Publisher’s Note: At C&R, we believe roundtable discussions just like this are one of the best ways to offer unencumbered information, opinions, and answers in print form. With the rapid growth in technology platforms in our industry, especially in the job management realm, we reached out to seven software providers, and asked them each the same series of questions about their product. It is our hope this article will help restorers make more educated decisions when it comes to choosing the best technology fit.
1. How long have you been in business?
Donald: Encircle was founded in 2012. In 2014, we launched the first all-in-one field documentation platform, with a vision to bring trust and transparency into the industry to align restoration contractors, TPAs, independent adjusters, and carriers. Ultimately, Encircle was launched to help get policyholders back to normal faster and that’s still our focus today.
Duta: In terms of the product itself, we have been building and refining it for over four years. We have been selling to restorers for over two years now.
Gray: I have been involved with the property restoration business for nearly 20 years. I officially entered the industry with my first professional job at a restoration contracting company – where I noticed many inefficiencies in the day-to-day analog processes, namely for contractors. I developed a passion for creating frictionless, paperless procedures for contractors so that they could spend more time focusing on people.
In 2008, I started Next Gear Solutions to sell DASH alongside other offerings that would ultimately become a full suite of platforms and applications for restoration contractors. Through partnerships, acquisitions, and continued innovation, we grew Next Gear Solutions with the goal of unlocking potential throughout the property insurance and restoration ecosphere.
Next Gear Solutions was acquired by CoreLogic in 2021. Joining CoreLogic, we combined the power of our property restoration solution with those of CoreLogic’s offerings for the carrier side of this industry. Bringing Next Gear under the umbrella of what is now known as CoreLogic Insurance Solutions, we have created a tapestry of technologies and services that create better outcomes for everyone involved in serving policyholders and property owners.
Lavender: iRestore began its early coding days in 2012 and began as a simple software to help digitize a family restoration company. From that point industry friends, and friends of friends, started to ask if they could use this system to help their restoration company.
The iRestore system has since grown as a living system, continuously adding, and enhancing the functions to address the needs of the industry and our fellow restorers!
Pritchard: Canam Systems started back in 1994 as a custom software designer; we were approached by a consulting group in 2002 that allowed us to jump directly into the property restoration space and start building platforms specifically for restoration contractors.
Rose: RestoreUnited started developing its job management platform in early 2019, but the initial planning had already begun in 2018, a year earlier – so essentially five years.
Stewart: Xcelerate has been in business for five years. We started development in 2018 and came out of beta in the spring of 2020.
2. What are the top three functions of your software?
Donald: Encircle’s primary function is to make it easy for restorers to capture complete and consistent documentation right from the source – the property loss. Within the Encircle field documentation app, there are several different tools to accommodate documentation needs from job to job. If we had to narrow it down to three key functions that every restorer should use on every project it would be:
- Encircle Photo and Video Capture → for visual documentation of projects in the field. This includes capturing photos, videos, notes, and contents. Encircle automatically keeps them organized and labeled by room.
- Encircle Floor Plan → for quickly and easily creating a professional-looking 2D floor plan to visually represent the property with accurate measurements. It’s so easy anybody can create a floor plan right from their phone and have it back in their Encircle file the same day, saving days on getting mitigation estimates written.
- Encircle Hydro → A digital drying log and moisture mapping feature that keeps all moisture documentation organized and all in one place. It surfaces this data in real-time to PMs and managers to check in on the project no matter where they are and make decisions that will keep the drying process on track.
Duta: That is a difficult question to answer since restoration businesses can vary immensely in the services they provide, their size, or the markets they serve.
Our platform was designed to be the foundation of a restoration business, a centralized hub to give restorers visibility into their organizations and make informed business decisions.
- Integration – The ability to integrate multiple platforms is critical for large restoration businesses that require a combination of “best in class” products. We believe we can’t be the perfect fit for every business, BUT integration provides that bridge for the times we fall short. Along with integration comes automation. Automation is something this industry has been craving a long time. Repetitive and manual tasks and data entry are a thing of the past, and automation is the future.
