Every Users Group Meeting (UGM) is one of a kind, and 2023 kept up the streak by launching the HCSS Construction Awards, which highlights HCSS customers who have gone above and beyond by continually raising the industry standards for safety, efficiency, development of people, use of technology, and more. Going forward, all nominees and winners will be recognized annually at UGM.
The first recipient of this year’s ward was MGE Underground. Based out of Paso Robles, California, MGE provides turnkey solutions for complex infrastructure construction projects, fielding skilled civil and electrical crews and a diverse, modern fleet.
How HCSS Helps MGE Be More Competitive
On a daily basis, MGE places their trust in numerous software products on the HCSS platform, including HeavyBid and HeavyJob, both fully utilized to garner historic productions and better estimate unit price contracts.
Use of HeavyBid has allowed MGE to secure 2-year contracts totaling approximately $500M. Specifically, the codebooks feature in HeavyBid ensures that estimates are compiled in the proper format to maintain profitable results.
“Utilizing the HCSS products helps MGE be more competitive because we have everything in one place. We can have more information at our fingertips to be able to work more efficiently for our customers and to provide a better price because we know what we're doing. We have visibility to it in all aspects of our company.”
- Malia Hager, Lead Project Manager, MGE Underground Inc.
Thanks to their close working relationship with HCSS, MGE was also fortunate to be a beta tester for HeavyBid Pre-Con (short for preconstruction). Through the implementation of Pre-Con, MGE has been able to maintain and keep track of approximately 4,000-5,000 estimates per year since inception. Expanding their use of Pre-Con, they’ve been able to keep track of contracts associated with their awarded projects and use the software as a tool to track cost changes and dependencies throughout the project lifecycle.
MGE has even begun to use Pre-Con to map out jobs, bundle them together, and pre-field everything in a manner that increases production and efficiency. Implementing the PM module to better track all jobs, they can link SharePoint and other weblinks to the module in effort to have all the documents in one place, giving the leadership team and others a clear-cut way to view the project's life cycle.
With HeavyJob’s project management software, MGE is able to push their payroll, reporting, and ability to bill quickly for their work. Not only does HeavyJob bill more efficiently, but this software keeps the process consistent and streamlined with job photos, notes, and progress quantities. If an employee ever leaves MGE, all of his/her logged information is right there in the module so the new PM can easily take over the job and already know what’s going on.
Following the Continuous Improvement Plan
A little over five years ago, MGE added HCSS Safety and has since beared witness to the following improvements:
- Incident Reporting: Previously, MGE’s safety department used hard copy documents to report an incident, which often resulted in delays due to site distance from the nearest office. Now, staff can digitize the reporting from anywhere in their system and send real-time alerts to the operations team. This elevated method of reporting shortens the time for someone to respond, assist in an incident, and get help where needed.
- Better KPI Tracking: Before switching to HCSS Safety, MGE was still manually mining data, which would take hours (or even days) to gather. Today, MGE can get KPI points faster and more efficiently, which helps their leadership and operations teams identify any leading/lagging indicators. The result is getting issues resolved quicker before any incidents can occur.
- Observations: Prior to HCSS Safety, MGE's safety department was the only area of the company conducting observations – specifically Loss Prevention Observations (LPOs). Now, their entire company can conduct and submit an observation. This gets workers out into the field to gain a better understanding of what’s going on, gives them a real-time pulse on the safety of their workforce, and provides a lightning-fast response time to any potential issues.
Recently, MGE has begun to incorporate HCSS Plans to track projects through their entire lifecycle. By placing the estimator's notes on their layer, the project manager (PM) and field operations are then able to easily understand the estimator’s intentions. From there, project management and operations have their respective layers to track and notate progress through the construction phase. Upon project closeout and the creation of the as-builts, this allows the PMs and QA/QC team to compile these documents without hesitation of missing pertinent information.
“HCSS can enhance our decision making because of the information that we have at our fingertips,” their Lead Project Manager Malia Hager commented. “We can go over everything that we've done historically so that we can identify where we can make some improvements and how we can turn that around to be better in the future.”
Other products MGE has recently implemented include Equipment360 and Telematics. Members of their team also make it a point to maximize the assistance of HCSS’ Professional Services department for continuous improvement.
What This Award Means for MGE
When MGE Underground first became a customer of HCSS around 2007, they were a small contractor. The owner and CEO Michaeljoe Goldstein was young and hungry, searching for ways to be innovative. They empowered their employees to run the business in the field like it was their own, and that made the use of HCSS software an ideal fit for their foremen, armed with the ability to run and manage projects without having to worry about company restrictions. The only requirement was to stay within scope and cost, which they succeeded at with flying colors, getting them to where they are today.
“I want to thank HCSS with even just the innovation on coming up with this kind of award,” said Chris Delaney, Controller for MGE. “It's fostered a lot of great dialogue within our company and I'm sure at other companies. It has made us think about where we are on this journey of excellence and how we can improve and what we have already accomplished.”
Delaney was also sure to give a special shoutout to their leadership team, including Michaeljoe, Ben, Summer, and Nick, thanking them for “moving the dial forward, having a can-do, positive attitude and ultimately [leading] to success for our company.”
Is Your Company Next?
Do you believe your company has what it takes to bring home the coveted award next year? Submissions for 2024 open up on June 1, 2023. To learn more about the award and view guidelines for entering, visit the official HCSS Construction Awards page.
