Sheetz Uses Projectmates to Increase Project Efficiency Amid Expansion Push
Enhancing Efficiency
When you think of Sheetz convenience stores, what comes to mind?
Maybe snagging a made-to-order sandwich, grabbing an ice-cold beverage, and leaving the store with your wallet intact?
Well, for preconstruction coordinator Leanna White, just one word flashes to the forefront.
Efficiency.
We sat down for a virtual chat with White to learn more about how Sheetz is using Projectmates to increase the productivity of its construction program during a time of incredible expansion.
Over the past two years, White’s been working as a Projectmates administrator to help re-implement the software for Sheetz and, in a way, remodel its construction program to achieve peak performance. White said in the past, Sheetz was only using Projectmates to a fraction of its abilities because of limited buy-in.
“With any type of system, someone needs to make sure you’re owning it and making sure the data is being put in correctly,” White said. “We’ve done a lot with it. We’re utilizing the checklists and schedules more now. The budget module is being used now where we weren’t before. We’re working to be able to use the contracts and invoicing modules right now as well.”
Finding the Single Source of Truth
Right now, Sheetz operates around 670 stores across its six-state footprint. That’s no small feat but with even more building on the horizon, White said it’s vital that the building program use Projectmates as a single source of truth.
“The more we can get information into one place, the better, because before Projectmates we had schedules in one system, attributes in another system, and plans in yet another system. So having all of it in one place has been very important for us and it’s made us more efficient,” said White.
Tracking RFIs and submittals was one particular and apparent thorn in the convenience store’s side. White said traditionally all of these changes and requests would be coming through emails, and with potentially hundreds of emails piling up in inboxes, there just wasn’t a good way to keep track of that important information. Projectmates solved those issues for Sheetz by providing tools to keep all of that information and more in one, easy-to-search location.
“I think one of the big things with Projectmates is that it gives transparency to our other departments to really see where our projects are at whether it’s the daily logs or photos, it’s been really helpful and it limits the amount of communication on email,” said White. “You know money is time and that’s really time-consuming for a lot of these guys who have hundreds of emails in their inboxes and they’re just struggling to get back to people immediately. So, it’s been a huge help.”
That added efficiency is going to be huge for Sheetz over the next few years as the convenience store is focusing heavily on expansion. Just in the last few months, several new store builds have been announced in Ohio and Michigan. White reiterated that Projectmates, along with its numerous integrations, will play a large role in facilitating that expansion.
“Projectmates is a great tool. It houses all of our new store and rebuild information and that’s really important to have that in one centralized location,” she said. “And now with the integration with Tableau, we’re able to pull all of that data together and look at it with some of our financial data and I think that’s huge for us. It’s definitely been a great system to work with.”
Focused on Support
As the interview wrapped up, White paused to reflect for a moment and then asked a question. “Can I give a shoutout to a particular team at Projectmates?”
We’re always here for a shoutout.
“The support team has been really awesome and responsive,” White bubbled. “There are other companies that I’ve worked with before that don’t get back to you right away, but Projectmates support is always there and always responding to me within an hour or two of my reaching out. That’s been awesome because we don’t have the luxury to wait days for issues to be solved.”
We agree.
The Projectmates’ support team really is second to none and works extremely hard to make sure all of our client’s needs are met.
We’d also like to thank LeaAnna White for taking the time to talk about how Projectmates is enabling Sheetz to efficiently continue its growth.
We’re constantly working to find out what makes our client’s construction programs tick. Helping Owners isn’t just our main focus, it’s our sole focus.
