Toronto, Ontario, December 18, 2023 – CMiC, a leading Next Generation Construction ERP provider, recently announced a new partnership with Delmarva Veteran Builders (DVB), a commercial construction company dedicated to employing U.S. Armed Forces Veterans. Having experienced steady growth over the years, on top of plans of expansion, decision-makers at DVB reached alignment that they needed a robust construction management software to optimize operational processes and provide leaders accurate financial reporting during all stages of project delivery. After a thorough evaluation journey, they set their sights on the leading next generation construction ERP provider: CMiC.
Delmarva Veteran Builders: A One-of-a-Kind Contractor with a Focus on Veteran Employment
Founded by Navy Veteran Chris Eccleston in 2013, DVB is a well-reputed commercial construction firm with a unique mission: to create a strong employee base of US veterans, guards and reservists. As the company grew, it looked to differentiate itself from the competition in a creative way. In 2020, DVB rebranded with a new tagline and ad campaign called “Grit Leads to Greatness,” celebrating both its military and civilian employees as examples to the world how Construction is heroic. After the successful launch, DVB surprised the industry by deciding to address the workforce shortage crisis by writing a children’s book of the same name. “Grit Leads to Greatness”. The story follows two siblings who go on a quest to save a crumbling world that has forgotten the construction trades. The epic adventure tale is meant to help kids embrace the power of Grit and the magic of building in a fun and memorable way. Garnering national attention from the top construction associations and non-profits in the US, it is being used as tool for both contractors and educators to introduce the trades to elementary age students.
From a specialization perspective, their focuses include general construction, new building construction, construction management, interior, and exterior renovations, water and pump construction, phased construction operations, and the subcontracting of general trade packages. In terms of their geographic reach, DVB primarily services the mid-Atlantic US, including Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. With notable clients like Perdue Chicken and Hilton Hotels, they bring in annual revenues of approximately $25 million and was proudly ranked #456 on Inc. 5000’s magazine’s list of the “Fastest Growing Companies” in 2018.
Business Challenges Faced: Non-Integrated Systems, Data Integrity Issues and Sub-Par RFI Management
With the use of non-integrated tools to manage operations (e.g., ProContractor by Viewpoint, MS Excel and MS Project), Delmarva’s leaders found themselves facing operational challenges, including:
Non-Integrated Systems: The use of different tools for Financials and Project Management, on top of Excel, led to the duplication of tasks and teams working in silos, resulting in the lack of synergy.
Data management and Integrity Challenges: With data being entered by different teams in different systems, managers were unable to standardize, consolidate nor view data in real-time.
Sub-Par Drawing Management Capabilities: As their current tools do not have cloud capabilities, field team members do not have access to the most up-to-date drawings — further, their tool can’t provide access to revised documents in real-time.
Poor Request for Information (RFI) Management Capabilities: The lack of access to the most up-to-date documentation led to slower RFI approvals.
Lack of Transparency to the Financial Performance of Projects: With the lack of project transparency — and the fact that financial information was not always kept up-to-date — leaders were unable to assess the financial performance of a project throughout the various stages of a project.
After examining their pain points thoroughly, it became clear that they needed a robust software solution to help them achieve their long-term goals.
The Software Evaluation Journey: The Search for a Cutting-Edge Construction ERP
Following an extensive search, DVB found themselves choosing CMiC to satisfy the following business requirements:
An all-in-one ERP, which included both Financials and Project Management applications, to streamline project management and financial oversight.
SaaS deployment options to equiptheir field teams with access to up-to-date documents (with revision tracking functionality) — all without reliance on external cloud services.
Robust data management capabilities that effectively consolidate data entry and facilitate data-driven decision-making.
Advanced and integrated payroll, time keeping and tracking capabilities for people managers to pay employees and subcontractors faster.
Strong Request for Information (RFI) approval capabilities to facilitate prompt and efficient communication between project engineers and other team members.
Key CMiC Applications within their Product Roadmap
Here is a summary and preview to the applications on DVB’s implementation plan, which is currently underway:
CMiC Project Management applications will enable teams at DVB to collaborate with project stakeholders, control project changes, manage subcontractor tasks and stay on top of material suppliers. Within the category, they selected CONSTRUCT Project Management, which will provide them the following benefits:
Bidding & Procurement Management helps to streamline subcontractor pre-qualification, budget setting and facilitates the invitation to bid process.
Project Controls help mitigate risk and manage project schedules by addressing cost and schedule overruns.
Construction Documents help organize key assets and optimize processes using robust document management capabilities.
Quality & Safety helps address QA/Q issues using key tools (e.g., checklists, safety workflows).
CMiC Financials, through their industry-specific functionality with proven workflows, is designed to help finance teams effortlessly manage accounting, human capital, and payroll. Key applications Delmarva selected from this category are:
E-Time, which allows users to measure, track, and report labor hours across different projects and activities.
ESS, whichprovides employees access to benefits and salary statuses, with the ease of a single portal.
From a software deployment perspective, they opted for CMiC’s SaaS offering to work with their technical infrastructure.
Setting the Stage for Future Growth: Anticipated Business Outcomes
According to Kathryn Ellis, one of the owners at DVB, all the optimizations that are expected to be made at the day-to-day level — from project engineers to be able to view financial performance, to processing invoices expeditiously, to subcontractors ordering materials on time — “are extremely important to making sure that the company holistically is as effective and efficient as possible.”
The partnership between DVB and CMiC is a strategic move that paves the way for long-term benefits:
Sustained Growth: With CMiC’s software, Delmarva can scale its operations effectively to meet growing market demands.
Innovation and Adaptation: Leveraging cutting-edge technology will help DVB stay ahead in a competitive industry, adapting swiftly to changes.
In the end, Ellis sums it up best: ““With CMiC, you’re eliminating half the work.”
For more information about CMiC, please click here.
About Delmarva Veteran Builders:
Delmarva Veteran Builders was founded in 2013 by Christopher Eccleston with the specific intent to provide quality construction jobs for local Delmarva veterans.
"Culture is the intangible glue that holds our company together". Our core values include integrity, communication, transparency, and pride in ownership. It's an easy transition for our veterans, as all military branches instill this same creed. Veterans or civilian, we hire people who share this same mentality to deliver creative solutions on time and on budget.
We provide general contraction, construction management, interior, and exterior renovations, new building construction, renovations of occupied facilities, phased construction operations, water and pump construction and subcontracting of general trade packages.
About CMiC:
As an industry pioneer, CMiC delivers complete and unified Financials and Project Management software solutions for construction and capital projects firms. CMiC’s powerful software transforms how firms optimize productivity, minimize risk and drive growth by planning and managing all financials, projects, resources, and content assets—from a Single Database Platform™. With customers throughout North America and overseas, CMiC serves one-quarter of ENR’s Top 400 Contractors and hundreds of small and mid-sized construction firms, from general and specialty contractors to heavy/highway and project owners. Over $100 billion in construction revenue is handled by CMiC annually.
Media Inquiries:
Shirin Ali
Head of Marketing – CMiC