At the age of 15 Al Guarino started out in the construction industry as a trim carpenter. By the age of 21 he had started his own construction company, Total Solutions Provider, focusing mainly on framing and interior trim. Thirty-five years later Al is still in business for himself doing a variety of work, from custom homes to office buildings, to constructing PetSmart stores and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.

Although Al had been in the construction business for half a lifetime, he felt that his project management system was detached. "Before we purchased ConstructionSuite 2007 we were using a combination of Microsoft Outlook, Project, and QuickBooks. Everything was disconnected."

"We started looking for construction software because we needed something that was more integrated than our current system. We looked at Timberline, Master Builder, and a few others, but they were expensive and didn't do a lot of the things we were looking for. UDA had it all, it was user friendly and a complete package, especially in terms of documentation, and that's where ConstructionSuite really has helped us out. It has taken all of the applications I was previously using and integrated them. It has simplified areas of my business that used to be complicated."

One of those complicated areas for Al was communicating effectively through his contracts. Once he found UDA all that changed. "The contracts have definitely saved me time and money. They have defined areas that I would have otherwise left out, for instance, the unforeseen conditions and acceptance of occupancy. Also, the UDA contracts are much easier to read than the AIA contracts, which seem to be too complex for the average reader. They've made our agreements with our clients much clearer, which in turn gives my company more credibility."

"The other beauty of the contracts is that they are divided up into different categories such as, Remodeling, General Contracts, and Construction Management, so it's easy to find the right contract for any particular scenario and that defines our expectations."

Before ConstructionSuite, Al used Microsoft Project for his scheduling needs, but found the application too complex and hard to learn. He knew UDA Scheduling was a great fit for his company, because it is designed specifically for construction professionals. "Microsoft Project is a complicated system. UDA Scheduling is much more user friendly. I can show a new user the UDA application and they can create a schedule very quickly. If the same new user created the schedule in Project, by the time I got the schedule back I wouldn't be able to work with it myself, it's too broad. Another reason I prefer UDA Scheduling over Microsoft Project is the ability to create an estimate directly from a schedule when working in ConstructionSuite, which saves me a lot of time."

The estimates Al creates in UDA need to be flexible enough that they encompass the wide variety of jobs he does. "I do both residential and commercial work, so it's important that I have the ability to create one estimating template for both types of projects, and with UDA I can do just that."

Al has been using UDA products since 2006 and said, "I would highly recommend project management software for all companies, of all sizes. I think it's very important in our industry, and I don't think enough people are aware of what construction software can do for their company. It can really help them organize their business."

As for Al's business, he said ConstructionSuite has made his life easier, "It has helped me simplify the complicated, and it's hard to put a dollar amount on that. I could logically say that we've saved about $20,000 this year in time and effort. The software has more than paid for itself."

Quick Facts about Total Solutions Provider

Location: Fountain, CO
Website: www.tspcgeneralcontractor.com
Industry: Commercial and Residential
Projects per year: 10
Years in the business: 35