- Field application and mobile functionality. Albi was created from the perspective of a restorer; I have been in the trenches sucking water and trying to document at the same time. Albi is the first job management product to be developed from a FIELD FIRST perspective because that’s where 90% of restorers are 90% of the time. I felt many of the solutions I used were created from the office perspective only, which misses the majority of where restorers are, in the field.
- Ease-of-use, which was the inception of Albi itself. My employees were constantly complaining about our program. It would crash, they didn’t understand it, or just didn’t use it. When I asked “why?” they always said because it’s a pain. As you know, documentation is life in restoration, I just felt there could be a better way, so Albi was created that way. In an industry where turnover can be high, training new employees on your platform should be easy.
Having a centralized system helps restorers in three main areas: growing and scaling their business, getting paid faster, and delivering extraordinary customer experiences.
Gray: Collectively, CoreLogic Insurance Solutions offers a full spectrum of platforms and products that 1. streamline and standardize project workflows; 2. Facilitate critical collaboration between all stakeholders in the insurance claim process; and 3. Enable users to instantly access and maximize the power of consistently relevant, up-to-date data and property insights.
We provide these functionalities through multiple solution sets – for catastrophe risk, underwriting, claims, and restoration professionals. Many of these solution sets integrate with each other and with external platforms. With so many possibilities, our solutions provide the foundation of an integrated digital ecosystem that allows carriers and contractors to establish a collaboration system that transforms how all stakeholders fulfill promises to policyholders and customers.
Lavender: iRestore provides our restoration team with over 950 different functions covering all aspects of job management and restoration operations. That being said, even if you have only partially implemented some of these functions to streamline your restoration company, you will see the difference in the top three functions:
- Job Management: Documenting and recording the life of the job through workflows, schedules, and communications.
- Job Profitability (T&M): Budgeting, reporting, live time and material tracking, purchase orders, and many additional tools that are enhanced with our QuickBooks integration to plan and proactively manage job profitability.
- Restoration Operations: Boards, cashflows, invoicing, employee timeclock, and a suite of features that support critical operational areas like: HR, fleet and equipment management, sales, and relationship building as information is stored in the CRM.
Pritchard: Proven Software Applications (PSA) provides an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool made up of (3) main components Accounting, Job Management & CRM. Each of these modules provides integrations directly in the insurance ecosystem to help eliminate duplication, streamline workflow which provides easy to use tools for collecting real time information for things such as revenue, job costs, and profits.
Rose: A. Our job journals are incredibly powerful and are seamlessly integrated with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Not only can you quickly and easily document your work and send emails at the job level, but a neat feature is that it captures any replies to emails and automatically adds them to the job journal. This feature is especially helpful for managers who need to track adjuster and customer responses.
B. The notification system in RestoreUnited is another powerful feature. Users can choose to be notified about specific job-related items, such as new job creations, received payments, or uploaded documents, and can even select their preferred method of notification, including desktop, email, or mobile app. Notifications can also be customized at the company/admin level to ensure that the right people are notified when new jobs are created. This is a great way to reduce the number of internal calls and emails needed for basic tasks.
C. Our software is designed to be incredibly user-friendly, both on mobile and desktop devices We’ve used visual cues that will be familiar to users of popular social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and we’ve also integrated Google mapping technology. All of this results in an intuitive interface that’s easy-to-use right from day one.
Stewart: While Xcelerate has lots of functionality, my favorite functions are:
- Simplified and Efficient Restoration Management: Having the ability to see all your files in their various stages; including what has happened, what is coming next, and who is doing what makes managing your teams and using your resources efficiently easy as you are scaling and growing your restoration company. This is absolutely key! Included in that umbrella are real time KPIs and reporting to see how your team is performing and improvement opportunities. Everything is seen through the lens of how to make our restorers proactive in their management instead of reactive. Add automation to this process and you create efficiency magic!
