SubmittalPro: Custom Web Application

ClarkWestern Building Systems, a manufacturer of steel framing and lath systems used in the construction of commercial buildings, needed a web application that their customers (primarily architects, contractors, and distributors) could use to view and select the ClarkWestern building materials to be used in a project.

We created a versatile application, SubmittalPro™, that allows customers to:

1. define a project
2. select parts based either on possible parameters or on known part numbers
3. view individual pdf spec sheets for the parts
4. add parts to their project
5. generate a submittal document for the entire project

The submittal is a single pdf document that contains the general project information, a master parts list, and spec sheets for each of the parts. It can be viewed in your browser, downloaded to your computer, or emailed directly from the web site.

Because ClarkWestern offers thousands of parts options, manually creating, storing, and maintaining individual spec sheets for each of those parts would have be very labor intensive for the company; we were able to greatly reduce that labor by creating most of the pdf spec sheets on-the-fly, using parameters stored in an easily-maintained database.

"I went through the site. That is OUTSTANDING. I encourage everyone in IT to check it out. Nice Job for everyone involved."
— Dave Stolz, ClarkWestern IT Manager

Who said IT managers are hard to please?

"I just wanted to let you know that you are a lifesaver!! The past few days I have been playing around with the new submittal pro and you have done a great thing with it. It is (10) times better than it was before!! It has made our lives so much easier on this end with the tech calls. I really appreciate the changes you've made to it and the hard work you've put into it, and I just wanted to personally let you know. Thank you so much!!!!"
— ClarkWestern Customer

No, we didn't add the exclamation points ourselves. As you can see from their customers' comments, this web appliction is helping ClarkWestern:

• move their business processes online
• reduce technical support time
• increase market visibility and credibility
• streamline the sales process
• facilitate communication between CW and its customers, as well as between contractors, architects, and distributors

"This submittal process is wonderful. I have been working in this business for 16 years, and this made my submittal process today a breeze. This is just one more thing to add to my list that sets Clark above the competition."

"Awesome! This will save us precious time while making our submittals more professional. Thank You!"

"CW ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
— ClarkWestern Customers

So often, in an attempt to improve efficiency, businesses fall into the trap of considering only their own resources. But the time your customers spend on their end is just as valuable. (It just happens to show up on the other side of your P&L.)

Future plans for the submittal generator include linking it to ClarkWestern's existing ordering system.

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