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Tim Schaeffer Communities
GOLD VISION AWARD

In southern New Jersey, Tim Schaeffer Communities, www.timschaeffer.com, Berlin, N.J., closed 93 homes in 2006 and another 90 homes in 2007 in seven communities.

Although Tim Schaeffer founded the company his son, Jason, has become the technology guru. In determining which applications to implement, they turned to those that have embedded best practices.

BuilderMT Workflow Management Suite (WMS) by BuilderMT, www.buildermt.com, Lakewood. Colo., is the linchpin for integrating these systems as it incorporates best practices and manages the workflow.

Schaeffer found organizing various computer systems, mapping data across processes, and managing custom code has become easier with the introduction of BuilderMT's Business Process Management (BPM) software. This makes custom coding unnecessary by using a graphic process manager where any authorized user can "drag 'n' drop" components that represent activities onto a process flow critical path diagram. This includes systems from Sage Software, www.sagecre.com, Beaverton, Ore., and Sales Simplicity, www.salessimplicity.com, Chandler, Ariz., among others, while also pushing data out to the field with Sprint, www.sprint.com, Reston, Va.

Although the user sees graphics, behind the screen the application is building a detailed back-end process that can generate contracts, reports, information for pricing, schedules, notifications, and purchase orders. One of the hardest processes to master is VPOs (variance purchase orders). Schaeffer has found BPM cuts the processing times for VPOs from one week to one day or less. Since completed tasks often trigger other activities, such as invoicing or payments, the BPM operation saves time and money.

Since the implementation, Tim Schaeffer Communities has processed 520 VPOs at a savings of $31,200, plus it has trimmed one-to-three days in the schedule for each VPO, or a total of 270 days cut out of the cycle in the 90 starts done in 2007.