- Information Transfer and Integrations: Those of us who have been in the industry for some time know the very real pain point this has been to contractors. They have been functioning in very closed environments and are required (either by our own business practices or insurance mandates) to use very specific systems whose data and information do not pass well between parties. This has created lots of administrative burden and expense as companies are spending unneeded time with double entry and duplication. At Xcelerate, we are committed to operating differently, with our open APIs and our commitment to integrating well with partners who have the same vision. Our strong integrations allow contractors to focus on simply doing their jobs.
- Seamless Information Exchange and Integration: The struggle with information transfer and integration has long been a pain point for contractors in our industry. Operating within closed environments and being bound by specific systems has imposed significant challenges. The inability to efficiently share data between parties has led to excessive administrative burdens, redundant work, and unnecessary expenses. At Xcelerate, we have taken a different approach. With our open APIs and unwavering commitment to seamless integrations, we empower contractors to break free from these constraints. Our strong partnerships and integrations with like-minded industry leaders enable contractors to focus on what they do best—restoration work. Say goodbye to time-consuming double entry and duplication and experience a new level of efficiency and productivity as your data flows effortlessly between systems. Together, we can transform the way information is exchanged and drive a new era of streamlined collaboration within the restoration industry.
- CRM and Business Development Growth. Many companies scale and grow at the beginning based on the salesmanship of their owner. While that is awesome in the early stages, at some point that no longer scales, and the key is to get the same (or better) results when you hire your business development team. Having a way for them to enter information as well as pulling data and reports to manage them is key. Everything from route creation to seeing the breakdown of where your work is coming from is easy in Xcelerate. And having a CRM that is tied to job management gives you the ability to get even more granular in your data. Want to see how profitable your work is from a certain subset of property managers? No problem!
3. How long does it take to onboard and train teams on your software?
Donald: Encircle customers can be onboarded in as little as an hour or two. Every customer has a success manager who arranges virtual training sessions. We also give everyone access to EncircleU, our learning platform, at no extra charge, where new customers can access online training courses. The courses available on EncircleU are engaging and interactive. There are now 15 hours of CEC credits available — enough to meet the 4-year requirement for Technician Certification and the 2-year requirement for a Master Certification.
Duta: The Albi Launch Framework’s objective is clarity for the stakeholders, providing value ASAP, and end-user mastery. The timeline varies based on factors like revenue, users, complexity, and goals. The most critical aspect is uncovering THE business problem, cause analysis, and the desired outcome. These factors applied to our Albi Launch Framework to design each business’s unique plan. The objective of our onboarding methodology.
Albi Launch Framework average is ~30 days. Our turnkey approach incorporates everything required to get your team up and running smoothly on Albi. Including training, data transfer, configuration, equipment list, pricelists, and more. There are no extra or hidden costs for additional training hours, and we will train your entire staff, along with any new hires as you scale your business.
We believe – If your staff doesn’t understand the product, they won’t use it, and then the business receives no value from it.
Gray: The CoreLogic Client Services coaching team provides complete onboarding support and training to ensure that each new customer successfully implements and adopts DASH to maximize the solution’s power in their customized workflows and business processes.
Each onboarding experience is specific to a company’s needs; our coaches remain engaged until complete satisfaction is achieved. Results vary, but highly motivated owner/leadership teams often accomplish onboarding within weeks, while others may require more time.
Lavender: The short answer is one to four weeks. This is done through unlimited live on-line training sessions with the iRestore Staff and Industry Friends of iRestore to help in areas outside the system. We also supply our customers with an online help system with training videos, including training modules through the Restoration Technical Institute.
Truly, the time frame depends on your team’s existing capabilities, business organization/ structure, role designation and what you want to get out of the iRestore System. In my experience, no two restoration companies are the same and it is difficult to categorize everyone in a basic training framework. Our system training follows a general training path but is often adjusted to what works best for the user.
The bottom line comes to our support team ensuring that the user(s) is fully capable of implementing the functions throughout their company to ensure the desired end result. The base function of the system provides for the entering of new jobs, assigning to users within the company and using your CRM. This can be accomplished on the first day of download. Further training is used to dial in best practices to get the most use of the system.
