North Central Fabricators, LLC (NCF) is a commercial HVAC sheet metal fittings producer and fabricator based in Braham, Minnesota. The 56,000-square-foot facility employs 25 people, and the company’s scope of work includes fabrication of sheet metal fittings, grease duct, sealed spiral pipe fittings, and spiral pipe using sheet metal, cold-rolled steel, and stainless.

Business is steady in its eighth year of production, which meant management at North Central Fabricators was looking for an online ordering service that would enhance customer participation and benefits to staff, and that would provide the company the opportunity to grow.

Prior to using BuildCentrix, customers would fax in a hand-written order or email a fittings list. The online system allows customers quick, simple, and self-correcting access to a digital list and 24-hour turnaround on some orders.

“We have had great success with the BuildCentrix software and customer support in the technology department,” says George Oakes, outside sale representative North Central Fabricators. “They have walked and ran with us through this whole process. This system has been a nice 1-2-3 type ordering program that our customers have said is very easy to operate.”

The primary benefit the customer receives is the ability to use the software program online to get a bid on a project without sending it to NCF first, says Oakes. “So, they have an instant quoted price when they save the project they are pricing.”

Oakes says he can see demand for online services growing. “I think the online system is a great option,” he says. “As more and more companies expand into the digital world there will be a great need for this service.” ■

By Jessica Kirby