Contractors Leaning into Technology

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Two roofing companies share why they use Beacon’s innovative digital platform to effectively manage building material orders and increase efficiency company-wide. 

Beacon PRO+ is a digital tool like no other in the industry. With free, real-time storm reporting, a 3D photo measurement tool for custom on-the-job estimations, home financing assistance and much more, Beacon PRO+ allows you to run your business with more efficiency, accuracy and support. 

“Fifteen years ago, I started my business [by] literally taking a piece of graph paper to somebody’s home [and] a tape measure and measuring the footprint and drawing the roof,” said president of Horch Roofing Inc, Peter Horch. “Then [I’d] go back to my office [to] understand the angles and then converting that into how many squares I needed and then converting...it was a long process and over the years we’ve learned that technology can do it a lot faster for us.” 

Beacon PRO+ includes the Beacon 3D+ modeling app, which allows you to build a model of a home from photos you take on site. Accurate measurements can be derived from the model, allowing you to create precise estimates. Contractors can create models for the entire home, just the roof or both. 

“3D+ changes everything,” said owner of Tacheny Exteriors, Sam Tacheny. “It’s even accurate enough where you can quote windows, which is a challenging thing. It gives you all your siding, roofing measurements, I mean everything we need as an exterior company, it gives you that.” 

Beacon PRO+ also enhances the ordering experience. Vice president for Horch Roofing, Stacy Lytton, used to spend five minutes per item per order before Beacon PRO+. Now she estimates that she places twenty-five orders in that same time span and she’s able to check the status of her orders directly from her phone.  

“I can walk my dog, I can take my daughter to school, and when I have Beacon’s tool in my hand I can literally check and figure out where that skylight is, when it’s coming within minutes,” said Stacy. “It allows me to be a good vice president and also a good mom.” 

Beacon PRO+ offers 24/7 online ordering, allowing you to place orders anywhere from any device at any time. You can schedule deliveries directly to the job site for increased efficiency and track the deliveries’ progress. Other features include: 

• Simple online bill pay. 

• Access to a complete order history to easily reorder your favorite or most used materials. 

• Promotion tracking, which automatically tracks rebates. 

• Estimate-to-order functionality, allowing you to move from estimation to ordering quickly. 

“You’re able to get the numbers and the results to the homeowner a lot quicker than we used to be able to do,” said general office and accounting manager at Tacheny Exteriors, Theresa Nicoletti. “All the time that we save in doing that ordering process allows us to [move] onto the next project.”  

Watch the entire video to hear more from Horch Roofing and Tacheny Exteriors on what Beacon PRO+ has brought to their businesses.