Pritchard: Each module can be onboarded (a la carte) or all at once. We provide a comprehensive onboarding process that includes an online learning academy, 1 on 1 training as well as on demand support. This process can range from a few days to a few weeks depending on how much functionality your company is looking to start utilizing.
Rose: RestoreUnited has been designed with ease of use in mind, especially for field personnel who need to quickly and easily provide data to back-office employees for invoicing. Our demos have shown that users can add photos and journal notes using the mobile app within minutes, without any prior training or prompting. The same level of user-friendliness is present in the desktop version, making it simple for teams to integrate into their daily workflow.
While the timeline for onboarding and training is relatively short, it ultimately depends on the size of your team. We work closely with our clients to ensure they get the most out of our software and can even import your existing CRM/customer base during the process. Our goal is to make the transition to RestoreUnited as seamless as possible for your business, so you can start seeing the benefits right away.
Stewart: At Xcelerate, we believe that getting your teams up to speed should be a smooth and efficient process. That’s why we’ve designed our platform to be intuitive and user-friendly, enabling quick adoption and minimal training time. With a basic session, most teams can hit the ground running, and as they become more comfortable, they can delve into advanced features like SOPs and workflows. We take pride in fostering a culture of continuous learning, offering a comprehensive learning suite and knowledge base. Plus, our monthly Growth Series Webinar provides not only platform training but also industry-specific problem-solving strategies to help your business thrive and scale. Rest assured, our world-class Onboarding & Customer Success Team understands the demands of restoration contractors and will guide you every step of the way, respecting your time constraints and ensuring your success even amid a constantly ringing phone.
4. What’s on deck for your platform in the next 6 months? 12 months?
Donald: Over the next six months, we will continue to make field documentation and estimate creation faster, easier, and more accurate. Encircle Floor Plan will soon be integrated with Xactimate’s ESX format so that a floor plan can be sent to Xactimate and converted into a sketch automatically. We are currently rolling out our XactAnalysis integration, bringing assignments into Encircle to eliminate dual entry and allowing restorers to send documentation directly back into XA, making it easier to meet TPA and carrier milestones.
There will also be exciting enhancements made to Hydro, making it even easier to keep water jobs on track with all moisture documentation in one place, and presented in a way to make quick decisions on drying strategies.
Beyond the next six months, we’ll be unveiling new ways to help restoration businesses improve their operational excellence. Restorers will be able to use Encircle to ensure field teams follow the same process every time and never miss critical documentation required by TPAs and Insurers.
Duta: With our recent round of funding we are proud of being one platform in restoration that has consistently innovated. Our mission is to empower restoration contractors to embrace innovative technology by making it simple and accessible.
We’re actively working on customer communication 2.0, four new integrations, and refining our field documentation.
On the six – 12-month horizon, we’re working on a payments product, deeper integrations within the insurance ecosystem, a compliance engine, and exploring ways to incorporate artificial intelligence within the space.
Gray: Over the next year, we will continue to be focused on strengthening our core estimating capabilities, unlocking the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through all our solution sets, and further connecting every element of the property claim ecosystem. We will also be refining our Construction Pricing Database.
In terms of AI and ML, we call our focus CoreAI – how CoreLogic approaches these innovations and functionalities in our systems. Our scientists are devoted to augmenting processes practically – we are adding CoreAI enhancements to our technology that delivers daily incremental value to our users. It is also an important goal of CoreLogic to always provide AI ethically.
To continue building a fully integrated ecosystem between insurance professionals and contractors, we consistently streamline workflows between our products and build external-facing APIs to integrate our technology solutions with other best-in-class solutions from different vendors. We are committed to exploring various InsurTech options and forming strategic relationships with other providers to establish a robust ecosystem of the most efficient and effective solutions for the property insurance ecosphere.
Within our Construction Pricing Database, the next six to 12 months will see a continued refinement of the claims line-item descriptions and added imagery. The line-item options will also continue to expand, with a heavier weight on adding commercial items.
Lavender: We are very excited about what is to come in the near and not so distant future!
