PHARAOH INTEGRATED BUILDER SERIES FOR WINDOWS REVIEW
REVIEW SUMMARY |
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After reviewing a handful of front-end construction scheduling, sales and accounting software programs for its new home construction company, Ponderosa Homes II, Inc., selected Pharaoh Information Services' Integrated Builder Series for Windows (IBSWIN) because of its integration capabilities and its ease of use.
"IBSWIN is a fairly intuitive application that has been reasonably easy to learn, use and develop over the years," said Becky Shifman of Ponderosa Homes in Pleasanton, Calif. "It also integrates the work processes of all our departments and is also integrated into our accounting system."
Since adopting IBSWIN from the Irvine, California-based developer, Ponderosa Homes II has continued to expand its usage. "We have recently converted all our sales and construction contracts so that they have merge fields from IBSWIN, making it possible for us to easily generate a contract or sales agreement with buyer and vendor information flowing directly from the IBSWIN system," said Shifman.
It takes a sales manager about 10 minutes to produce a sales agreement. Using the previous manual system, it took the manager about two hours, she noted.
Overall, Shifman rated IBSWIN an 8 out of 10.
USER PROFILE |
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| User: | Becky Shifman |
| Company: | Ponderosa Homes II, Inc. |
| Location: | Pleasanton, CA |
| Website: | www.ponderosahomes.com |
| Type of business: | Builder and Developer, New Home Construction |
| Business size: | Privately held SMB with 55 employees in two divisions |
| Experience: | 24 years |
| Software tools used: | Integrated Builder Series for Windows (IBSWIN) by Pharaoh Information Services; Budgetrac by Budgetrac |
REVIEW DETAILS |
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What kinds of construction projects do you mostly work on?
How long have you been using this tool?
Where did you obtain it?
How much did you pay?
How are you using this product?
Why did you pick this product?
Did you look at other tools on the market before picking this one? What was it you didn't like about them (or made this product better)?
Comparing the way you work now with the way you worked before you bought this tool, what has changed?
Can you give us an example of a job where this tool really made a difference?
Can you estimate how much time or money you saved or other measurable benefits your firm realized using this tool?
What are the best features (for your business) in this tool?
Do you think it's a fair value for the price you paid?
What would you change about the product if you could?
Are there features that you don't use? Why not?
Who would you recommend use this tool?
How much computer experience do you think someone needs to use this tool effectively?
Did it take much training (or studying) to learn to use this tool?
Have you ever called the company's support lines and asked for help? What was your experience like?
How would you rate the user documentation? Is it helpful?
When the next version of this software comes out, will you upgrade to it?
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this tool?
What kinds of construction projects do you mostly work on?
New homes.
Eight years.
Where did you obtain it?Direct from the vendor (Pharaoh Information Services).
How much did you pay?
Between $10,000 and $20,000.
How are you using this product?
As the front-end program for buyer sales records; flooring and option buyer purchases; construction scheduling and contracting; customer service buyer support; online Web view customer support, and customer options pre-selections.
It was suggested by one of our senior estimators who had used the program at a previous job.
Did you look at other tools on the market before picking this one? What was it you didn't like about them (or made this product better)?We looked at a Canadian product called Newstar and considered Timberline. Newstar needed a lot of work and Timberline seemed to be a very cumbersome product. And neither of these products really had all of the department modules we required. The other thing that we did not care for in Newstar, in particular, was having to build the core database for each module -- for instance, we'd have to set up account codes, trades, and vendors for purchasing, design center and for the customer service modules. This seemed redundant and would be a real pain in trying to maintain the program.
Comparing the way you work now with the way you worked before you bought this tool, what has changed?The biggest benefits in using these products have been single point data entry, which reduces redundancy and the potential for construction scheduling errors, and also cuts the amount of time spent in entering data. The ability to easily share the same data among our entire employee base and to generate reports based upon the available data has also been a great benefit. We have recently converted all of our sales and construction contracts so they have merge fields from IBSWIN, making it possible for us to easily generate a contract or sales agreement with buyer and vendor information flowing directly from the IBSWIN system.
I imagine when a lot of people talk about integration a tangible example is "single point data entry" like she talks about up here. If users have vague responses you might want to ask them if they have consolidated their data entry points and if this has made for better data quality. They might say yes in which case we can write about that. Also, I would then follow up with what specific departments this has affected. I imagine it will affect accountants and estimators.
It has really automated our entire sales and construction processes, including the creation of sales and construction contracts. We used to do those manually and now we enter the data once in IBSWIN and produce all our necessary contracts and sales agreements.
Can you estimate how much time or money you saved or other measurable benefits your firm realized using this tool?
It's difficult to estimate but, for example, if it took a sales manager two hours to manually produce a sales agreement, it now takes about 10 minutes.
What are the best features (for your business) in this tool?
The integration of department applications -- sales, design center, customer service, construction, scheduling and purchasing -- into one easy-to-use product.
Do you think it's a fair value for the price you paid?
It seems to be, although the development of reports can be pricey over time.
I'd add a simple-to-use report writer. There is the ability to merge data from IBSWIN to forms which is very handy, but there is no capability to create our own custom reports. We've found that most of the existing reports are too generic and not specific enough to meet our requirements, which are likely the same for other homebuilders. Report-formatting of the generic reports is also inconsistent.
Are there features that you don't use? Why not?
We use all the major modules in IBSWIN. There are a few add-ons, such as Floorplan Magic, that we do not use. It is a nice add-on but not flexible enough, given the methods we use to sell flooring.
Who would you recommend use this tool?
IBSWIN works very well for a small to mid-sized builder doing single-family, detached products. I do not know how it would work for a custom builder or a builder that does attached, or condo, products.
How much computer experience do you think someone needs to use this tool effectively?
If a user is proficient at Microsoft Office programs, he or she should not have any problem learning how to use IBSWIN in a short period of time.
Did it take much training (or studying) to learn to use this tool?
We are usually able to train users on their part of the data entry/report generating process within a few weeks after they come to work for Ponderosa.
Have you ever called the company's support lines and asked for help? What was your experience like?
Yes. On "how to" questions they are usually able to answer questions immediately. If there is a problem with the database that needs to be fixed, they can generally get that done within four to 24 hours from the time reported. On requests to enhance the program or to create reports, the turnaround can be a few days to a couple of weeks.
We refer to it occasionally. It is not very helpful other than to give a generic overview of how the program operates. What would be more helpful, from my perspective, is to get an online training overview from Pharaoh of all new updates since the last major upgrade. They are great about adding new things to the program that can be beneficial but we do not always learn about these additions until we stumble upon them or hear about them through a support call.
When the next version of this software comes out, will you upgrade to it?
Yes, but we generally like to understand any potential "gotchas" with a major upgrade before we proceed. The interim upgrades have worked out fairly well.
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this tool?
8