Douglas Orr Plumbing

Douglas Orr Plumbing Cuts Costs by $189K in a Single Year with SubBase

Douglas Orr Plumbing Inc. has been operating for over 50 years, serving Miami, Florida, and the surrounding area with comprehensive plumbing services for local home and business owners. Whether it’s ground-up new construction or service work such as drain cleaning and pipe repairs or emergency plumbing service and water heater installation, they provide superior services with complete integrity. Douglas Orr was built on the foundation of hard work and honesty, building a reliable reputation among its customers.

With hundreds of projects on the go at any given time, purchasing and material procurement is a huge part of their bottom line. Labor and material costs play a large role in their operations and Marcus Spiegelberg, President at Douglas Orfound SubBase as a way to manage those complex supply chains and streamline field-to-office communication.

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The problem

As President of Douglas Orr, Marcus is always looking for software solutions and ways to make his and his team's lives easier. Nearly every year, Douglas Orr brings in new technology that will advance their workflows. Before SubBase, Marcus faced significant challenges as a specialty plumbing contractor. Just managing the sheer volume of orders was a numbers game that required meticulous tracking from the initial request to the vendor and back to the job site.

His team continued to struggle to make sure the correct materials were ordered, received and allocated to the right projects. On top of that, the number of purchase orders (POs) that entered into their system – whether it be mid or high-rise projects or smaller tenant build-outs – was never-ending, often taking them at least two and half hours from inception of a material request to accounting system entry on a single order. The cumbersome task of manually entering all of their data into their ERP, Foundation Software, once the invoices needed to be reconciled, was taking away from time that could be better spent on more important and meaningful tasks. Not to mention the over 10,000 calls a year received by their service department. With each project requiring specific material requests that needed to be accurately tracked, scalability became a big issue. Managing one job was challenging, but managing multiple jobs and thousands of service calls made the process nearly unmanageable.

“Before SubBase it was like we were playing the telephone game that never goes well. Especially considering our purchasing agents are generally not plumbers and vice versa.”

As President of Douglas Orr, Marcus tends to view operations from a 30,000-foot perspective, focusing on the overarching challenges rather than the day-to-day details. The cumbersome communication chain: the expert requesting specific materials, someone in the middle handling the request, and the vendor consumed a significant amount of time and required numerous phone calls. The lack of visibility into where materials were in the process created large communication gaps. One issue that echoed down the halls was the question, “Where is my material?” This concern was shared by plumbers in the field, warehouse staff, purchasing agents, and project managers. Additionally, there was a massive problem with receivers. When materials were delivered to the job site, they would receive them on a piece of paper that would have to be brought into the office, which sometimes took weeks, and in worst cases, months. These cumulative issues are why Douglas Orr decided to adopt SubBase. SubBase provided the transparency and visibility needed to keep everyone informed and aligned.

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The solution

“A big thing that separated SubBase from its competitors was its ability to add the invoicing aspect part to the backend. No one else really offers that, but SubBase does.”

Since bringing on SubBase, Marcus and his team have been able to streamline communication between the field, purchasing agents, vendors, and back again, ensuring everyone in the chain knows exactly where their materials are at all times. This efficiency has been crucial to their operations, especially when managing such a large volume of orders. SubBase was able to automate many of their processes, enhancing visibility for all parties. In addition, by incorporating the invoice aspect into the workflow, SubBase offers a significant advantage from an administrative perspective, allowing Marcus to consolidate tasks or automate processes that were previously done manually.

‍Onboarding: Deciding to adopt SubBase was a significant move, but the onboarding experience, as Marcus mentioned, exceeded their expectations. Marcus and his team communicated directly with the Director of Product, Gabby Gutman, and the Founder and CEO, Eric Helitzer, from the SubBase team and didn’t have to navigate through intermediaries, which made the process very smooth. He explained that the SubBase team set up weekly, and then bi-weekly meetings to get feedback and their responsiveness was impressive. From an onboarding standpoint, it required several Douglas Orr team members to ensure everything was set up correctly, but the training process was very thorough, and SubBase made it easy. The whole process from start to finish took approximately six months, and by then, Marcus and his team were fully operational. He appreciated the frequency of meetings, the team’s responsiveness and the helpful tutorial videos.

