Jenco Implemented Tool Tracking and Recovered $250,000 

Problem

Jenco, a locally owned and operated commercial electrical contractor in Scottsdale, Arizona, prides itself on “thinking a little differently.” Over its nearly 30 years in business, the company developed a sophisticated constellation of customer-focused products, services, tools, strategies, and software, making Jenco one of Arizona’s most sought-after contractors. But like many successful companies, not all of Jenco’s internal management systems enjoyed the same attention to detail as its outward-facing services.

The most problematic was Jenco’s tool and equipment management software. While their legacy software did integrate with the company’s accounting system, it wasn’t robust enough to capture costs correctly. Jenco management knew their software was underreporting assets but didn’t know by how much.

“Our system was a fancy Excel,” said David Meacham, Jenco’s account manager. “We realized that not only were we not conquering our revenue, but we also didn’t know where our assets were. We didn't know how many tools we had or where any of them were. It was a tool-in, tool-out scenario with a very loose billing structure. We didn’t even know how many assets we had as a company.”

Solution

Jenco management knew they had to upgrade their asset management system. They evaluated several options and finally narrowed the candidates to two platforms, Align (formerly ToolWatch), and another well-known system. They liked both, but in the end, Align’s intangible benefits locked in the decision. Although the costs and systems for the two companies generally appeared equal, the immediate selling point was Align's training, support, and people.

But when Align was fully implemented, it quickly became apparent that its superior intangible benefits were just one part of the package. The Align Pro system Jenco selected included all desktop and mobile software for back office, warehouse, and field teams, plus coaching and training for the entire team.

Right out of the gate, Align’s seamless integration with other Jenco applications started saving considerable time and money.

Employees from the office, warehouse, and field were trained to apply its powerful features in an interconnected network that gave everyone instantaneous, granular, real-time data that quickly pinned down equipment locations, availability, costs, and so much more.

“Software is only as good as the people using it,” Meacham observed. “With Align, we can teach people how to use the software to their ability levels. From a tech guru in admin to someone who can barely turn on a computer, we can teach everyone how to use the system.”

Result

With most staff now using the system for various specialized tasks, Jenco realized significantly greater efficiency and accuracy in all operations. As just one of the dozens of examples, a field foreman who learned to use Align now does his own transfers, tracking, and audits. By delegating that task to the foreman, the warehouse manager no longer needs to drive from site to site to perform audits. He can rely on the foreman and Align to update inventories instantly and accurately.

At Jenco, Align is available on every device in the office and the field. Today almost everyone in the company has access to the platform and uses it according to their need and ability. It wasn’t just operating efficiency that improved with Align.

After using the system for five years, Jenco recovered around $250,000 in lost or stolen property that had not been reported correctly.

Account Manager, David Meacham, remains enthusiastic about Jenco’s Align system: “We’ve found nothing but great value with Align.”