Hardwood Floors June/July 2018

“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turns into an innovation.”

Next, I spoke with Osiel Betancourt of Insight Flooring Technologies (IFT), Dallas, Texas. IFT won the Plank Tank contest at NWFA Expo for the best business idea. Betancourt is an NWFA Certified Installer who spent years visualizing ways estimating could be easier than using a pen, paper, calculator, and even Excel. After years of conceiving and testing, QuoteHero was born in 2016. QuoteHero is an iPad app developed specifically for the flooring industry. It uses room measurements and product information to generate a proposal for the customer to sign right on-site. Having this tool while at the customer’s location offers instant information for eager customers and offers contractors many advantages such as increased productivity, reduced human error, flexibility, and the ability to close jobs on the spot. Technology Revolutionizes the Wood Flooring Industry (Continued)

Additionally, invoices can be exported to QuickBooks with just a couple of clicks. With low monthly costs and development and support teams behind the app, there should be little to no barriers to implementation. IFT tells me they have many other ideas for functionality in mind including integration of measuring lasers and a catalog feature to browse flooring options. In Betancourt’s mind, there are no limits to how technology can help our industry.

Finally, I spoke with Ted Schultz of QFloors, based in South Jordan, Utah. Ted explained how the vision of QFloors is to create software for the industry that is easy to implement and use on a daily basis. As the third generation in the industry, Chad Ogden and Trent Ogden used this experience to create industry specific software for flooring companies, large and small. Ted tells me that even longtime, experienced flooring installers who have used paper and pencil for years find it easy to use. Schultz described how the company’s QFloors software allows for point of sale, inventory management, estimates, credit card swiping, on-site customer sign off, and a complete accounting package. In addition, QFloors also works with QuickBooks. One unique feature of the software is the ability to calculate profit margin during all steps of the proposal process. In fact, many businesses using QFloors software have seen immediate and dramatic profit increases because of this feature.

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