Housing Giants - November 10, 2008 - (Page 15)

used technology to achieve awardwinning performance, even in tough markets. It’s a family-run business that builds homes with Carolina lifestyles in mind. The firm closed more than 1,100 homes in 2007 in North and South Carolina across four divisions. Each division manages regional building efforts with 30 supervisors who watch over 40 different home plans that are being sold throughout Eastwood Homes’ 40 model home centers. They are very customer-focused, so each model can have many options. Eastwood is a big, complicated operation with lots of moving parts, but the company got its 1,100 homes built in an average cycle time of just 110 days, well below industry averages. Although Eastwood does sell homes priced up to the $300,000s, most homes average around $190,000 with 2,200 to 2,500 square feet. The company employs 180 people, including sales, builders and staff. Year on year growth? Eastwood Homes’ story is remarkable, as they have almost doubled in size, from 800 closing in 2005 to close to 1,400 in 2006, with a slight drop in starts last year. And they’ve won awards for quality as well, most recently they picked up J.D. Power and Associates award for outstanding customer satisfaction in two markets. tecH success How do they do it? Well, the team partially achieves its success with hammers and nails. But it also relies heavily on technology. Back in 2001, Eastwood Homes had been using Timberline Accounting and Timberline Estimating to manage their processes. But as the company experienced growth, it knew that it needed a process and workflow management system that was specific to the building industry. In 2001, Eastwood Homes brought in a workflow management tool to automate the functions that were gobbling up staff time, and it had a special focus on report generation; manual reconciliation of purchase order; and work order, invoice approval and communication triggers. Recently the company added a business process management tool. Before the implementation of that tool, if Eastwood wanted new (or changed) processes embedded in its software systems, the firm would have to pay for custom coding. Instead, employees now use a drag-and- www.Housinggiants.com 11.10.08.Housing giants 15 http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/ http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/ http://www.2020software.com/products/Sage_Timberline_Office_Accounting.asp http://www.2020software.com/products/Sage_Timberline_Office_Accounting.asp http://www.housinggiants.com

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