It Feels Like a Team: How Moorhead Rebuilt Dispatch and Job Costing in 120 Days

Company: Moorhead, part of 3E Infrastructure

Location: Blacksburg, South Carolina

Industry: Heavy Civil Construction

Speakers: Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations · Phil Suggs, Fleet & Logistics Director · David Nielson, Director of Finance & Accounting · Charlie Blanton, Fleet Coordinator · John Michael Spangler, Fleet Admin · Cole Bradley, Service Writer

Moorhead

Moorhead is a heavy civil contractor in Blacksburg, South Carolina, part of 3E Infrastructure. In 120 days on Clue, the team pulled maintenance, dispatch and time cards out of three separate systems and onto one.

Rick Wetherell has run a lot of software rollouts over a long career. He puts this one in a different category, and not because of the feature list.

"I've done many software implementations over the course of my life, from medical software to construction management software, and I have never worked with a company like y'all's. This has exceeded what I could have ever hoped for in a partnership with a vendor. It doesn't feel like a vendor-client relationship, it feels like a team."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

‍

Seven Days From Ask to Built

The relationship got its shape early. In a product feedback session, the team laid out what they needed dispatch to do. Clue's engineers came back seven days later with it built.

"I was very surprised at what they had accomplished in a week. Hot dog, what Ana was able to do in seven days. That's pretty impressive."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

That pace held after launch. Every support ticket Rick and Phil opened in July closed the same day. The fastest one took 1 hour and 24 minutes.

‍

‍

A Dispatch Board Built for How They Work

Before Clue, scheduling ran by hand, while dispatch and mechanic time cards lived in the platform Moorhead was replacing. Rebuilding that meant matching how two specific people work every day.

Clue built them a magnet board: color coded by division, drag and drop, laid out around the way Charlie Blanton and John Michael Spangler actually dispatch.

"I loved it. I think once they get in there and play with it, we're definitely on the right track. Just looking at it, I know that's what they're looking for."
Phil Suggs, Fleet & Logistics Director

Switching dispatch systems is the kind of change crews resent. Rick was straight about how big a jump it was.

"Going from HCSS dispatch to Clue dispatch was initially drastically different. That magnet board was a huge step to bridge that gap. And I think we're getting farther with some of the other stuff that, unless you're dispatching every day, you probably don't even know about."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

Everybody's Using It

Shipping the board was only half the job. The other half was sitting down with the coordinators and walking them through it in person. That session is the one Rick points to.

"It has been a 180 degree turn. I haven't heard one negative thing about it. Everybody's using it, everybody's happy with it. That was the difference maker right there."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

What he keeps coming back to is not the software. It's that his people were asked.

"They felt heard. They felt like you guys cared. And honestly, I didn't know what to do with that at first, because I've never experienced that before."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

‍

Time Cards Rebuilt Around the Shop

Most shops clock mechanics in and out of every work order. Moorhead's mechanics are salaried, not billable, so that model produces noise instead of numbers. Rick and David brought the problem to Clue, and Clue changed how time cards work.

"We've asked them to fundamentally change how time cards function at Clue, and they've agreed to it. Our mechanics are going to do a single project time card each day. The work order time only generates cost against that work order. It doesn't go for approval, it doesn't go anywhere."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

"We don't want guys having to worry about scanning in and out of three or four different work orders in a day, because you're gonna get garbage in, garbage out."
David Nielson, Director of Finance & Accounting

The point of all of it is a number they can trust on a work order.

"We want to understand what really goes into the overall cost of a specific work order. We don't want mechanics stretching out time because they don't want to look unproductive."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

The Argument the Rate Module Ended

Equipment costing had been its own running debate, and it kept eating meetings. Twenty minutes into one more round of it, Rick turned his laptop around with the rate module on the screen.

"I said, what you guys are arguing about, you're wasting time arguing about this. This is gonna do it automatically. Let's make sure we've got everything in here that we want, and then move on."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

The debate stopped being about whose spreadsheet was right and started being about which inputs to load.

‍

One Source of Truth for Every Asset

As 3E Infrastructure rolled NetSuite out across its operating companies, the question of where an asset is born had to be answered once. It got settled early.

"If a new asset is created, or if we go buy a new piece of equipment, the first spot it's gonna go, and the only spot it's gonna go, is Clue. And then it's gonna propagate over to all the spots in NetSuite that it needs to go."
David Nielson, Director of Finance & Accounting

Rick draws the same line at the company level, and he's specific about which system owns which decision.

"We want Clue to be the book of record for our fleet and logistics. We want to communicate the relevant information so you get visibility into the dollars and cents on the accounting side. But when you're getting granular about our fleet, Clue is the place that it has to occur."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

Clue feeds the ERP, payroll and dispatch. Every new asset starts there.

"We'll have Clue fully integrated, live running, every way we possibly can, long before we roll into NetSuite. Clue is now our source of truth for all assets, period."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

Once the asset list was trustworthy, the team pushed it past heavy iron. Telematics tags went inside small tools, including chainsaws that run eight thousand dollars apiece, so the highest risk items on the yard report in like everything else.

"That has been flowing to Clue perfectly."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

‍

The People Behind the Rollout

120 days in, four user classes are live: Admin, Power User, Superintendent and Foreman. The last two were built in production the same day Rick asked for them. Moving that fast takes somebody on the other side who understands what you're leaving behind.

"Josh has been phenomenal for us through this process, because he really understands what we're coming from. From HCSS. Our pain points there. We definitely know from trial and error what didn't work with that system, and he gets where we're wanting to head with this."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

"Make sure y'all keep Josh happy."
David Nielson, Director of Finance & Accounting

That's what made it possible to commit early instead of hedging.

"It makes it easier to rip that band-aid off and jump right into it. Hey, they gotcha. They're not gonna let you fall."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

‍

What Comes Next

The ERP integration is in development, pushing equipment costing, asset records and financial data out of Clue. The payroll export is in final checks, which will send mechanic time cards straight through. A historical migration is loading years of work orders in behind them.

3E Infrastructure is watching this rollout before it moves on the other operating companies, starting with the rate module.

"I still fully think that you guys are going to be fully implemented and done prior to us going live on NetSuite. As long as we have a backup way of exporting that data out to get into the foundation, I'm gonna be fine."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations

For Rick, the finish line is the point where nothing has to live anywhere else.

"Once we have that connection, we'll be fully able to operate off this software."
Rick Wetherell, Director of Operations