From trucking, engineering, millwright and design services to material handling equipment, family-owned Mid-States Companies has and does it all. The prolific construction firm opened its first company—Mid-States Millwright & Builders—in 2001, eventually growing the business to 12 companies all based out of Nevada, Iowa.

In August 2020, a destructive storm hit Iowa and several other Midwest states, causing Mid-States Companies’ workload to increase by more than 50 percent. The destructive event caused $11.9 billion in damages, including the flooding of 90,000 square miles of agriculture lands; the leveling of grain silos, hay storage facilities, and barns; and the wiping out of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural equipment.

“Everything had to get rebuilt quickly. All of a sudden, we had all this work to do,” says Mid-States Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Pistorius.

Mid-States ability to get this critical work done quickly and efficiently was impeded by its decades-long reliance on QuickBooks and JobBOSS, a job shop management software and manufacturing ERP solution. The systems’ inefficiencies were evident in the wake of the devastating storm, forcing the Mid-States team to recognize their need for a modern cloud-based construction platform (with inventory capabilities) that could handle its burgeoning requirements.

The platform they found? Acumatica.

Understanding Mid-States Challenges Before Acumatica

Mid-States’ mission is to anticipate, recognize, and exceed its customers’ expectations,  backed by a strong commitment to building professional working relationships with every client. This commitment extends to members of the community that may not be able to afford its services. So when the storm’s extensive consequences were revealed, Mid-States stepped up to help.

But there was a catch: this challenge was bigger than anything they had tackled before.

“[It] was a catalyst moment for us where we had to figure out how to do more work than we’d ever done,” Pistorius says.

To ensure success, Mid-States decided that leveraging different strategies was in order. In addition to new labor strategies and revised subcontractor relationships, the company also determined that they needed to digitally transform their operations to cut their dependence on QuickBooks, spreadsheets, and JobBOSS.

For example, Mid-States’ employees would take many hours a day to create spreadsheets and calculate costs before taking another day to create a bid. Information related to these costs and bids was stored on employees’ computers, and when changes were made to the information, spreadsheets had to be updated and emails communicating the changes had to be sent.

“It was very people-based, not process-based,” says Pistorius.

Mid-States ongoing struggle with QuickBooks and JobBOSS also included the systems’ lack of:

• • Project scheduling
  • Compliance tracking
  • Self-service (only an outside accountant had access to data)
  • Data and analysis capabilities
  • Operational visibility
  • Affordable customizations (e.g., custom reports)
  • Job costing
  • Automation
  • Manufacturing exceptions

“We had many problems,” Pistorius says. “Probably more than we knew.”

Turning Into a Different Company with Acumatica

Mid-States’ digital transformation journey began with a search for the best construction software that would fit their unique needs.

Out of many ERP options, Mid-States decided it was between Sage Intacct and Acumatica. A thorough evaluation of the two competing systems revealed that Sage’s inventory functionality and per-user licensing fees were not what Mid-States needed while Acumatica’s comprehensive construction software, integrated modules (specifically, Inventory, Payroll, and Retainage), and third-party applications better addressed their needs.

“The more I looked at Acumatica and how it worked, the more confident I was that it would work for us,” says Pistorius. And as it turns out, his confidence paid off.

With Acumatica, Pistorius can run reports instantly on any of his 12 operational entities. “Now I can click a button and run those consolidated financials.”

Tracking opportunities and sales in real time, increased brand awareness, and customized customer-facing forms are additional game-changing benefits as is Acumatica’s flexibility and low-code functionality. In fact, Pistorius says that even though he’s not a programmer, he’s found many ways to personalize Acumatica himself, such as setting up an automation schedule to email a daily report to project managers for their review. He also created dozens of custom time-saving field service (and other Mid-State-operation-specific) forms that can be utilized within Acumatica.

“The biggest thing from a data collection standpoint is just being able to have a simple app that the guys in the field can click on, go to one place, enter those forms, and upload them,” Pistorius say. “As we have grown as an organization, the ability to distribute the data out to the right person at the right time has been really beneficial.”

Just Scratching the Surface with Acumatica

The year following the massive 2020 storm saw Mid-States’ revenue jump by 50%. Such extensive growth pushed the company to secure a modern, connected business management system that could streamline its multi-company operations and turn it into a more process-based organization with the ability to scale according to its evolving needs.

According to Pistorius, Acumatica was the right choice, but he acknowledges that he and his team are just scratching the surface of what the system can do for them.

“We have made incredible strides in just over two years,” says Pistorius. “The concept of digital transformation that Acumatica has talked about over the years is really transforming our business. It’s just that most transformations don’t happen in an instant. They happen in a lifetime. And so, the thing I’m excited about is that the product to this point has been flexible enough to walk down the path of transformation.”

Embarking on a digital transformation journey is a big decision but the benefits—like those experienced by Mid-States—make the journey worth it. Contact our team today to learn how we can help your business thrive and do so on your own terms.