Piney Woods Sanitation

Moving to a Streamlined ERP System

By Waste Advantage Magazine

The valuable insight provided from AMCS’ software allowed Piney Woods Sanitation to analyze their performance in order to grow the business.

Piney Woods Sanitation, based in Huntington, TX with offices throughout East Texas, has been proudly providing reliable residential, commercial, portable sanitation and roll-off collection to communities. They have proudly serviced 28 counties throughout East Texas for the past 20 years. Up until 2018, Piney Wood’s back-office was operating on a cumbersome legacy ERP system to assist with billing, customer service, routing, and reporting.

However, they found that it was becoming more frustrating to operate and wanted to look for a solution that would provide them with a more streamlined ERP system. “The previous system was cumbersome and not userfriendly,” says the Customer Service Reps (CSRs) who are answering the incoming calls, handling new orders, customer complaints, billing inquires, etc., “It was difficult getting users to adapt and become efficient with our previous outdated system.” In addition, the Dispatchers and CSRs pointed out that managing numerous service areas was a nightmare. Dispatchers had zero visibility on the drivers and Customer Service Reps did not have an easy method of managing multiple services codes, SNS fees, various pricing, and inventory codes based on a particular service area. CSRs setting up new accounts or requesting new services would be presented with a list of all their services codes, roughly 1,000, which leads to more human errors and missing/inaccurate work orders. “We didn’t have a good method of segmenting our revenue based on the service area. I mentioned managing the service area, and again our old cumbersome software couldn’t manage multiple pricing for separate lines of business based on the service area. Our CSRs would be presented with thousands of service codes when trying to complete a work order,” says Ryan Weber, Piney Woods Sanitation’s Vice President. In addition, reporting on driver and route performance was not effective because the system could not collect that crucial information.

More Efficient Systems

A More Efficient System Weber points out that because the industry is small, especially for software, everyone hears about everything, so he had seen AMCS at various trade shows, online advertisements, and publications/media sources as well as evaluations through the grapevine. “For us, the #1 reason we decided to go with AMCS was because of the software’s ability to scale and manage our operation on a company-wide scale. Being able to manage multiple pricing options based on lines of business within a particular service area was crucial for the company’s growth and sustaining it. We love having one code and a pricing table to adjust pricing based on that service area,” says Weber. During the decision-making process, Piney Woods felt that the AMCS system’s true value was the functionality; this was not available with other vendors (going back to service areas, pricing tables, WO management). More importantly, Piney Woods recognized the ease of use and the pre-built workflows. Weber went on to say, “Companies looking to grow, need an operating system that makes their job a little easier. AMCS’ software is built to walk our CSRs through the whole process of setting up new accounts and new service requests. Work orders are automatically completed, and an alert is instantly sent to the dispatch team, which dramatically decreases the risk of any possible human error.” AMCS specializes in digital business solutions specifically for Waste Management and Recycling companies. Their ERP system is based on thousands of best practices and was pre-built to provide simplicity and efficiency. The Latest Technology Piney Woods Sanitation is currently using Enterprise Management, Mobile Workforce, and is in the process of implementing Route Optimization. “Having a system that’s easy-to-use, like AMCS, reduces the time to train new CSRs. With an increase in user adoption and efficiency within the system, the number of errors has also reduced. Our reporting and insight into company performance have been a major benefit and reason for our company’s growth. Top features for us within the system include a Standard Pricing Table that manages pricing for multiple service areas and color-coded Dispatch Screen,” says Weber. In addition, the biggest impact for Piney Woods has been the scalability and company growth they have experienced since joining AMCS. “We’re still growing fast and I couldn’t imagine trying to sustain that growth with our old system,” explains Weber. Mike Wilson, Piney Woods Sanitation’s General Manager, agrees, “AMCS has been a valuable tool that has helped us improve our systems and provide operational clarity during a time of high-growth.” Astrid Bowen, AMCS Solution Consultant, comments, “The entire Piney Woods team was an absolute pleasure to work with. The Piney Woods team was an engaging and attentive group to say the least. From day one their focus was on their customers and their customer’s experiences with them.” “It has been a pleasure working with Ryan over at Piney Woods Sanitation. As their Customer Success Manager, it is extremely rewarding to not only witness their growth right before my eyes but also being able to contribute and assistant the customer while they go through this transition. Challenges are presented during this phase, but overall it’s a very exciting time at Piney Woods and I’m glad to be a part of it,” says Connor McLaughlin, AMCS’ Customer Success Manager. Adjust Your Business Model Weber says if you want to grow as a company, you need to be willing to adjust your business model and stay up-to-date with the latest technology. In today’s market, digital business solutions are not only crucial but also applicable for every industry. “Overall, we felt that AMCS’ software was easy to use, provided reliable data collection, and impeccable reporting capabilities. The insight provided from AMCS’ software allowed us to analyze our performance in order to grow our business.”