consequently, DP is getting more requests for new development and the expectation is for faster turnaround than ever before. Fortunately, we're far better equipped to respond to the increased demand without overtaxing the existing DP staff," said Tomassetti.

The next project in the development queue is an estimating application. The program will extrapolate from the accounting package the relevant cost history data, and any shift -- positive or negative -- in fabrication costs would be captured immediately in new project estimates.

"For example, should we implement a new process or technology that improves the efficiency of polishing tabletop edges, that cost savings -- whether in labor or materials or both -- would be fed directly into the estimating application for use in the next project bid. This ensures that we can offer our prospects the most accurate and most competitive price possible."

Tomassetti's success in developing new applications reaffirmed his conclusion that the mrc-Productivity Series is no longer just a powerful report writer. But he hesitates to consider himself a "power user" of the software. As he explained, "Initially, we needed to get some smaller applications out the door, quick and dirty. And we were able to do that. However, what has proven most beneficial to me is that, as we've become more sophisticated in terms of both application complexity and product knowledge, the mrc-Productivity Series has provided the necessary power to let us meet the application demand in a timely fashion."

"Even with that, there is still a lot of functionality that I know we haven't taken full advantage of yet. But it's nice to know that the power is there when we need to tap into it."