Mid-City Excavating | The Challenges of Rapid Growth

Mid-City Excavating Ltd. is a multi-million dollar excavating company that has established itself as one of the leading excavation companies in the Edmonton area.  Their commitment to teamwork, integrity and performance has helped the privately owned company become very successful. Mid-City enjoys an enviable reputation for professionalism and safety. They are actively involved in a wide range of projects, including site-work and prime contracting services.

Founded in 1980, Mid-City grew steadily for many years, but when the Alberta oil boom began in 2006, the company entered a period of unprecedented growth, tripling their revenue over the course of 8 years.

By 2010, Mid-City was experiencing significant growing pains and the company’s management team decided to take action.  Together, they reviewed existing procedures and identified some of the challenges which had arisen as a result of their rapid growth. Chief among them was the fact that the Project Managers didn’t have a clear idea of how they were doing on a job. The oil boom meant Project Managers were extremely busy. To facilitate billing, they used spreadsheets to track progress billing, but it was cumbersome and never up-to-date. As a result, the Accounting department at Mid-City struggled with timely and accurate billing. The Mid-City team went in search of a system that could provide accurate, real-time information that was easy to use and flexible enough to produce the reports required.

After evaluating a number of products on the market, Mid-City moved forward with the purchase of Explorer Eclipse. “We wanted a true ERP solution that was tightly integrated and powerful. We looked at other solutions, but they just didn’t do it for us. Many vendors rely on integrations to other products in order to provide a complete solution. What this really means is purchasing custom programming or continually importing and exporting data. We didn’t want that,” explained Jeff Burgess, Controller for Mid-City Excavating.

Using Real-Time Information to Make Informed Decisions

Today, Mid-City owns a wide range of Explorer modules, including the standard modules that many construction companies run, like Job Costing, Payroll, General Ledger, and Inventory, as well as more specialized modules like Hired Truck Payroll, Purchase Orders and Service Management. Over the past year, the company has implemented the Business Analytics module from Explorer, which allows users to create powerful custom reports quickly and without any specialized knowledge.

Implementing the Eclipse Project Management module has also made a world of difference for the company. The real-time reporting that Eclipse offers has increased profitability, and reduced billing errors. Managers who once estimated how their jobs were doing based on projections, can now run a report which shows them exactly how they’re performing, so they can make informed decisions and adjust where necessary. Rather than waiting for the Project Manager to advise on job progress, the Accounting Department can now view the status of the job in Eclipse and bill proactively, improving accuracy and cash flow.

To read how another customer, Central City Asphalt, uses Explorer’s business analytics to stay on top of their jobs, click here.