Capital and market recovery have been most instrumental in the doubling of production southern California's Holliday Cos. has recorded in the past three years. But principals of the family-owned concrete, aggregate and asphalt business can point to another enabling factor: information technology.

Three years ago, Holliday began a four-month migration from separate operations software and a legacy accounting system to a fully integrated enterprise package. Fine-tuning that was anticipated for full implementation has management at a point where cost-savings from the system are now apparent. The next stage is operational data collection and analysis, where companies inside and outside of construction materials typically find the most potential from enterprise software.

“Our system was antiquated and would not have allowed us to keep up with our customers and the market,” notes John Holliday, vice president. “The order delivery-to-invoicing cycle used to span several days and entail paperwork channeled through three or four sets of hands. Now, once we cut an order ticket, billing data is instantly sent to accounting, with the invoice issued shortly after.”

Economical instant messaging and e-mail tools for real-time data relay, he adds, have allowed a switch from dedicated dispatchers at each concrete plant to central order taking with decentralized fleet allocation. Batch plant operators are able to handle vehicle tracking and maintain critical interface with customers; they can use electronic communications to approximate truck status without direct links to drivers.

In effect, the IT network — based on an IBM Netfinity Server and Microsoft SQL software — has helped Holliday Cos. redeploy plant management talent. Since 1999, the company has acquired one and built two ready mixed plants. With central order taking and local dispatch, the new properties are run with the same number of staff, excepting additional drivers.

“Our customers have a lot of choices, from vertically integrated producers to small operators,” says Holliday. “We have to be accurate and efficient in materials and trucking costs.”

But within the IT overhaul, he looks beyond faster and more accurate invoicing and affordable truck-tracking functions: the linking of front and back office operations has helped improve customer perceptions. In routine billing or quality control inquiries, plant or office staff can exploit instant file retrieval and electronic communication capabilities to streamline response time. If a customer or agency has a question on a quality matter, batch data for any load on a given order can be forwarded immediately in a Word file.

Hardware

To step up to an enterprise system, Holliday Cos. replaced its IBM AT XT BMS computer for accounting with the IBM Netfinity Server. It runs Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and SQL Server 7.0 software, integrated with materials-specific and conventional administrative application software modules. Holliday Controller Ron Chambers, CPA, established accounting parameters for the new system and a migration schedule.

Holliday was the pilot user of the Access Unlimited JS enterprise product of Fullerton, Calif.-based Jonel Engineering. Jonel MIS Director Michael Lawson notes that Access was oriented around Great Plains Business Solutions' Dynamics product. Leading up to the 1998 Access launch, Dynamics was one of few database systems using the Microsoft SQL, which Jonel saw as a scalable and affordable ($25,000-$35,000) server package for medium-sized construction materials producers.

The Access set up at Holliday links about 40 workstations in nine locations. It combines Jonel Concrete/Aggregate/Asphalt Operations, Scheduling, Sales, Credit & Collections, Billing modules and the Dynamics Sales Order Processing, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and General Ledger modules. The Netfinity Server is located in the company's Upland headquarters office and served with a T1 cable for quick connectivity to computers in remote locations.

Tim Bubier, nephew of company chairman Fred Holliday, handled hardware installations and related IT network issues. Jonel and Sherwood Systems, a Phoenix-based Great Plains business partner, developed the Access-Dynamics interface. Since the Holliday installation, Jonel has rolled out Access for North American and overseas users. Separately, Microsoft Corp. has acquired North Dakota-based Great Plains, reportedly leveraging Dynamics and other products to offer enterprise solutions for small and medium-sized businesses.

Customers' lead

Holliday Cos. is the last privately owned, multiple-plant operator of its kind in southern California. The switch to a current IT system dovetails with a transition from second to third generation of family management, along with a business expansion to serve new pockets in a vast population center approaching 15 million. In the mid-1990s, with the southern California economy finally on the rebound, Holliday family members saw both need and opportunity to reach beyond their base in the Inland Empire — encompassing much of the Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles.

“Residential and commercial customers were doing more work outside the area,” notes Fred Holliday. “We wanted to serve them and had the resources to invest in additional concrete and rock properties.”

Although most growth has occurred since 1998, expansion began in 1996 with the acquisition of Palmdale's State Sand & Gravel, located in the desert highlands of north Los Angeles County. The deal comprised a 100-acre mining site with related aggregate and ready mixed plants, plus a rail spur for material loading. Development of affordable housing and large distribution centers are fueling growth in Palmdale and the area due east approaching the city of Adelanto. In 2000, the company commissioned its Adelanto plant, which is served with materials from a recently permitted, 200-acre site adjacent to the Palmdale operation.

In 1999, Holliday branched into Orange County, acquiring a small producer in Irvine. Last year, it opened a larger plant on a nearby site (note Pay as you grow). Like most of southern California, Orange County has seen a resurgence in residential building during the past five years, as well as a thrust in commercial development and transportation work that could be anticipated in the thick of TEA-21 funding and an area flush with 12-lane superhighways.

Holliday sites aggregate properties with integrated concrete and asphalt production in mind. Like other producers, it is examining the depletion of aggregate reserves in central Los Angeles County and a scarcity of aggregate materials in Orange County — and weighing economical means of bringing materials into core areas from the periphery. As a medium-sized operator, Holliday Cos. has very few contemporaries. Larger competitors in Los Angeles and Orange counties include Calaveras, Cemex, Hanson, Mitsubishi and Vulcan. On the other side, there are upwards of 30 single-plant, independent ready mixed producers in the Los Angeles basin.