Over the past three years our team has been working on re-designing the iRestore platform. Full release of the new iRestore platform will be within the next six months.
This will include:
- Same great functions, workflows, and recording, plus extra “bells and whistles”
- Full offline usability
- Native App for Apple and Android
- Updated: clean and “pretty” user interface
Also scheduled are some new branding updates. As a special note, we have also been working on a revamped partnership to provide our customers with even more tools to better position their organization.
Longer term, we look to our productions funnel of providing more and optimized functionality of our system. We have some new features and integrations that are in current production. At the end of the day, we will always defer to our customers and ask, what does the industry require from you, how can we best help?
Pritchard: “Proven Communications” will launch by the end of 2023 allowing contractors to automatically capture all incoming phone calls, emails and SMS messages. In take & record calls, while verifying if the customer already exists. This functionality will also tie into “Proven Call Center” to automatically dispatch calls after hours, forward to staff via SMS and provide customers with real time SMS updates on drive time for onsite arrival, provide access to signed documents/photos, updates on job timelines all by clicking a link.
Rose: In the very near future, we’re working on adding a communication hub, which will allow direct communication (within the app) to customers, adjusters, agents, etc. We also started developing our own mitigation and moisture tracking tool, and we are working on some content inventory/pack out functionality as well.
Stewart: Lots of exciting partnerships and integrations are coming from our team and our partners.
This marks a pivotal moment as major industry players have embraced a fresh perspective on integration practices. At Xcelerate, we’re proud to be at the forefront of these ongoing conversations, working together with our partners to bring tremendous benefits to our valued customer base. Get ready for a new era of innovation and growth that will reshape the way you operate and unlock unparalleled opportunities for your business.
5. What role, if any, do customers participate in product development?
Donald: We are completely invested in having our customers participate in product development. We have established user advisory groups which include field technicians, PMs, admins, and owners. We reach out to these groups regularly to define feature requirements, challenge assumptions, and test designs. We involve several of our customers in our product planning process to help us understand the various workflows we need to support. We regularly hear from our customers that they appreciate how much we listen to them and ask them to participate in our product roadmap.
Duta: Our product team conducts 50 customer interviews per quarter. That combined with cutting-edge analytics technology shows exactly what releases will be the most impactful for the end user.
We believe – you don’t build features; you build solutions to the problems restorers face.
Gray: We view our users as partners in our product development. As a result, we have established a Customer Advisory Council comprised of individuals from multiple customer accounts. Our executive leadership team meets with the council regularly, providing thoughtful feedback, an accurate world understanding of their use cases, and discussing new problems they seek to solve.
Also, before we launch specific solutions or updates, we use BETA groups to test new or updated technology. Their feedback is critical to our final product development and product launch adjustment phase.
Relationship building is a core part of our business model. Our sales and customer service teams regularly communicate with our customers and partners. Maintaining these relationships is embedded within our sales and post-sales cycles because our goal is to consistently respond directly to market needs and requirements by updating our technology.
Lavender: Our customers play a key role in the development of the iRestore system. They are the reason why the system is what it is today. All ideas that are from customer conversations are documented and given serious consideration. We then host a bi-monthly customer “Super-user” panel where we discuss the potential developments and what they would like to see out of the proposed function.
In these conversations we ask the people that are in the industry and in the field every single day. What can these functions provide you? What do these functions fix for you? What could be the potential drawbacks?
Before going live, we test these functions with our in-house restoration company where the system will experience 90 different users bringing in data from different perspectives. This will help us find any bugs and any unaccounted-for drawbacks from user interface or function.
In a nutshell, our customers are the sole reason for iRestore existing and progressing!
Pritchard: PSA has always given our customers a voice to be able to submit feedback. Unlike other software companies, we are not backed by PE and are privately held, which gives us the freedom to build tools that serve the contractor. Our annual user conference provides all of our customers with a (3) day live event to share ideas, collaborate in round-table discussions and vote on changes into all of our products and services.
We also participate in a number of PSA user groups that focus on innovation. Our development cycles are very agile with monthly releases to ensure we deliver all the tools our customers need to success.
