PHP Commercial Painting today officially launched PaintWorks, its own custom-built customer relationship and business-management system.
Today’s launch marks a major step in PHP’s technology strategy. Instead of continuing to adapt its operation to several disconnected products, the company now has a platform designed specifically around the way its office and field teams work.
PaintWorks began as an active development project in October 2024 after PHP identified limitations in its existing business-management, communication and timekeeping systems. The company needed stronger employee permissions, fewer disconnected platforms and technology capable of supporting its own processes.
Built Inside PHP for PHP
PaintWorks was designed and programmed entirely by PHP Chief Technology Officer Joshua Herbison.
Herbison wrote the application’s code, while employees throughout PHP helped define how it needed to operate. Estimators, project managers, office employees and field personnel could explain the information they needed, the problems they encountered and the steps involved in their daily work.
That input allowed development to follow the company’s operation rather than forcing employees into a generic software workflow.
“I was the only person writing the code to develop PaintWorks,” Herbison said. “Other employees helped by telling me how they needed it to work for PHP.”
The result is a platform PHP can continue modifying as its needs change. When employees identify a problem or a process that can be improved, the company now has the ability to address it directly within its own system.
The First PaintWorks Features
At launch, PaintWorks brought several important areas of the company into one environment.
The initial system included jobsite information, employee communication, job management, general-contractor and customer records, project photographs, company and project documents, and the beginning of job-cost tracking.
These features gave PHP a central location for information that had previously been divided among multiple systems. They also allowed the company to begin applying employee permissions more closely to each person’s responsibilities.
PaintWorks was already carrying a substantial amount of company history. The migration from PHP’s previous system included employee information, customers, projects, time records, documents and approximately 24,000 job photographs.
Because the previous platform did not provide an API for transferring that information, PHP had to develop its own process for moving and organizing the records.
A Phased Transition
PHP will continue running its old system alongside PaintWorks during the transition.
Both platforms will operate alongside each other for approximately 45 days. This transition period will give PHP time to confirm that employee information, job records, photographs and other essential data have been transferred correctly before the company depends fully on the new system.
The phased approach will also give employees time to learn PaintWorks while continuing to access familiar tools when necessary.
PHP owner John Morris is ready to move to a new system because the company has experienced challenges with its previous technology. Some employees remain more hesitant about changing platforms.
PHP expects that hesitation to fade as employees see that PaintWorks is easier to use and that its workflows are designed around the work they actually perform. The 45-day transition will provide time for employees to learn the system and see how it can improve productivity.
Scheduling and Location-Verified Clock-Ins Coming Next
PHP plans to add employee scheduling and location-verified clock-ins on June 29, four days after today’s initial PaintWorks launch.
The two features need to launch together.
PaintWorks first needs to know where an employee is scheduled before it can determine whether that person is at the correct jobsite. Once the schedule is available, an employee will be able to open a secure webpage from a phone and permit the system to check the device’s location.
The clock-in will then be compared with the employee’s assigned project and the approved distance around that jobsite.
This addressed a limitation in PHP’s previous telephone-based process. The older system could allow an employee to clock in near a jobsite stored in the system, but it did not adequately verify that the employee was at the specific project where that person was scheduled to work.
A Foundation for Continued Development
Today’s launch is not the end of PaintWorks development. It establishes the working foundation PHP needs to continue bringing company information and daily processes into a connected environment.
PaintWorks was already more than a traditional CRM. It connected customers with projects, projects with documents and photographs, employees with communication and job information, and operational activity with the beginning of job-cost tracking.
Most importantly, PHP now controlled the direction of its own technology.
Instead of waiting for a third-party software company to add a feature or change a workflow, PHP could continue developing PaintWorks around the needs of its employees, customers and commercial painting operation.