Company: Premier Services, Derek Holgate, CEO and Founder
Specialty: Windows, doors, and flooring
Years in Business: 18
Premier Services Group is one of the largest Lowe’s PROvider organizations in the country. Founded in 2003, the company manages window, door, and flooring installations for Lowe’s stores in Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and Utah.
With 180 employees and 400 contractors, Premier relies on Cilio’s Customer Installations Online (CiO) field service software to automate critical tasks and keep projects on track for more than 110 Lowe’s stores.
Massive growth demands powerful project management software
When CEO Derek Holgate founded Premier, he was a sole practitioner servicing two Lowe’s stores in the Pacific Northwest. He grew his business through hard work, quality craftsmanship, and relentless relationship-building with Lowe’s district management and store personnel.
Over the years, as Lowe’s began optimizing installer networks, Premier took on more and more work from multiple stores throughout his region. Then, in 2020, the company was selected to take on the workloads of 160 other contractors.
Since 2010, Derek had tried two project management software products to manage his growing business with Lowe’s. But this massive influx of new work demanded a new technology provider that would allow his team to:
- Connect reliably and securely to Lowe’s IMS
- Efficiently schedule work across 500+ installers
- Provide real-time project updates to 110+ Lowe’s stores
- Store and manage project documentation and templates for thousands of projects
- Get the support they need to onboard and manage the increased workload
Achieving maximum visibility and control over projects with CiO
Derek and his team chose Cilio CiO, now one of only two software products that connect into Lowe’s IMS system. With CiO, Premier can download orders from Lowe’s automatically and securely, manage and track projects from beginning to end, and give the Lowe’s teams real-time visibility into project status.
Premier uses CiO to manage 4,200 Lowe’s projects per month, and Derek couldn’t be happier with the partnership they’ve formed over the last year and a half. His team appreciates many things about CiO, including:
- Automated email and text messaging capabilities
- The mapping feature, which allows them to schedule jobs with detailed information about locations, mileage, and best routes
- “Hot buttons” that allow them to execute multi-step processes with a single click
“It simplified the scheduling process, and it also saves time and money without the need to hire more staff,” Derek said. “The software streamlines everything and is very easy to navigate.”
But beyond the features and functions of the software, Derek appreciates the support his team gets from Cilio. The Cilio support team worked closely with Premier’s team to set up their system and train users. This included supporting special requests for new processes, such as custom reports and an inventory system for carpet padding.
“Their customer service and response time is impeccable,” he said. “If you ask them to do something, they do it. They basically build the model you want for your company. There really isn’t anything they can’t do and I recommend it to anybody.”
