How Nowsight Powered Seegars Fence Company to Record Success
Sales dashboards, automated emails replaced 4,000+ hours per year of reporting
AT-A-GLANCE THE IMPACT OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
- Saving 4,000 hours each year, just in reporting (equivalent to 2 FTEs)
- 6x more data available to leadership, with 24/7 access
- 14 weekly spreadsheets cut to zero
- Company-wide laser-like focus on goals and progress against goals
BREAKING BARRIERS IN THE FENCING INDUSTRY
Seegars is the oldest family-owned and operated fence company in the Southeastern U.S. The company has 14 locations throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, supported by a distribution center in Goldsboro, NC.
Seegars has provided high-quality residential, commercial, government, and industrial fencing for more than 70 years. It has grown to include more than 285 team members, 64 in-house fence installation crews, and inventory levels in excess of 6 million dollars. They are built on a rock-solid reputation of quality products and exceptional service. CEO Ben Seegars said, "we serve more than 13,000 customers every year and the more complicated and difficult the project - the more we like it, because our capabilities shine!"
"The ability for me to see problems and standouts within branches or the business as a whole with just a click is game changing."
Ben Seegars, Seegars CEO
AN EXPANDING BUSINESS HIDDEN BEHIND SPREADSHEETS
Seegars leadership knew their branch reporting was slow; cumbersome spreadsheets would come in from many branches often running late. "Combining and rationalizing the data was so time-consuming, it was impossible to then look for insights and have the data still be timely," said Veronica Aycock, Seegars Business Manager.
For management, digging through that crushing volume of information, combined with accounting reports, made spotting trends or seeing potential issues nearly impossible.
They knew that real-time metrics were key, preferably on dashboards that allowed managers, sales representatives, and company leadership to focus efforts on where they are needed most. Having recently upgraded their accounting software, Seegars had designed KPI-based dashboards and the team was pretty happy with the improved visibility they thought they had gained.
"We still ran this business on Excel - Excel pulling from a SQL database, but it was still Excel," said Aycock. About a year later, they met with the Nowsight team and saw just how outdated and limited their system actually was.
"We realized we could leap 10 years forward, basically overnight, and make decisions based on real-time information. We were just blown away and thought - this is going to be unbelievable - and it has been."
THE NOWSIGHT DIFFERENCE
Seegars partnered with Nowsight to connect their sales quoting, accounting, and inventory systems. Bobby Batchelor, Seegars COO said, "The impact on our business has been nothing short of dramatic. We always knew what we wanted, but didn't have the manpower, time or software to drag the information out of our systems. Now, I'd say we get six times the data at 20 times the value - freeing up 60 hours a week between report generation, merging, and analysis."
"We knew immediately that we could provide tremendous value to Seegars business," said Michael Schader, CEO of Nowsight. "The amount of manipulation they were manually doing to their data was staggering - and ripe for Nowsight's unique, actionable Business Intelligence."
The daily management emails, summarizing performance and flagging key actions, have been one of the biggest rewards according to Batchelor. "We've migrated to a more transparent management style over the past few years - because everyone needs to know where the goal posts are and how we can get there. Now branch managers and estimators have instant feedback and they understand their strengths and weaknesses - so they can make themselves more successful than ever before."
Seegars even finds branch managers asking each other for best practices. "They see something changing at another branch and pick up the phone to find out what's happening, so they can replicate it," says Seegars. "We've always had that kind of collaborative culture, but Nowsight's data insights have really accentuated that."
The power of democratizing data - by smartly sharing it within the organization to meet the new bar.
"We've seen people that a year and a half ago were adequate performers, pretty consistently, realized when employees raise their performance. Seeing the KPIs motivate our team to drive toward, and past, the end-of-period goals. The sales team is fired up!"
THE POWER OF DATA
"I could not imagine going another route, even if given the chance to do it all over again - knowing how productively successful this experience has been. I look forward to a long-term relationship with Nowsight and am excited about what the future holds for Seegars with our newfound horsepower, generated by the Nowsight team."
Bobby Batchelor, Seegars COO
With our old reports, often up to 12 pages long each, it was easy to get lost in the details looking for, said Batchelor. Now, one of the gauges on Seegars' dashboard managers know instantly where they stand on collections and the health of their AR.
"Gathering data from multiple sources is what run-of-the-mill BI solutions hang their hats on," said Nowsight's Schader. "We use intelligent algorithms to ensure that data goes out consistently, accurately and timely - ensuring each salesperson, branch manager, and company executive has the exact information they need to set daily priorities and react to changes in the business."
"It's not just data being displayed, it's in the context of our business and our goals. It's amazing the amount of data we can take immediate action on, displayed on a single computer screen that's accessible anywhere, any time," said Batchelor.
SEEING IS BELIEVING
"I admit that I was skeptical in the beginning," said Aycock. "We have a lot of exceptions between our branches - from different GL formats to vastly different targets and client mixes. I wasn't sure that the branch accuracy or usability was going to be there. I also was worried."
Aycock continued, "The Nowsight dashboard is easy-to-read and colorful. In just seconds each salesperson knows where they stand. And each branch manager knows how they performed the day before and how far they are from all their goals - sales goals, AR goals, quote times, and more."
"The human side of data is something we talk about a lot," said Schader.
COO Batchelor said, "I could not imagine going another route even if given the chance to do it all over again - knowing how productively successful this experience has been. I look forward to a long-term relationship with Nowsight and am excited about what the future holds for Seegars with our newfound horsepower, generated by the Nowsight team."