How to choose a construction payment management solution: Stories from two customers

I recently caught up with two Oracle Textura customers, MLJ Contracting and Exxel Pacific, to better understand why they chose Oracle Textura as their construction payment management solution. With their permission, we were able to record both interviews. You can watch the videos below.

I first interviewed Olga Ilyayev, director of cost and finance, from MLJ Contracting, which is a member of Iovino Enterprises. Iovino is a family of companies that perform construction services for both public and commercial clients. Their heavy civil and specialty contracting business groups have developed and maintained our nation’s infrastructure, establishing themselves among the country’s most reputable contractors. MLJ Contracting is one of New York’s newest and fastest-growing public works general contractors.

A few days later, I spoke with Exxel Pacific controller Donna Marshall. Exxel Pacific offers clients the big picture—from concept to construction and beyond, with design-build services in multiple building disciplines. Their collaborative approach to design, development, and construction creates an environment where the entire team can reach their highest potential for success. In recent years, they've transitioned the company to 100% employee ownership.  

In both short videos, we discussed the top reasons they considered and eventually chose Oracle Textura. Oracle Textura streamlines and automates the construction payment management process with accurate billing, timely payments, and effective compliance controls. The solution prevents errors with process automation and gives you visibility into downstream payments to lessen the risk of disruption.

For MLJ Contracting, their selection centered around getting a boost in efficiency from automating previously manual tasks; stronger controls for compliance along with auditing capabilities; and the ability to quickly pay subcontractors with automated clearinghouse (ACH) electronic payment. Of particular importance was the ability to reject incorrect billings at the line-item level, workflows that automatically route tasks to the right person, and compliance around insurance.

“Our cost engineers who process the payments are thrilled to use Oracle Textura, as it eliminates the manual back and forth payment correspondence and follow-up work so they can truly focus on what’s important,” says Ilyayev.

She goes on to note that before bringing in Oracle Textura, they felt they would have to hire additional administrators to handle subcontractor payments. But with Oracle Textura, there no longer is a need to hire to keep up with their growth.

Exxel Pacific had a different initial experience with Oracle Textura.

“We started using Oracle Textura as a requirement from a client in 2013 and with our experience on that one project, we enjoyed it so much we adopted it on all of our other projects in late 2015,” says Marshall. “We knew we were poised to hit a growth spurt and had been considering hiring another accounts payable and subcontracts employee. We found that using Oracle Textura, it wasn’t necessary to hire a new employee.”

Exxel Pacific sees value in Oracle Textura’s efficiency of the automated and standardized process; compliance tracking; lien waiver collection; and eliminating inaccuracies or errors in pay application. Of particular note was the capability that subcontractors cannot bill for change orders that are not fully executed, as well as the customer care provided by the Oracle Textura account management team.

“Relationships are really important to us, and we found that our representative has been amazing throughout the years. We love that we have a representative that is designated to us specifically. We feel valued,” says Marshall.