Rose: RestoreUnited was initially built and shaped by contractors, including our own restoration company, and other beta testers. Additionally, we have made sure that many parts of our software are customizable by end-users. These include setting their own job status, departments, notifications, and permissions, enabling them to tailor the platform to their own unique preferences.
Stewart: At Xcelerate, our customers are the driving force behind our roadmap and development. We prioritize their needs and desires above all else. That’s why we regularly engage with them through our interactive release call webinars, where we eagerly gather their valuable feedback. Their wins are our obsession, reflected in our core value: “We are obsessed with customer success. We change the industry through our customer’s wins!” Simply put, if our customers aren’t winning, Xcelerate isn’t winning. Their success is at the heart of everything we do.
6. What is the process for getting customer support?
Donald: In addition to their dedicated customer success manager, customers also have a support team that is available by phone and email. They are some of our most experienced Encirclers and consistently receive stellar feedback.
Duta: We offer support via phone, chat, email. We pride ourselves on our less than 7-minute average support response time. Our software is a critical part of the restorer’s daily operations, and we don’t take that lightly.
Gray: Our customer support desk operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The team can be reached over the phone, through the website, in-app chat, or by email. Multiple contact options give customers easy access to our support in the office or the field.
Lavender: The answer to this will be simple and short, unlike the rest of my content.
Online training sessions can be scheduled anytime via a link with an iRestore training specialist. Customers are also encouraged to call, text, or email their Rep directly with any quick questions.
Technical Support can be reached by phone call or email. Items are addressed within 24 hours!
Pritchard: Our team provides live one on one training & support, allowing customer calls to reach a real person Monday – Friday. Along with providing an afterhours on-call emergency service 24/7. We offer online help with services such as Proven Academy, PSA YouTube channel, monthly lunch and learns as well as a Proven Consultants program to connect our clients with industry experts and third-party consultants who understand both technology and industry best practices.
Rose: To obtain customer support, you can make use of the live chat feature, although it’s important to note that most inquiries or how-to queries can be resolved by referring to our simple help and tutorial videos.
Stewart: Again, seeking to make it as easy on customers as possible. We offer live chat, phone, & email support. In addition, we have an extensive learning library that is easy to access through the system that has tutorials, videos, and tips and tricks. Not only is support easily accessible, but our entire customer support team comes from the industry and so understands the end user very well. We were you!
7. What inspired YOU to create this platform?
Donald: I was first exposed to this industry in the 80s – my roommate at the time was writing policy management software in our living room. Fast forward to my tenure as an executive in telecommunications, and I found myself with clients in the same industry. And something really struck me over and over: there’s a significant amount of miscommunication and lack of trust in this vertical. That’s what inspired me.
Knowing that approximately 30% of claims time is wasted because of this, I wanted to create a platform that brought transparency to property losses to speed up the claims process. This still inspires me today. If everyone can align around a single source of truth – that is, what actually took place at a loss – then we can break down barriers for everyone simply trying to do their job and get policyholders back to normal faster.
Duta: While growing our family restoration business from a garage to over eight figures, we struggled finding a software product that could support our needs as restorers. I felt there was no solution that was product-focused and contractor-focused in the marketplace. Restoration was longing for a solution that existed exclusively to make restorers’ lives easier, not only today, but tomorrow also.
I saw a gap in areas like integration, ease-of-use, mobile functionality, but most of all INNOVATION. There was no product that delivered the Apple or Tesla experience. I felt that nobody was disrupting the space and continuing to create new and valuable features that restorers needed. Albi was created to be that answer, to be the platform that was the gold standard for restorers for the foreseeable future.
Gray: CoreLogic is a family of platforms that come together as a collaborative ecosystem that allows everyone in the property insurance ecosphere – from underwriters to claims professionals to restoration contractors – to work together to support the policyholder as they restore their lives and build resilient communities.
