SEC Company (SEC), an electrical contractor specializing in the construction and maintenance of Electric Transmission, Distribution, and Substation systems, was in search of a platform that could bring all their fleet and warehouse operations into one place. At the same time, they also wanted a tool from a company with which they could develop a partnership approach to build custom workflows and features to maximize adoption.

With the company’s purchase of YARDZ, a powerful platform that gives companies total management of their owned and rented assets, as well as a number of associated functions, SEC got all that, and much more. In fact, the company – a wholly owned subsidiary of Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR), the largest specialty contractor in the nation – has achieved the kind of tangible results that most companies can only dream of from their asset management software.

Numbers Are Off the Charts

The numbers tell a compelling story:

• Application Consolidation: The implementation of YARDZ helped SEC consolidate or eliminate 11 different software applications.
• Increased Automation: The platform has automated over 20 manual steps in the process including scheduled maintenance, work orders, “rental not to exceed rate” analysis, call-offs, asset assignment, and logistics.
• Asset Assignment: SEC has raised its overall accuracy from 45% to an eye-popping 95%.
• Time-Saving Documentation: Fleet administrators have reduced the time it takes to perform their daily documentation tasks by 67-75% – equivalent to four hours a day, or 1,040 hours per year.

While these measurables highlight YARDZ’s impressive performance, this implementation did not happen overnight; rather, it was a testament to the value of patience, timing, and careful product vetting. The story began in 2021, when SEC’s Florida office began using YARDZ to manage its extensive fleet and equipment inventory. Some of the drivers behind SEC’s purchase decision included:

• The need to have all their assets contained in one central location.
• The desire for a suite of tools to handle the complete asset management lifecycle.
• Improved rental intelligence.
• The need for a telematics aggregator
• The ability to work with the vendor on development of custom features and workflows.

Richie Gasaway, Vice President of Fleet & Services for SEC recalled the genesis of the relationship. “YARDZ came to us pitching the rental aspect of their tool, where they actually track all your rentals from all your suppliers,” he said. “The platform gave us notifications to let us know when rental periods were over, so we didn’t have pieces of equipment hanging around when a job was complete, which helped reduce our overall rental spend.”

Next Step: Customization

After seeing the potential, SEC asked YARDZ CEO Jason Perez if he could add some specific functionality and workflow – around work orders, warehouse, logistics, driver dispatch, and other management functions – to the core program. SEC had been performing these functions manually with whiteboards, paper forms, and software that was ill-equipped to address these tasks.

SEC participated intimately in the design and flow of new features through YARDZ’s customer voice development process. The result for SEC was the ability to automate and create efficiencies for a variety of fleet and equipment management and other internal functions. “YARDZ worked hard to incorporate our specific way of doing business and adding those functions into their tool,” noted Gasaway. “Not only were we able to maintain tight control with the core program right away, but we also had the ability to effectively operate our maintenance and inspections process right from the program as well.

“The ability to document the entire lifecycle of an asset in one place with photos, historical files, repairs, telematics, financials, utilization, idle time reporting, and asset replacement, has afforded us a single view to accurately budget our equipment refresh and develop sound strategies for the future.”

The buildout of the enhanced program features began in August 2021. Within two months, a “soft” rollout of the custom features began throughout the company’s Florida region, as SEC started using the new equipment maintenance function. By November they had implemented the logistics and dispatch portion, and by the beginning of 2022, the full management capabilities of asset inspections, dispatch, logistics, and other new features of the platform were ready for deployment. At the beginning of 2023, based on its high level of satisfaction with the platform, SEC signed on to the Enterprise Plus program, which allows for unlimited user accounts, unlimited assets and unlimited projects. Thus, what began as a regional pilot program was transformed into a comprehensive, company-wide initiative.

All Equipment in One Place

First and foremost, the YARDZ technology platform allows SEC to see all their rented (and owned) equipment in one place. This helps them manage their equipment and ensure that each piece is allocated effectively and cost-efficiently to the places it’s needed most, as well as saving money on duplicate and overdue rentals. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Right from the beginning, SEC wanted a platform that was not only effective but flexible. For SEC, the definition of “flexible” incorporated very specific parameters. They wanted:

• Customizable processes
• Robust user permissions
• Multiple ways to view and work
• One-click / One-page access
• Multi-tenant capability
• Custom development for features, workflow, and reports

The need for flexibility extended to a more overarching reason: it meant standardized data could be provided to headquarters on a corporate level, while unique workflows could be shared at the business unit level or by region.

Not to be lost in all these benefits is the positive impact that having all assets in one place creates. This includes all owned, rented, and leased equipment, along with RPO’s, tools, materials, and parts. And speaking of consolidation, YARDZ’s capability as a rental aggregator tool is a significant feature, as the company built rental intelligence into the platform using logic and regression analysis to convert bad data into good. Further, on the rental side, by analyzing the Net Rate Variance of SEC’s rentals, YARDZ identified $140,000 in Rate Overages over the last three years.

Through the platform’s integration prowess, SEC can also take corporate data from INCORTA and VERIZON and associate it to the lowest variable to drive behavior change at the source. What this means is that big data becomes useable data, organized to understand performance and manage regions, divisions, projects, and people more effectively.

Tons of Dashboard Data

The Custom Reporting feature is one that provides SEC with insights into multiple areas, such as the Work Order Dashboard that lets the company review Work Order data by region, category of work, and individual technician level to drive better performance; and the Replacement Schedule, which measures replacement thresholds by depreciation schedule, model year, purchase date, mileage, and engine hours. But perhaps the most critical reporting comes from the Safety Dashboard. Designed with weekly, monthly, and quarterly data, SEC has reduced the time to identify driver safety risks by tying data directly to region, driver, and periods of time.

“We put a very high premium on worker safety,” noted Gasaway. “The value of the Safety Dashboard is almost impossible to calculate.”

Despite the overwhelming success of the implementation, the job is still not done – and probably never will be. SEC is collaborating with YARDZ to bring even more customized functionality to the platform. The SEC team is working with YARDZ to take WEX fuel data to help identify potential theft or anomalies through spending behavior and proximity analysis of asset and fueling locations. The YARDZ platform also helps SEC manage all of its equipment repairs. Now, mechanics can go into the history of each vehicle, and in one place see the vehicle’s complete repair and maintenance history. What’s more, repairs and maintenance tasks are color-coded by priority, so the most urgent jobs are done first – and no job is overlooked.

SEC’s analytics team is also working closely with YARDZ to deliver operation data through an API back to INCORTA to provide executive level dashboards

Obviously, the numbers – as in the measurable results – showcase the success SEC has experience with the YARDZ platform. But Gasaway put it in far more esoteric terms. “I was able to say to YARDZ, ‘This is my vision, this is what I’m looking for.’ And they took my vision and made it a reality.”