Warco Construction is a Charlotte, NC based construction firm specializing in sprayed fireproofing and interior commercial construction. Since its founding in 1985, Warco has established itself as one of the area’s most trusted and respected commercial subcontracting firms.

Rick is a second-generation Warco employee. He has been with the company for over 12 years and started working summers and winter breaks during school. During that time, Rick learned the ins and outs of the company. He began in fireproofing, moved into interiors, and grew into the executive role.

Warco is a progressive company and thrives on hiring people that are self-starters and entrepreneurs. Our culture is built around allowing individual project managers to take ownership of their projects. The company was growing, where everyone was doing well, and job costs were good. However, with everyone being self-starters, we realized that we were all disconnected and doing things differently. We realized there were ways to improve, such as bringing all the project information into one place, creating a consistent documentation process for our clients, and even streamlining our timesheet process. Processing paper timesheets for 100-200 employees was a lot to manage every week.

“We have always tried to find ways to keep ourselves organized using programs such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook with emails, calendars, and tasks. These tools all help in limited ways, but eSUB was the best project management program and mobile app that met our needs.”

The founder of eSUB was a consultant who helped many subcontractors through their bad jobs, and eSUB was built to improve a contractor’s documentation processes. The team understands the value of using documentation to prove your case. In the few years we’ve been using eSUB, there have been times where we have had to pull the data and use it in conversations with our general contractors.

eSUB forces us to document things that needed to be documented. With everything recorded in a centralized place, it is easily accessible, and the information is there if we need to reference back to it. Before, the Foreman would take a picture. But would it make it back to the project manager? Where would they save it? When we need the picture a few months or years from now, would we be able to find it?

With eSUB, the Foreman uses the mobile app to take pictures and make notes. The photo is dated and time-stamped and is saved with the job file. When we need to have a conversation with the general contractor or owner about the change order and cost of delay, we can easily reference that photo and show them something tangible.

Overall, the documentation is a benefit, but there are also some gains in time savings that we are experiencing. When we were using paper timesheets, the Foreman would have to deliver the timesheet to the project manager in the office. Having eSUB and the digitization of our timesheets now saves each Foreman at least an hour a week to have to come to the office.

We implemented eSUB a few years ago, and we’ve adopted other technologies over the years. There is some resistance to change because people are used to doing things their way. For any technology, we recommend starting slow and build up from there. Additionally, we found that having a champion helps in technology adoption. They are the ones who know everything about the software, are readily available, and can hold people’s hands if needed.

Concerning eSUB training, we focused on one feature at a time. One week we will focus on timesheets, and the next week, we’ll focus on change orders. We utilized our training room with a projection screen. Everyone had their mobile app and walked them through doing timesheets. In-person and hands-on training helped.

We didn’t mandate anything. But as others started to see other colleagues being more successful, then they begin to adopt it on their own. The problem with most technology adoption is that it has to be the right fit for people to embrace it.

Don’t be afraid of technology in general. People are apprehensive about making changes. But if we had not implemented the handful of advancements in the past five years, we would have been in a world of hurt in March when COVID shut down many job sites.

Don’t be afraid of technology in general. People are apprehensive about making changes. But if we had not implemented the handful of advancements in the past five years, we would have been in a world of hurt in March when COVID shut down many job sites.

Technology is growing in popularity. I wouldn’t be afraid to take that step. Once you find the tools that work for you, it will be a lifesaver in situations you don’t see coming.