I developed DASH – which has now become a part of the technology solutions set within the greater CoreLogic Insurance Division – in the same spirit: to provide a support system to restoration contractors so that they could focus more on the human side of the business. I wanted them to have a solution that enabled them to ultimately help more and more people without sacrificing human connection during claims and restorative processes. People do not get into the insurance business to check boxes and perform repetitive tasks. They become a part of this market to facilitate life-changing results for people when they are in need. That is the inspiration behind everything we do – to provide a set of solutions so that people can focus on people.
Lavender: Working in just about every facet of restoration, I developed a passion for it. While I enjoy the work, most of the time, I believe my true passion stems from helping people. Restoration often comforts people that have dealt with a catastrophe. Our industry is one of the paths that these people must move through to get their lives back on track. Being a part of that process is incredibly rewarding to me.
Though I did not create the platform, I continue to grow it with my team. The iRestore system was conceived and evolved by several minds. The drive for iRestore began as a need to replace the “Job Binder”. This binder kept all the records, sketches, estimates, invoices, payments, notes, pictures and so on to deliver a complete job story. The platform was created to replace this with a digital version that can also be a means to communicate the job and function to replace all the handwritten items. Over time the system has had the innerworkings and operations of a successful restoration company baked into it. With even more input from our customers, the system now provides a subliminal framework for success.
Inspired by my parents, I chose to continue my journey in the restoration space but from a different perspective. I take my learnings of the industry over my life and help apply them to a digital tool that can help other restoration companies address their customers in need of service.
Coming from a successful restoration company that is still growing today, I enjoy helping our customers apply those same practices within our system to help them find greater success!
Pritchard: When we jumped into property restoration, we realized that all the technology was very disconnected or focused more on helping the InsurTech side. There wasn’t a single piece of software that provided contractors with all the tools they needed in one box. As a result, it forced companies to purchase multiple platforms to manage a single file. In addition to this, coming from an accounting background, we realized a lot of emphasis was put onto documentation, but fell short when it came to focusing on minimizing cost and maximizing profits. We wanted to provide contractors with apps that were built from the ground up to help grow and scale their business without having to increase administration.
Rose: The inspiration for creating RestoreUnited was our experience as owners and operators of a disaster restoration company for the past 11 years. Despite using a reputable job management platform, we found ourselves needing to supplement it with additional apps, such as a faster photo-taking app and an employee timekeeping app. Additionally, we still had to use several other apps within Google Workspace to meet all our requirements. During orientations, a new employee would need to download at least four different apps. The utilization of multiple platforms also resulted in a significant amount of duplicate work, which in turn required additional administrative overhead. These challenges motivated us to create a comprehensive solution that would incorporate all necessary features into one platform.
Stewart: With over 12 years of firsthand experience as a restoration contractor, I intimately understand the challenges and frustrations that come with growing a successful restoration company. As I was growing a restoration company from one million to over $20 million in annual revenue, there were a lot of problems to solve. I personally felt the pain of dealing with disjointed technology, the lack of seamless field capture, and the absence of robust management tools and reporting. I yearned for systems that effortlessly communicated with one another, automation that accelerated our operations, and technology that became our catalyst for growth, not a hindrance. That’s precisely why Xcelerate was born – to revolutionize the industry and provide restoration contractors like you with solutions that help you grow!
8. What do you see as the biggest need in the restoration technology space?
Pritchard: The industry NEEDS transparency. The only way to achieve that is with accurate field data captured right at the source – the loss itself – that creates an agreed-upon set of facts to operate from.
Without it, the significant disconnect between highly administrative, data-focused insurance carriers and tactile-oriented restorers will continue to create inefficiency, high costs, and elongated cycle times. Unfortunately, all of this makes it harder for every party to simply do their job but even worse so, it takes longer to get policyholders back to normal.
Beyond that, what the restoration industry needs most is cooperation across vendors. There are endless opportunities to innovate together and propel the industry forward and I am looking forward to the future.
Duta: If you look at the biggest players in tech and compare them to the incumbents in restoration, you’ll see a huge difference. Innovative companies, like Tesla and Apple, are obsessed with solving their customers’ biggest problems. The priority is building products that revolutionize their customers’ lives. The restoration industry deserves this too!
