Contractors embrace smarter software to drive better results

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Learn how a different approach to selection, buy-in and onboarding can protect profits and morale. 

For commercial contractors like R3NG, the choice to overhaul core business software often follows years of frustration with tools that slow down field work or fail to give owners the information they need. In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, host Megan Ellsworth brought together two voices who see those challenges every day: Lauren Morley, owner of R3NG Roofing in Denver and Aaron Weinstein, co-founder and CEO of Terial. Their shared perspective made clear why many commercial roofing firms are rethinking the systems they rely on to run sales, service and production. 

Lauren outlined how familiar the pain points have become, saying her team often finds that some platforms don’t give owners enough control on the back end to run the business effectively. In her view, many tools are either too simplistic to be useful or so limited that they become unusable in day-to-day operations. She said many platforms still operate far from the realities of a jobsite. “I think that historically commercial platforms are over complicated. They take too many steps to do something or they expect a roofer to be able to complete a service ticket in whole while they're on top of the roof. They don't live in the reality of what it's like to actually do the work.” 

The problem is compounded by tools built to handle only one part of the workflow. Lauren noted that some systems function as a customer relationship software (CRM), others as production or estimating platforms, but few offer the broader depth contractors actually need. She also pointed to increasing vendor consolidation, which can leave contractors uncertain about the future of the third-party tools they rely on when ownership changes and integrations suddenly shift. 

From Terial’s vantage point, the issue runs deeper than complexity. Aaron said older systems forced contractors into rigid, one-path-only workflows. “There is one step-by-step process to do a workflow. And if you deviate one step, good luck.” He said Terial took the opposite approach, coming into the industry without assumptions. “We're building software to be the best piece of software you've ever used in the industry. We're going to provide the framework and the rails.” 

That mindset is paired with a warning about failed transitions. “We recently onboarded a client, who literally could point to a $600,000 loss because of a transition that they made that was unsuccessful,” Aaron shared. For Lauren, that kind of risk is exactly why platform changes have to be shared decisions. “Picking a platform is a huge investment in time, in money, in morale,” she said, adding that involving her entire staff changed the outcome. “It's not my project anymore, it's everyone's project.” 

Listen to the podcast or Watch the conversation to learn more about the team-driven approach that avoids rigid systems and looks for partners willing to build around how roofers actually work!