Hively Landscapes

Getting started

Outdated software

Ted Ventre became the owner of Hively Landscapes in 2010, a company originally founded in 1968. When he purchased the company one of his first priorities was the management system. He felt the company’s software was outdated. So he went on a software search.

“Companies I looked up to were implementing the Aspire platform so I began to do my research. I knew Kevin Kehoe was involved and I’ve always liked and respected his work in the industry. I find that he is insightful, easy to understand, and ahead of the current trends—which is key for me and for my team when it comes to software.”

Ted elected to invest in Aspire in 2017 because one of the key benefits of using the platform was the emphasis that Aspire Software places on the deployment process and ensuring client success.

Deployment and implementation

Selecting a power user

The Hively team started deployment in November 2017. The goal was to “go live” March 1^st with their lawn, landscape, and design-build services. During deployment the Aspire Software team worked directly with his people. Ted recalls, “I definitely felt like we’re part of a team, not on an island trying to figure it out on our own.”

Having the right person spearhead deployment is critical. Aspire refers to these people as 'power users.' Business manager, Pam Grove, was the designated Aspire power user for Hively. She was a 17-year employee, “Pam was able to deploy the platform and then retire with a big smile on her face as her replacement sat alongside her for three months to master the system—and she has taken to the system and loves it.” 

Since going live with Aspire, the company has gone from a hard-to-use management solution to a user-friendly system that enables his team to be goal oriented and accountable.

Reporting

Information sharing

Hively’s leadership team needed to share information. “In our previous software, you had to build a query—which meant you had to learn how to type and think that way which made it difficult. Building a report in the Aspire platform is easy, it takes three to four clicks and you have the data you need.”

Some reports they use on a regular basis include:

• Leads per week/month
• Closing ratio
• Issues/requests per day
• Job cost performance
• Gross margin by job, crew, and property
• Labor hours over/under

There are benefits to reporting this way. Sales managers now have a short list of metrics they look at every week. The conversations in sales meetings used to be loose, but now managers ask pointed questions like, “How can we get a better margin on this estimate?” or, “Why hasn’t this lead been followed up with in two weeks?”

Process and discipline

Push back from sales

“Kevin Kehoe was clear from the beginning that we would need to be willing to do things differently. Of all the departments, the sales team pushed back the hardest. I had to step up as a leader and help them understand the benefits and explain how the new process allowed them to achieve their goal. The structure behind the platform enabled this to be done logically.”

Aspire has a sales structure in place starting at the CRM, where everything is driven from the property and sales opportunity. Hively no longer has to recreate the wheel every time new prospects advance to the proposal stage. As a result, proposals are turned around quickly and look professional and uniform.

Mobile functionality

Mobile technology is a must

Aspire's mobile app was released in summer of 2018.  Hively is not a route-based company so having access to mobile technology is a must. Ted was using iCrewTek, but it wasn’t easy for the crews to use. He wanted to an application that was intuitive and not something that disrupted the crew.

Ted recalls, “It’s a lot different than 10 years ago when we handed crews a cell phone...now everyone has a phone and data plans are relatively inexpensive. Some people don’t want to carry around a second company phone, so we’re serious about transitioning from company phones to 'mobile desks' in the trucks.”

Future

Smooth operations

Ted is excited about how fluid his business will be running when they’re not learning something every day. With the Aspire platform, Ted is confident that operations will be smoother but knowing support is readily available gives great peace of mind. And he is excited to grow with Aspire. Since Hively’s implementation, the system has been updated numerous times. This shows Ted that Aspire Software remains actively engaged in innovating and continuous improvement—just like his own company.