R.E. Pierson Construction Digs MRI Software

Established in 1980, R.E. Pierson Construction Co. Inc. provides heavy highway construction services to local, county, state and federal agencies and to residential developers across North America. Some of Pierson’s services include asphalt and concrete paving and production, structural and concrete construction (retaining and sound walls, dams and bridges), demolition and the production of sand, gravel and stone. These services, in addition to its wide range of earthwork and utility capabilities, have earned Pierson’s a spot as one of the nation’s largest heavy highway construction firms. The company has one main office location in Pilesgrove, New Jersey, with around 500 employees, and two production plants in New Jersey and neighboring Delaware.

Pierson’s fixed asset base of around 1,500 items consists of heavy equipment, bulldozers, backhoes, dump trucks, pick-up trucks, tractors and trailers. Until recently, all fixed assets were managed in a depreciation module within the company’s general accounting package. The depreciation module was extremely limited in capabilities and its standard reporting features failed to meet the requirements of Pierson’s Controller, Darin Tuch. “I produce various reports on a regular basis. There were no formatting options within the old system, leaving me with no way to split the data the way I needed it,” Darin explained.

Pierson’s old system also lacked the ability to customize fields and asset categories, so Darin used spreadsheets (one for trucks, one for equipment, etc.) as a supplement. What Darin really needed was a comprehensive, centralized system to store and manage all details relating to Pierson’s fixed assets.

In his search for a new fixed asset management system, Darin reviewed MRI Software’s Asset4000 (fixed asset accounting) and one other solution offered by MRI’s main competitor. After one demo and a few detailed calls with MRI’s Account Manager, Darin made the decision to go with Asset4000. Reporting, customization and security were deciding factors. Asset4000 offers hundreds of standard reports and provides the ability to produce user-defined reports with its built-in report writer. “For some reports I need data from fields A, B, C and D; for others A, C, F and H – Asset4000 will enable me to easily extract the information I need,” said Darin. As with Pierson’s old system, the alternative solution was limited in terms of customization. It had 12 user-definable fields and asset categories whereas Asset4000 has 25. “Security was a key factor as well. The other solution provided either read only or complete access. With Asset4000, I can control users’ access and editing capabilities and basically allow them to do what they need to do without overstepping any boundaries,” Darin commented.

Asset4000 implementation and training will take place at Pierson this spring. Darin looks forward to the time savings and organization it will bring to the fixed asset management process. “This is really an ideal system for Pierson, a central database for depreciation and advanced reporting with plenty of customization. I’m anxious to begin taking advantage of all it has to offer,” Darin said. In conclusion, he commented on the overall sales process, “MRI has a great team, they’re thorough and accommodating and really a pleasure to do business with.”