Utah Steel Transforms Quoting Efficiency with SecturaFAB
Utah Steel, a rapidly growing leader in structural and precision steel fabrication, was facing a major challenge—its manual quoting process. With an influx of complex projects and custom job requests, their process couldn’t keep up with demand. They needed a solution that would streamline their workflow and help them generate quotes faster, more accurately, and with greater confidence. Enter SecturaFAB.
Meet the Team: Jaden and Rachellie at Utah Steel
Jaden Seely, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Utah Steel, focuses on driving customer relationships and ensuring profitability. “A lot of my day-to-day still has to do with relationships and people,” Jaden shared. “Rachellie’s team furnishes the estimates, and our job is to make sure we’re profitable on those jobs.”
Rachellie Shapley, Sales Associate, manages the estimating department and has been with Utah Steel for four years. “I love being in the numbers and the details,” she said, describing her passion for estimating and quoting. She manages a team of four estimators today, but before SecturaFAB, her role was far more resource intensive.
The Challenge: A Slow and Manual Quoting Process
Before implementing SecturaFAB, Utah Steel’s quoting process was slow, manual, and resource heavy. “We were doing most of our quoting manually…spreadsheets, calculators, pen, and paper,” Rachellie recalled. The labor-intensive work of manually nesting with pen and paper created bottlenecks in the sales process.
On larger projects, this manual process could be overwhelming. “It seriously took two days to quote a job that big,” Rachellie shared. Even with three people working on quotes, the process was slow and laborious. “We were always behind,” she added. “I could work so many hours a day and still not feel like I was getting anywhere.”
The problem was even more pronounced when customers requested multiple quote options, such as different materials or gauges. Jaden explained, “Customers would request, ‘What if I did this out of 12-gauge mild steel? What if I did this out of stainless or aluminum?’ And that would require an entire trigger of changes in the quote.” The manual nesting process required to generate these options further delayed their ability to respond to customers.
Pivot to SecturaFAB: A Nesting Powerhouse
Utah Steel initially attempted to use another software solution, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t the right fit. “We had another estimating platform for maybe a month before we bounced over to SecturaFAB,” Rachellie said, describing how they quickly pivoted to SecturaFAB after realizing its superior capabilities.
The key feature that won them over was SecturaFAB’s nesting capability. “The reason they selected SecturaFAB was the nesting that it did so well,” Jaden said. “It was something they had searched far and wide for.” Rachellie echoed this, adding, “The way you can nest at the quoting level is amazing. It gave us so much agility to get jobs out faster.”
SecturaFAB also allowed Utah Steel to provide options to customers in a fraction of the time it took before. “Being able to distribute setup charges for like thicknesses and materials on a big quote was amazing,” Rachellie said. This feature not only saved them time but also allowed them to offer more customized and accurate quotes to customers.
The Results: Faster Quotes, More Jobs, and Business Growth
Since adopting SecturaFAB, Utah Steel has seen a dramatic reduction in the time it takes to generate quotes. “SecturaFAB turned a two-day project into literally a two-hour project,” Rachellie emphasized. This speed has allowed the team to generate far more quotes each day, significantly increasing their capacity. “We were probably doing two projects a day before SecturaFAB, and now we can easily do 10,” Rachellie said, highlighting the transformation.
The speed at which Utah Steel can now respond to customers has also fueled business growth. “We grew so much after we got SecturaFAB. We were able to kick quotes out faster and win jobs because we could pin customers down to the price we needed,” Rachellie explained.
Not only did quoting become faster, but it also became more accurate helping the team control their profit margins. “SecturaFAB helped us go from guesstimating to exacting,” Jaden shared. “You need confidence in your numbers to make the call to win over customers.” This increased accuracy allowed Utah Steel to confidently adjust pricing to win competitive bids while still maintaining profitability. “Whether directly or indirectly, it was affecting the speed at which you can sell… and that’s everything in sales,” Jaden added.
Downstream Benefits: Reducing Production Lead Time
The benefits of SecturaFAB extended beyond quoting. Faster and more accurate quotes have had a direct impact on the company’s production lead times. “It cut a week out of lead time on those types of large projects because it gave us so much agility to be quicker,” Rachellie noted. With SecturaFAB, Utah Steel can now provide their purchasing and production teams with the exact information they need, streamlining the entire process. “Now, by the click of a button, you can print the report you need and hand it off to the team,” she added.
The reduced lead times not only helped in production but also improved customer satisfaction. “Now, instead of the shop only getting one week, they get the full two weeks to produce the job,” Jaden explained. This change has been crucial for improving internal workflows and enhancing customer relationships.
Conclusion: A Catalyst for Growth and Efficiency
For Utah Steel, SecturaFAB has been a game-changer in their quoting and overall business operations. “Speed is everything in the sales world, and SecturaFAB helped us turn quotes around so much faster and feel confident in those numbers,” Jaden said.
By transforming their quoting process, improving accuracy, and significantly reducing lead times, Utah Steel is now better positioned to grow and serve its customers.
“SecturaFAB has helped us grow by allowing us to win more jobs because of the speed and accuracy,” Rachellie concluded.
With SecturaFAB, Utah Steel has found a powerful tool that not only streamlined their operations but also played a crucial role in their growth and success.
