Kim Drouillard is Manager of Software Implementation and Solutions at Sterling Ridge Group. She sat down with Jonas Construction Software to share how a 24-company construction group left QuickBooks and Sage behind, grew its field workforce by 50 percent, and kept its back office the same size.
The Problem
Sterling Ridge Group is not one construction company. It is a family of operating companies covering power, civil, general contracting, and more, and each needs its books, jobs, and people managed properly. Before Jonas, that structure ran on disconnected tools:
- Bringing 24 companies onto a single system represented an enormous migration effort
- The field workforce was growing fast, and back-office headcount would normally have to grow with it
- Manual data entry threatened to consume the gains that growth was creating
The group wanted everybody on one platform. As Kim puts it, it just made sense to look for the software that could handle it all.
The Strategy
Sterling Ridge went live with Jonas in 2023 and moved the entire group onto one platform. Key elements of the rollout included:
- Consolidating all 24 operating companies from QuickBooks and Sage onto Jonas
- Working with the Jonas team, which ran data uploads for each company during migration
- Beta testing Jonas Read, Jonas’ OCR technology, then implementing it in one company before rolling it out group-wide
Kim is candid about the scale of the job. The work involved in getting all 24 companies up and running was, in her words, “pretty astronomical”, so the group had a lot of help from Jonas, and that help made the difference.
The Results
48 Percent Year-Over-Year Growth Since Go-Live
As Kim puts it: “We grew about 48% year over year since we went live with Jonas. Jonas allowed us to do that.” She is careful with the claim, noting that growth is never down to one factor, but Jonas made that growth an easier task to handle across multiple companies.
The Field Grew. The Back Office Did Not.
Field technicians grew from 200 at go-live to 300 today. Normally, the back office would have to grow to match. Instead, it held at roughly 90 people. In Kim’s words: “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without Jonas.”
24 Companies on One Platform
Every operating company now runs on Jonas rather than a patchwork of software, which is where the group really noticed a big difference.
Jonas Read Rolling Out Group-Wide
After beta testing and a successful first implementation, Jonas Read is expanding to the rest of the group.
"Being able to handle more employees, more jobs, more companies, and still have the same amount of people in the back office. So we definitely gained a lot of efficiencies there."
About Jonas Construction Software
Jonas Construction Software offers integrated construction software solutions tailored to the needs of the construction industry, particularly mechanical and specialty contractors.
With a commitment to building software focused on accounting automation, enterprise efficiency, and superior cost reporting, Jonas’ comprehensive suite of solutions includes automated accounting and payroll, project management, service management, and supporting integrated operations. To learn more about how Jonas can help your service and construction business enhance cash flow predictability and maximize profits, request a demo today.
