Pool Pro Office

Like most of you, the paperwork and busywork associated with operating a pool business would drive me and everyone else in the office a bit CRAZY! With building over 450 pools per year, it was difficult for everyone to keep up with the pace without frustrations, and lack of effective communications led to many unnecessary mistakes and poor customer project management.

As Vice President and Sales Manager for a Top 50 pool builder, I wanted to find a way to make our business operations more efficient. I began by streamlining our sales paperwork processes; then I looked at construction, communications and services to see what we needed to change.

The inspiration to change the way we do things started with the NEED: we were wasting a lot of time chasing project folders around the office and not providing customers with fast responses to their questions. I wanted to access a digital folder in seconds with all the information in one place.

I was further inspired by our visits to Paddock Pools in Phoenix Arizona and by our founding membership to P.A.C.E. (Paramount Advisory Committee Enterprise). I was amazed at the Paddock organization and their use of technology and processes.

So the search began to look for a software solution that would fit our needs. I could not find an adequate solution for pool builders at the time, and most of the off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all solutions just did not seem to fit.

That’s when we decided to build from scratch. We chose Filemaker developer Gerard Beutler, aka Filemaker Tech Guru, and my now partner. We mapped out what we thought we needed on a BIG chart (by BIG I mean 8’x10’ wall chart!). After over a year in our business and working with all departments, our project management software was ALIVE and online in 2004.

After previewing our solution at P.A.C.E., we knew that there was a big need for a pool builders, all-in-one project management software. So Pool Pro Office became the first marketed, pool building industry specific, project management software designed by pool builders for the pool and service industry. And so a new adventure began for Gerard and I, and we love sharing our product, experiences and technology solutions with pool builders and service companies.