Ebsary Foundation Company: Leading Through Technology

Deltek recently had the opportunity to speak with Yvette Aubin, CFO of Ebsary Foundation Company, a premier heavy marine and deep foundation contractor based in the southeastern United States. Founded in 1922, Ebsary has remained a family-owned and operated business for over a century, now employing a dedicated team of more than 70 professionals. Ebsary’s decision to implement Deltek ComputerEase in 2012 has further strengthened its position as an industry leader. In our conversation, we dove into how Ebsary builds resilience and their ability to adapt in a competitive market.

1. What do you consider to be the biggest industry challenges?
   We have had some issues with the labor shortage, but recently, we have been able to hire a lot, and people are willing to work, so that is a change that we’re seeing in the Southeast. I'm not sure if the new workers have the full knowledge base on the technical side yet, so we now need to focus on competency and training.
2. How do you track your rising labor costs?
   We are a union contractor and negotiate with unions on three-year contracts, the collective bargaining agreements and most of those are tied with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). We use a lot of forecasting by economists to tie into our projected labor rates that are outside of the purview of a contract. For example, if a contract is ending next year, we don’t necessarily have the data for the next two or three years. We do have a lot of long-term contracts, so we try to use a lot of predictive tools with the CPI to calculate our rates far enough out. Once we lock in the contract, it’s much easier to track because we’re locked into the contract rate. We negotiate an increase, whatever the max is, and it can be divided between labor or fringes. For us, it doesn’t necessarily matter where it’s going, but we know where the increase is, and we can tie it to the CPI.
   
   When it comes to indirect costs, we review our indirect costs monthly as we close our books, so if there’s any significant difference over, let’s say 2.5%, the estimating department has to go in and change their forward rates.
3. How do you leverage technology and automation in your company?
   The tools we have today are definitely different than the tools we had 5, 10, 15 years ago. I am really in tune with trying to cut down and be more efficient using technology instead of using manual processes. This started when we had trouble finding people to hire to do accounting administrative work, so I learned to make Deltek ComputerEase work for us. For example, we were able to cut down our month-end close process by more than half the time using technology. We have about 15 companies, and we are consolidating and are done by the 15th of the month—that includes analyzing jobs and everything. This is because of the automated processes that Deltek ComputerEase does for us. It also has to do with good technology and equipment, having data coming in from our equipment and making sure things are done on time, so we are leveraging what our software is doing for us. For example, we are doing Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) on our accounts payable invoices, which has cut down on errors and saves time entering invoices.
4. What is your view on the change in the ability to collect time daily, in real time, compared to what we did before this technology?
   Using Deltek ComputerEase made a huge impact on our company, especially with the number of locations we have and being able to push the work down to the field instead of having one person in the office entering time. With everyone entering their own time in the field, it rolls up to the next level, and by the time it hits payroll on Monday morning for review, everything has been done. Instead of taking all day Monday and Tuesday to complete payroll, we are done before noon on Monday. It’s way more efficient, and the accuracy is much higher. By workers entering their time in the field and tracking their own time, there is less chance of having errors.
5. What do you see when it comes to the future of construction technology?
   Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data analytics. I know that it’s available now, but I and others in the industry I’ve had conversations with are still a little hesitant because it’s our data getting put out there. Luckily, Deltek ComputerEase's AI capabilities use our data within their own platform. What I see on the horizon is services that can guarantee some safety of your data, so I am hoping for that because I don’t think it’s private enough yet.
6. What strategies do you use to hire and retain your key employees?
   We are very fortunate that we have not lost very many people in the last 10 years. Maybe a few field employees if anything, and some retirements. What we have been focusing on more is retention. Our goal is to have people be the “company man/woman,” and we make sure that when we do see that, they are being rewarded. We like to provide a work-life balance, as everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and as long as long as they get them done, they are free to do their job in the hours that they need to do them.
   
   We also are very vocal with our employees about what their earnings are. We are benefits-rich, which has helped us retain our employees, but we make sure we show our employees what those benefits are worth. Every week, on their paycheck, they can see a year-to-date total of their total compensation. For example, we pay 100% of their health benefits so they can see their full compensation. Another example is that if they have a vehicle, we attach a vehicle fringe cost so they know what the total compensation is to have a vehicle and their insurance and gas paid.
   
   At Ebsary we also have higher starting salaries. We try to make sure that we are in between the 75th-90th percentile for employees who do a very good job. This makes it very difficult for them to leave if they are doing a good job because most employers are not paying high base salaries. We keep up with salary surveys, so we are up to date with the market in our area, or the area they are working in, and the work they are doing.
7. Is there anything your company is doing to identify and minimize potential risk?
   Since I have been with the company, we have always had a weekly meeting that is supervisory level and above, so they include the assistant superintendent and above, such as project managers, myself, the VP of Construction and the owner. Everyone attends the meeting every week, and we go through what is happening on the jobs. What’s nice about these meetings is that you have a sounding board with a lot of years of experience, so if you’re running into trouble on a job, most of the time, the solutions come from this meeting. There’s a lot of conversation about risk in these meetings.
   
   Another great thing about these meetings is knowing about possible issues on jobs. For example, I’ll know if I need to deep dive into our work-in-progress on a particular job. We also use a lot of techniques to detect fades on jobs, so we teach our project managers how to quantify under and over billings. We use the data we have to tell us about the indicators we need to worry about.

Ebsary Foundation’s commitment to resilience, innovation and employee retention has helped them thrive for over a century. By leveraging cutting-edge technology like Deltek ComputerEase and maintaining a focus on employee satisfaction and efficiency, Ebsary continues to be a leader in the marine construction industry. As they adapt to new challenges and opportunities, the company's forward-thinking strategies ensure they remain a powerful force in the sector for many years to come.