Vertical Mechanical Group
Vertical Mechanical Group’s procurement team works smarter with Kojo
The Story
When Anderson Mechanical Services and Inspiration Plumbing Company combined to make Vertical Mechanical Group, they formed a powerful leader in the HVAC and plumbing industry. They are dedicated to delivering consistent high quality results and staying under budget. This means that their office needs to be operating with the same standard so that they can deliver on their commitment. With a two person procurement team, Jessica Pennifill and Deanna Whitacre played a big part in the process. This team had to intake requests from the field, dig for best pricing on materials, get them to the correct job, make sure no mistakes were made on cost codes, and more.
- The procurement team’s processes were manual and were more than they could handle
- They tried other procurement solutions on the market, but they did not stick because of low adoption across the business
- Kojo removed much of that manual work and allowed her to focus on more important things in her role
- Kojo was put to the test when Deanna’s procurement counterpart went out on leave earlier than expected
The Solution
“If my manager had been out on leave before we had Kojo, it would have been a disaster,” recalls Deanna. But with Kojo in place, Deanna had transparency into every single job and she didn’t have to spend the day stuck in her email inbox piecing together an impossible puzzle.
With Kojo, Deanna was able to:
- Run business as usual with an efficient and streamlined procurement process, even with their procurement leader out
- Stay on top of every detail, from the first moment an item is requested from the field, following through for an RFQ, issuing the PO to tracking the delivery
- Be flexible when things don’t always go according to plan, as she easily tracked extended delivery dates and followed up on POs when she noticed a delivery had not been made.
As a procurement professional, Deanna is grateful to have Kojo to make her job easier, but she has also noticed the impact of partnering with the people at Kojo. She recognizes that there are always ways to make the platform even better and her ideas are welcomed with thoughtful plans to make it happen. It is this type of partnership that helps Vertical Mechanical Group deliver on their commitment to their customers.
Their Favorite Features
- Digitized purchase orders
- Real time delivery tracking
- Request for Quotes
- Kojo mobile field app
- Transparent Bill of Materials
- Quick Order