“Through the onboarding process, we knew SubBase had other customers, but it really felt like we had a personal relationship with them because they were so responsive.” 

‍The SubBase team: Marcus describes the SubBase team as “fantastic,” comprising highly responsive and innovative young engineers eager to tailor the product to their specific needs. He mentioned SubBase offered a level of customization that went beyond standard integration, leveraging their expertise to ensure the software met their unique needs. To the team at Douglas Orr, user experience was very important. Marcus wanted everyone on his team to be able to use SubBase and reach out to them with ideas, concerns or questions. He said if the software wasn’t intuitive and user-friendly, his team would not use it. He involved various users in the demo process to ensure SuBase effectively supported their functions. This hands-on approach confirmed that SubBase met their needs across various user scenarios.

Douglas Orr vetted several software programs to streamline their operations, incorporating trade partners to ensure that the software they chose integrated with their ERP system. To them, it was essential that the software integrate smoothly with their existing infrastructure to avoid creating additional problems, such as managing separate databases or handling excessive imports and exports. They started with their ERP, Foundation Software, as the foundation of their search. SubBase stood out because of its critical integration with their ERP system, and its state-of-the-art connectivity solutions. By implementing SubBase, Douglas Orr streamlined the process of entering detailed line item POs into Foundation, reducing the time from 15 minutes or more per a single entry to just a click of a button. So instead of Douglas Orr opting for a dated, out-of-the-box solution, they chose SubBase because it promised seamless integration and the ability to address necessary workarounds to ensure everything connected efficiently.

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The results

“As a business owner, I had to be able to put my team in the best position to scale and grow. I don’t want to limit myself, so I’m always trying to push the ceiling up with all of the software I purchase, and SubBase has allowed us to do that.”

With the adoption of SubBase, Douglas Orr has noticed significant improvements in its operations. SubBase saved their team time by:

• Automating processes: SubBase allowed the team to sync 3000 POs, opening APIs with their ERP system, bringing in jobs, cost codes, phase codes, lists and more.
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• Reducing field-to-office delivery paperwork: SubBase completely automated the delivery process, removing the need for manual paperwork.
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• Eliminating lost receivers: Using SubBase diminished time delays in the accounting department to reconcile invoices and get these costs into their accounting system.
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• Making Purchasing Agents’ lives easier: Field personnel no longer need to go through a Purchasing Agent, and Purchasing Agents no longer have to interpret plumber’s requests before passing them on to the vendor. 

SubBase didn’t just replace Douglas Orr’s old processes; it added new functions that they didn’t have before. Marcus mentioned that while all software is an investment, the added visibility from the field has absolutely been worth it. At the end of the day, the office’s role is to support the field, and SubBase has made that easier by automating the delivery process. This also streamlined purchasing for Marcus and his team, as they know when the materials have been received and no longer have to wait for the receiver to pay the invoice – everything is already matched. As a result, their AP department and field teams are much happier. Douglas Orr’s field personnel can now easily track their materials and communicate with vendors. 

The ultimate savings from Douglas Orr Plumbing using SubBase:

Douglas Orr has run 3,000 purchase orders through SubBase since its onboarding in 2023. Each order run through SubBase saves them approximately $63 from a material request in the field to the accounting reconciliation, resulting in roughly $189,000 savings to date on labor hours to process.

“SubBase is the most efficient way to allow you to scale as much as you want. It doesn’t hold you back from the rest of your business. You continue to keep the same controls no matter what volume you’re at.”

The implementation of SubBase at Douglas Orr Plumbing has significantly impacted their operations, leading to enhanced communication from field to office, streamlined processes, and improved visibility across the supply chain. By automating workflows and integrating with their ERP system, Foundation Software, SubBase addressed their company’s key challenges in managing the complexities of procurement. Douglas Orr can now scale effectively, ensuring both their office and field teams operate more efficiently and cohesively.

To learn more about how SubBase can save you time and money on your next project, visit www.subbase.io/contact