Cilio CiO connects installers in new world of retail consolidation
Announcing CiO-to-CiO integrations
When Mega Plumbing, a large Lowe’s contractor in Virginia, won a contract to manage installations for more than 100 Lowe’s stores, one of their first steps was to figure out how they would handle such a large influx of new business. This is one side of an issue facing installers all over the country. As retailers consolidate their installation networks, some contractors are winning new business while others are losing business.
Typically, those who win new business need to find additional help to successfully deliver on all the extra work. Those who lose their retail contracts may be looking for new sources of business to fill the gap. There’s an opportunity for these two sides to help each other out – and Cilio wants to help you do that.
CiO-to-CiO integration simplifies contractor-subcontractor relationships
Mega Plumbing’s owner, Daeho Park, and office manager, Scott Kang, knew they needed to connect with other installation companies that could subcontract some of the additional work. First, they reached out to Lowe’s to find other qualified contractors in the area. Then they reached out to Cilio.
As a user of Cilio’s Customer Installations Online (CiO) installer software, they wanted to know how we could help them set up contractors on the Cilio CiO system. They appreciated that CiO had already saved them time and money and knew that it could simplify their work with subcontractors.
We discovered that one of Mega Plumbing’s main subcontractors was already a user of CiO (since CiO integrates with Lowe’s IMS, several of our users are current and former Lowe’s installers).
In response to this request and several other similar situations, we have been hard at work building a CiO-to-CiO integration that allows multiple installation contractors to connect their CiO accounts. This allows them to easily distribute orders and share project details among each other and with home improvement retailer portals, such as Lowe’s IMS. We call it Linked Accounts and here’s how it works:
· The prime contractor’s CiO system (called the “Parent” system in Linked Accounts) is linked to the retailer’s portal so orders from the retailer are automatically downloaded into their CiO system.
· The prime contractor can now assign those jobs to their own crews or to any subcontractor who also uses CiO (called the “Child” system in Linked Accounts). The job will appear in the subcontractor’s CiO system.
· As the subcontractor manages and tracks that job through completion, job status is automatically updated in the prime contractor’s CiO system and the retail portal.
· All information about the job is now viewable by the prime contractor, subcontractor, and retailer, whether it’s Lowe’s, Home Depot, Costco, or another.
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CiO’s efficiency and automation help installation contractors do more together
For Mega Plumbing and others, the ability to link multiple companies’ Cilio CiO systems has helped minimize disruption to their businesses at a time of great change. While it provides transparency between the retailer and all contractors involved, it also is a big time saver. The automation that CiO affords installers allows them to take on additional business without adding a lot of extra back-office work.
Benefits for prime contractors (parent CiO system) include:
· Easier to bring on subcontractors:
With CiO’s Linked Accounts, you can easily integrate with subcontractor CiO systems to distribute orders, track project detail and payments, manage customer relationships, and share all information with Lowe’s.
· Better visibility for all stakeholders:
With Linked Accounts, all project documentation and status information automatically flow between contractor and subcontractor CiO accounts and Lowe’s IMS so all parties have the most updated information at all times.
Benefits for subcontractors (child CiO system) include:
· Easier to onboard with prime contractors:
As Lowe’s contractors look for subcontractors to help share the workload, they will be looking for partners who will be easy to work with. If you both use CiO Linked Accounts, it is much easier to manage the work together.
· Manage all your work in one place:
Now that you may be diversifying your sources of work, CiO can help you manage work from any source in a single system. This will save your staff the time to learn and update multiple portals to receive and manage work.
· Easy to see where everyone is and what they’re doing:
CiO gives you quick visibility into the locations of all your projects and crews, so you can easily maximize schedules and travel times, which can be a challenge when work is coming from multiple sources.
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About Cilio CiO
Cilio Technologies, LLC offers a secure, web-based platform to automate distribution and management of installed sales through its two cornerstone products, Cilio CiO and Cilio Partners Portal. Cilio CiO helps installation contractors of all sizes manage every job from initiation through completion, save time and money, improve communications, and integrate seamlessly with Lowe’s, Home Depot, and other home improvement retailer systems. Partners Portal and CiO work together for large manufacturers and their partners to easily share order details, view order progress, manage project documents, and track project financials.
