Today, Dunn employees carry both an iPad and iPhone. All of the devices are company owned. Among the go-to apps running on those devices: PlanGrid for viewing blueprints, Adode for marking up photos, GoodNotes for taking field notes, AutoCAD for viewing construction design plans and ScannerPro for document scanning. The company also uses Salesforce.com for CRM and other purposes. Everything integrates directly with Box for sharing and storage purposes.
The dual iPad/iPhone use, while certainly a capital expenditure given that the devices are purchased and managed by Dunn, actually serves a cost-cutting purpose, too. Dunn went to its telecom providers and told them the firm was considering a company-wide rollout of the mobile devices, then essentially said: Let's make a deal. Dunn consolidated with a single provider for voice and data; the iPhones function as Wi-Fi hotspots for the iPads in the field. James estimated that the company has saved another $25,000 or so in data costs as a result.
James said the speed at which information now travels internally at Dunn, especially between the field and corporate offices, is a boon. Problems get solved more quickly, and without the need for everyone to drive out to a job site just to find out what the problem was in the first place. Dunn can stick to increasingly aggressive construction schedules. The flow of data between Dunn, customers, suppliers and subcontractors is more efficient. Processes that once took days are now a matter of minutes.
"It's kind of a culture change," James said. "[Employees] are starting to depend on these devices to make their lives easier and allow them to work smarter and more efficiently."
That change was neither fast nor easy. Although cost savings and process improvements haven't been hard to find in Dunn's technology transformation, employee buy-in presented a significant challenge. Older employees who have been with Dunn for decades presented a particular internal sales challenge.
"They'd still use a fax machine if they could," James said. "You come in and say: 'Hey, we're going to start using computers, hand-held mobile devices to run jobs, to use out in the field. We're going to get rid of a lot of this paper we've been using.' It created a lot of resistance. There was no buy-in to begin with."
There was no magic formula for changing people's minds, either. It took time, effort and education. The first six months after the tablet-and-smartphone rollout were rough. When James visited job sites, he'd see iPads sitting unused in trailers and trucks. Eventually, though, the light bulbs began turning on. "When they started using them, they started figuring out for themselves that, hey, it really is going to help them out and make life easier, organize their jobs and get information out [faster]," James said. Usage has skyrocketed during the last three to five months, he added.
James had his own recent experience with the downside of small, lightweight and popular mobile devices: His iPad was stolen out of his locked truck, even though it was hidden from view. "They still found it," James said. Somewhat remarkably, though, given Dunn's harsh work environment, that freak occurrence has been the only damage or loss incurred since the firm's mobile makeover. Employees adhere to company policy on safeguarding and protecting their devices, according to James. And the hardware has held up so far in spite of rugged use.
"These guys have done a great job of taking care of the investment. It's been kind of amazing," James said. "These guys, they're hard on everything. They're hard on their employees, they're hard on their tools, they're hard on themselves."
The initial resistance to the technology was one reason a BYOD policy never received much consideration. A bigger driver was Dunn's longstanding philosophy of ensuring that employees have the best tools to do the best possible job, both as a matter of customer satisfaction as well as employee hiring and retention.
Now, James sees Dunn gaining an expanding edge over IT-laggard competitors. "I absolutely think this gives us an advantage," James said, noting that some companies are sticking with the if-it-ain't-broke strategy. "That's fine, great and wonderful, but the competitive environment is changing and you've got to figure out how to get an advantage anywhere you can."
The payoff might come sooner than expected: Dunn's on course for its best year in business in 2013. James called that "unheard of" given wafer-thin margins and continued economic concerns. He credits Dunn's technology strategy and buy-in from a staff that was initially reluctant to part with the old ways of doing things.
"New is not always bad," James said.
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