Toll Brothers
Toll Brothers Centralizes Data and Boosts Efficiency with M-Files, Saving 2-3 Hours Per Week for Over 2,000 Users and Cutting Licensing Expenses by Over 30%
Highlights
- Significant Cost Savings: Licensing costs reduced by over 30% compared to the previous solution.
- Efficiency Gains: Employees save an estimated 2-3 hours per week, with over 2,000 users benefiting from the new solution.
- Retiring Legacy Systems: Expected 28% in savings a year by eliminating redundant data repositories and outdated applications.
Use Case
Process Management
Project Information Management
Industry
Residential Building Construction
Real Estate Development
Country
United States
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Company Introduction
Toll Brothers, a Fortune 500 company, is a leading luxury home builder in the United States with over 5,500 employees. The company operates in more than 60 markets across 24 states and has its own subsidiaries for architecture, engineering, mortgage, title, land development, smart home technology, and landscaping. Additionally, Toll Brothers develops master-planned and golf course communities and manages its own lumber distribution, house component assembly, and manufacturing operations.
The company manages numerous construction projects and architectural designs. With a vast portfolio and a need for seamless collaboration across internal and external teams, Toll Brothers needed an efficient knowledge work automation solution that could handle the scalable needs for the company now and in the future.
"Partnering with M-Files offers a unique and responsive collaboration experience. The team has been great at helping us tailor M-Files to our needs. Their willingness to listen and implement feedback swiftly ensures that our specific needs are met efficiently. This level of partnership, where changes are rapidly put into production, is rare in the marketplace and has made us feel valued and confident in moving forward with M-Files."
Mike Dayhoff, Director of Toll Architecture Technology, Toll Brothers
The M-Files Solution
Cost-Effective, Efficient Knowledge Work Automation Platform
After evaluating multiple options, Toll Brothers selected M-Files as the company's knowledge work automation solution due to its metadata-driven approach, ease of use, and, most importantly, cost-effectiveness. "The biggest reason we chose M-Files was the price," said Mike. "It was significantly more affordable than the alternatives while still offering the functionalities we needed."
The implementation of M-Files included centralizing all architectural and project-related documents, creating a single source of truth for all teams. Automated version control ensures that all team members always work with the latest version of architectural plans and project documents. M-Files seamlessly integrates with Toll Brothers' existing CAD and project management systems, reducing the need for manual data entry. Additionally, M-Files' metadata-driven search functionality allows employees to quickly locate documents based on project name, location, or other key attributes.
Mike also noted on the scalability of M-Files, saying, "The scalability of M-Files allows Toll Brothers to support additional users and projects as the company continues to grow."
Leveraging M-Files Hubshare to Centralize Information and Enhance Collaboration
Toll Brothers also implemented M-Files Hubshare to streamline their end-to-end process by centralizing all data and facilitating seamless collaboration with external vendors and trade partners. This approach eliminates previous issues with data access, updates, and communication, ensuring everyone has the latest information readily available.
The Results
Transformed Knowledge Management with M-Files and M-Files Hubshare
Implementing M-Files and M-Files Hubshare has revolutionized Toll Brothers' knowledge management processes, leading to significant operational improvements. Employees can now locate documents within seconds instead of searching through multiple systems or folders. "Searching for documents used to be a challenge; now, with M-Files, everything is right at our fingertips," said Mike. Teams across different locations can seamlessly access and update project documents in real-time, reducing miscommunication and errors. Automating the organization and retrieval of documents has minimized time spent on administrative tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities. As a result, the company's workflows have become more efficient, and they are on track to establishing a single source of truth for all their architectural data.
Bobby Henry, Technology Specialist at Toll Brothers, added, "The metadata card automation that's built into the admin console has been super helpful because there are a lot of different triggers that you can put into place. They will automatically fill or hide or show different metadata properties, which helps the users to figure out what information they need to put in."
Significant Cost Savings and Efficiency Gains
By implementing M-Files, Toll Brothers has achieved significant cost savings, reducing licensing expenses by over 30% compared to its previous solution. Additionally, the migration to M-Files is expected to save approximately 28% a year by retiring legacy applications and eliminating redundant data repositories. Employees are saving an estimated 2-3 hours per week, with over 2,000 users benefiting from improved efficiency. The system offers centralized document management, eliminating silos and reducing duplication, while metadata-driven search functionality makes it easy to quickly find the right information.
"We have full confidence that the system will continue to improve as we move forward. I believe we will use it more extensively, and I'm excited about its potential. Managing the substantial amount of data has been quite a task, and freeing ourselves from that burden allows us to refocus on other aspects of the business. This shift has greatly enhanced our product, services, and customer relations—it has truly been phenomenal. That word just keeps coming to mind!"
Mike Dayhoff, Director of Toll Architecture Technology, Toll Brothers
The seamless integration with Toll Brothers' existing CAD and project management tools minimizes workflow disruptions. M-Files' scalability allows Toll Brothers to support additional users and projects as the company continues to grow. Additionally, by aligning with IT enterprise initiatives to retire outdated applications, Toll Brothers has enhanced its operational efficiency. These efficiency gains contribute to lower per-home costs, increasing overall company profitability.
Bobby highlighted the impact on efficiency, stating, "Our focus has always been a single source of truth and building solutions allowing easier integrations and user adoption as well as helping automate their repetitive day-to-day tasks."
Responsive Support and Tailored Solutions with M-Files Expert Services
Beyond the functionalities, Toll Brothers also appreciate M-Files Expert Services' responsive support and guidance to configure the platform to their specific needs without incurring additional service costs. "Partnering with M-Files offers a unique and responsive collaboration experience. The team has been great at helping us tailor M-Files to our needs. Their willingness to listen and implement feedback swiftly ensures that our specific needs are met efficiently. This level of partnership, where changes are rapidly put into production, is rare in the marketplace and has made us feel valued and confident in moving forward with M-Files," Mike said.
Bobby added, "You could feel the passion and the caring from the top down, from the CEO all the way down to the Support people. Everyone cared about any issues we were having and made sure they were able to deliver everything we needed."
Future Plans
With the successful implementation of M-Files, Toll Brothers plans to further expand the use of the platform across additional departments, including Marketing, Legal and Procurement. The company is also exploring further enhancement of document categorization and workflow automation.
Mike explained, "The ability to transition quickly to meet company goals, not having a dip in production or timelines, and continuing to increase our sales with the application has been a huge success for us so far. We're really excited about what we're doing currently and the prospect of the business and how we can grow with M-Files as a platform and also our company goals".
"We have full confidence that the system will continue to improve as we move forward. I believe we will use it more extensively, and I'm excited about its potential. Managing the substantial amount of data has been quite a task, and freeing ourselves from that burden allows us to refocus on other aspects of the business. This shift has greatly enhanced our product, services, and customer relations—it has truly been phenomenal. That word just keeps coming to mind!" Mike concluded.
Why M-Files?
M-Files is the leading platform for knowledge work automation. With the M-Files platform, knowledge workers can find information faster, work smarter, and achieve more. M-Files features an innovative metadata-driven architecture, embedded workflow engine, and advanced artificial intelligence. This enables customers to eliminate information chaos, improve process efficiency, and automate security and compliance.
