Los Angeles County, ABC School District
Headquartered in Los Angeles County, ABC School District serves two diverse coastal communities in Southern California with more than 10,000 K-12 students and 1,600 staff members.
For privacy purposes, the name of the client has been removed and replaced with ABC School District. All remaining information and quotes are factual.
Headquartered in Los Angeles County, ABC School District serves two diverse coastal communities in Southern California with more than 10,000 K-12 students and 1,600 staff members. The district’s capital program manages nearly $400 million in bonds for capital improvements, modernization projects, and new buildings.
Goal
A prominent school district in the Southern California area wanted to pull together construction documents and contracts in one secure, central platform to effectively manage up to $400M in capital improvement projects.
Challenge
Prior to implementing e-Builder Enterprise, the company relied heavily on paper documents, emails and disjointed processes across multiples systems.
Solution
Leveraging e-Builder Enterprise has given ABC School District access to a digital documentation system, targeted reporting, and various workflows supporting: invoicing, daily contractor and inspection requests, RFIs, approvals, and project creation, just to name a few.
Ongoing Benefits
ABC School District is expanding it's use of e-Builder to support purchase orders, which will further streamline their processes and enhance overall project productivity.
“The driving force for our decision was that we wanted to pull together construction documents and contracts in one place. We were looking for something comprehensive and that allowed us to manage projects from an owner’s perspective.”
—Assistant Project Manager, ABC School District
Choosing e-Builder
In 2019, the district chose to partner with e-Builder because they wanted to better manage the financial side of their projects. “The driving force for our decision was that we wanted to pull together construction documents and contracts in one place,” says the Assistant Project Manager at ABC School District. “We were looking for something comprehensive and that allowed us to manage projects from an owner’s perspective.”
Implementation began in early 2020 but presented some challenges due to COVID-19 restrictions and technical complications. While the process of adoption and process building was lengthier than expected, today ABC is actively leveraging several of e-Builder Enterprise’s time-saving functionalities.
Time-Saving Processes
Using e-Builder, the Assistant Project Manager has set up more than a dozen processes including invoicing, daily contractor and inspection requests, RFIs, approvals, and project creation. “The software is extremely flexible and saves our users lots of time,” he says. For example, when a vendor submits an invoice through the system, they can see who has it and where it is in the approval and payment process. “It helps with peace of mind—we know exactly where to find a document such as an invoice, rather than wondering if it’s buried in someone’s email inbox.”
The district has also started using e-Builder for pay applications. When a vendor submits a pencil draft, the construction manager sends it to the architect for review. The architect then submits all the necessary written documents, which are signed and processed electronically within the e-Builder platform. “When you process paperwork manually, things get lost or held up because people are busy and distracted,” says the PM. “Having a central hub for documents saves time and helps keep everyone on track.”
Targeted Reporting
Reporting is another module within e-Builder that the district is using to their advantage. The team created an accounting report that displays costs for the current fiscal year, separated by construction site. Every payment in the system is now assigned to a fiscal year through a required field in the form, allowing their accountant to generate reports easily.
Using e-Builder also allowed the district to categorize budget lines as either hard or soft costs. “This is very important because we have to report back to bond oversight committees and they want a breakdown not only of categories like safety and security but whether each expense is a hard or soft cost,” says the district’s PM. “The report pulls it all together and gives our accountant the information she needs.”
Soon, the district plans to expand its use of e-Builder by moving its purchase order process into the software system. “There are a lot of variables in how we issue purchase orders and the documents contractors must submit,” the PM says. “It will be very helpful to streamline that process and collect everything digitally.”
“There are a lot of variables in how we issue purchase orders and the documents contractors must submit. It will be very helpful to streamline that process and collect everything digitally.”
—Project Manager, ABC School District
Support for Success
About e-Builder
e-Builder has more than 25 years of experience supporting owners like you in managing capital improvement projects.
e-Builder Enterprise automates information handoffs between designers, contractors, consultants and owners through a best-in-class workflow engine that transforms old paper processes to digital. It also offers the industry’s most flexible project financial management solution, unifying construction costs with accounting.
The best way to understand how e-Builder Enterprise can transform your capital program management is to see it for yourself.