- The future of the industry is in automating information from the field, and seamlessly transferring the data to the office. Instead of forcing accountability, I foresee a platform that removes the human element as much as possible.
- Adapting AI, as with most industries, is critical. A platform that can analyze the health of your business and provide actionable feedback on how to improve. Imagine sitting at your desk in the morning, and your program says, “Acme Restoration is at an 88% health score, here are some areas you could improve”.
Gray: The biggest need in this space is to stop thinking about competition and to redirect; instead focus on collaboration and partnership. Take our Digital Hub Alliance, for example. Our digital ecosystem allows for integrating technologies that compete with ours – so long as they adhere to the minimum threshold of security standards (which, of course, is high).
Insurance and restoration professionals benefit most when they have choices. Technology shouldn’t restrict possibilities for people. Every restoration business is uniquely different – franchise businesses, non-franchise operations, big corporations, and smaller regional providers. There is a need for understanding in this space that there will be a wide variety of requirements. Restoration technology providers should deliver more flexible solutions – so that customers do not have to overhaul their entire ecosystem or way of doing business to implement a single platform. If different providers in this realm worked together and were more open to seeing how their other offerings could complement one another – and promoting them in this way – the entire property insurance ecosystem would reap transformative benefits. Driving the industry forward hinges on partnership.
Lavender: There are MANY needs and wants when it comes to tech in the restoration industry. One need that never changes for any business is, how do you increase the bottom line? What can be done to make your business even more profitable? While the need is simple, the question becomes incredibly complex, especially when applied to the restoration industry. Of course, every company will require a different answer, which will then need a different solution. Yet, there are some general areas you can focus on regarding profitability:
- Proper Estimating
- Tracking and Managing Job Costs
- Workforce (Training for efficiency, communicating clear expectations, and accountability)
These are just some of the broad areas. Though profitability issues may come from a range of avenues on jobs or even from overhead management and expenses. At the end of the day, restoration realizes all their revenues from “jobs”.
My personal take is that I see tech providing the industry with the means of optimizing the job for its highest profitability potential. We have software and technology available to meet these needs today. Where the “biggest need” becomes clear is having a system to streamline the effort of maximized profitability. The biggest need for the industry is a defined package of digital tools to help leverage the “real-world” ongoing operations of both new and established restoration companies to maximize profitability.
This is our goal at iRestore today and with our upcoming releases. We aim to provide a framework to manage a job start to finish including all documentation, time/material, and the employee knowledge base for streamlined operations.
Any software or technology is simply another tool in the belt of the user. With any tool, certain tools work best with particular applications. For example, a user would not make use of a hammer to place a screw (sure you can make it work, but does it provide the least path of resistance). Same goes with software and tech, I ask what is the application? What is your end goal?
Pritchard: On the contractor side, providing tools that educate contractors what information is needed for “process enforcement”. Things such as compliance, proper estimating, etc. The demand for information continues to rise and as a result contractors demand something that is easy to pick up, lets them know exactly what they need to do and is provided to them from the palm of their hand.
These needed tools that connect and speak with industry required application, in an effort to help reduce duplication, increase consistency, and provide better customer experience.
Rose: In my opinion, continual development, particularly in creating scalable platforms that would cater to the needs of smaller businesses, and not just larger ones. Contractors in general are usually reluctant to switch platforms or undergo onboarding procedures, as it can be a large undertaking. Unless a contractor develops their own platform tailored to their specific needs, there is no perfect system available. Each system has its own unique features and functions but having enough options that provide businesses with the ability to grow and manage their company effectively would be most beneficial.
Stewart: As I’ve mentioned before, the immense potential for innovation within our industry lies in fostering a data secure, open ecosystem. The good news is that we are witnessing a noticeable shift in that direction, and the possibilities are exciting! Embracing an open ecosystem not only promotes collaboration and seamless integration between platforms but also paves the way for groundbreaking advancements that will propel the restoration industry toward efficiency, real time data driven decisions, and effectiveness. We’re thrilled to be at the forefront of this exciting transformation and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
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