From Aaron Colton, President

Within the construction industry in Northern California, there are two widely accepted “management models” that have been developed to serve customers. The first is the project management model; the second is the approach that splits project execution off from sales and marketing functions.

From the beginning, Ceitronics has embraced the project management model, because we believe it offers one-point accountability and forms the strongest bond with our clients.

Within this model, the Ceitronics project manager wears many hats—sales and marketing, estimator, proposal writer, engineer, and project facilitator. The project manager “markets” to the client in order to obtain the job and then acts as a facilitator to guide the job through to completion. In this model, as you can see from the diagram, project managers are the nucleus of Ceitronics. All the other departments at Ceitronics orbit around them and support them.

The alternative to one-point accountability through project managers is the approach that splits sales and marketing off from project execution. In this model, a sales rep will identify a project, write the proposal, and bring the job into the company. Someone else takes over from there, shepherding the project through the system to completion.

Within this split model, it’s easy for the original agreements that secured the job to get lost in translation between sales and project execution. Promises that were made in the proposal stage may not carry over into the execution stage. There’s less accountability to the client, and the client may think, ‘What happened to all the things this company said it would do when I first signed the contract?’

In the Ceitronics model, by contrast, there’s a single point of contact for any job, from beginning to end. The project manager understands the requirements, studies the issues, lays the foundation for the job, buys the parts, develops the crews, stages the job site, and coordinates until completion.

All the other departments in our company—purchasing, production, CAD, administration, service, revolve around the project manager to provide support, but also stand alone as strong and independent entities that don’t need to be micro-managed. The production department, for instance, works with the project manager, but has the responsibility to execute the production schedule. Purchasing listens to recommendations from the project manager, but acts autonomously to carry out its duties from its enormous base of knowledge and vendors.

Final oversight and stewardship of each job comes from Ceitronic’s senior management. The Ceitronics company culture, rooted in agility and collaboration, forms a backdrop to establish the values and principles that we work by.

One last word about the strength of the project management system at Ceitronics—it provides greater fairness around budgetary issues. Because project managers are with a client from beginning to end, they can refine the budget as the job scope develops and changes so that it’s more realistic. There’s better give-and take because the project manager has the whole picture. The client and the project manager can negotiate budget issues accurately, because they share a common understanding of the evolution of the project.

Bottom line, we believe this model stands a better chance of meeting client expectations than any other model. With it, we are able to deliver more to you, our valued customer.

Illustrations
1. Project Management Model
2. Copper vs. 3M's Volition Cabling System

Other Features
1. Newly awarded Ceitronics Projects
2. Volition System Components