Powering today's construction industry

CUSTOM SAAS PLATFORM

Business need

Our client has been maintaining printed catalogs for the Plumbing, Mechanical, and Construction industries since 1912. They needed to digitize the entire process for easier data entry and better customer experience.

Result

MindK developed a modern SaaS platform for manufacturers, distributors, and contractors. It has radically simple data entry and automated order processing for 25M+ items. Thousands of happy users enjoy up to 75% more productivity and 5% material savings. 

Industry
Construction
Location
USA
USA
Working together since
Apr 2012

Harrison Publishing House (HPH) is a content provider and software developer, which creates solutions for the plumbing and mechanical segment of the construction industry.

David McPhaul

President, Harrison Publishing House, USA

The most impressive thing is their commitment to the project, as well as their guarantee of the quality of work.

After many frustrating and failed Indian outsource development projects, I was very fortunate to find MindK. Oleg assigned a dedicated team of skilled professionals for our CINX project. This team possessed the coding skills required, worked well in an agile environment, effectively interacted with our internal data developers, and most importantly took an active interest in the project.

The challenge

With an idea to digitize hundreds of catalogs from manufacturers and synchronize all construction project participants, the company started working on a cloud platform. Once the project has outgrown Microsoft Sharepoint, it required a team able to build a sophisticated client solution. HPH changed several development teams, and due to a very poor experience had to look further.

The solution

MindK stood out as the next HPH development partner due to relevant tech expertise, willingness to learn about the project and its underlying business needs. It allowed the client to rest easy knowing the project was in good hands. Starting with their idea and a few mock-ups, we built CINX as a cloud-based feature-rich platform for managing the supply chain for contractors, manufacturers, and distributors.

Empowering access to data

CINX aimed to become a centralized location of quality and up-to-date information on the products required by everyone in the construction process. The private catalogs of the users developed into over 25 million items.

Empowering access to data

CINX aimed to become a centralized location of quality and up-to-date information on the products required by everyone in the construction process. The private catalogs of the users developed into over 25 million items.

Any user, be it a manufacturer, distributor or construction company, starts by setting up a profile and linking the employees and businesses that it does commerce with. Then they can set up and manage a custom catalog of products and materials they work with.

Less manual processes

The basic premise to CINX is that project data should never be created or inputted more than once. Once the data has been entered it is available to be easily found, tracked, measured, analyzed and reused.

We took the best from relational and nonrelational databases to make working with data an enjoyable experience for users. No need to input the same content over and over again as the project passes through each of the firm’s departments and its supply network. All the redundant work is magically done by the system behind the scenes.

Better decisions and more money in a pocket

CINX backs up companies and estimating tools with accurate pricing data. Improving data flow between internal departments and the firm’s external supply partners could easily reduce their annual material expenses from 3 to 5%.

What would normally have taken hours of manual research, copying and pasting between disparate formats and programs, now can be managed within minutes.

Fully automated order-processing operations, which typically include 8 stages: requisition - request for quotation - quote - purchase order - purchase order change order - delivery - invoice - return
More than 20 tools working together. CINX provides integrations with estimating/CAD systems like Autodesk and accounting systems like Intuit Quickbooks
The CINX cloud, able to store and timely process over 25 million items with related content from companies' private catalogs
Improved data flow between internal departments and the firm’s external supply partners
Full-transaction tracking and analytical dashboards that acts like a bright spot for an industry with historically manually driven processes
REST API that allows software developers to extend their construction software capabilities with CINX data and save clients more money on material expenses

A bird-eye view on the project progress

Dashboard adapts to different user roles (manufacturers, distributors, and contractors). Companies can scrutinize where their dollars are going, and properly manage their load, that results in the best decisions per project.

Now users can

Ensure accurate pricing data and tech documentation on required mechanical items
01
Manage estimations and transactions both in CINX and integrated business systems
02
Boost product visibility (for manufacturers) by placing product data in contractor systems
03
Free managers and sales teams from redundant manual processes to focus on other value-added activities
04

Services provided

Business Analysis

UI/UX design

Product development

DevOps

Quality Assurance

Tech stack

  • Ember.js Ember.js
  • PHP PHP
  • MongoDB MongoDB
  • MySQL MySQL
  • Elasticsearch Elasticsearch
  • AWS AWS

Value delivered

Today CINX is widely used by contractors, manufacturers, and vendors in the USA. It’s been well-received by all existing HPH customers, who have given positive feedback on the platform. Now they are rolling out new system capabilities that will assist them to grow.
1
Decrease in annual material expenses for construction companies
1
Mechanical items and extended content within a thorough database

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