Software & Technology: Smart Solutions for Surface Fabricators

By Sarah Peiper

If you’re not investing in tech for your business, you’re missing out on growth opportunities that enable you to streamline processes, monitor material inventory, track jobs, review metrics and provide a richer experience for your customers — all of which lead to better margins and more sales. Here are some of the latest and greatest software solutions that support today’s fabricators.

Caesarstone Connect

The Caesarstone Connect platform is the first-of-its-kind integrated online estimator and project management tool that immediately delivers a detailed per-square-foot price quote that includes material, fabrication and installation costs, and seamlessly connects projects to certified Caesarstone fabricators. Once the quote is accepted by the customer and converted to an order, the complete order is sent directly to a certified Caesarstone fabricator who confirms measurements, fabricates and installs the Caesarstone product. The Caesarstone Connect online platform manages the project from start to finish, working with high-quality fabrication partners to deliver a fully installed quartz surface in the home. Quality is guaranteed via Caesarstone’s trusted and certified fabricator network. To learn more or inquire about becoming a fabricator partner of Caesarstone Connect, visit www.caesarstoneus.com/caesarstone-connect-hub/ or contact a local Caesarstone representative.

CounterGo by Moraware

CounterGo is a straightforward drawing and estimating solution that allows fabricators to become more efficient, accurate and professional. This industry-leading software makes quoting countertops in as little as three minutes possible while taking the business side of a countertop shop to the next level. With clear communication, accurate and consistent pricing, and easy accounting using the QuickBooks Integration, fabricators quickly see an increase in bid output and countertop sales. Learn more at www.moraware.com.

ELaser Xpress 3D by ETemplate Systems

ETemplate Systems, experts in digital measuring, are the makers of the ELaser Xpress 3D Templating System. Powered by award-winning ETemplate Measure Manager software, templates are faster and easier, and the software provides seamless compatibility with all CNC machinery. The ELaser Xpress 3D system features auto-start software, an industry-best, three-year warranty, enhanced speed averaging one second per point, accuracy of 1 to 2 mm for a standard-size space, horizontal and vertical fine adjustment knobs, digital leveling, hand-held remote, Bluetooth connectivity, rechargeable batteries with charger, and compact design with a rugged case for easy portability. These enhancements, along with automated countertop functions and new manual design updates within Measure Manager, allow users to create templates faster than ever before. Set up, shoot your points, press enter and you’re done! For more information, visit www.etemplatesystem.com.

Hot Sauce Selling Software

Whether it be supersizing a meal, a wheel shine with a car wash, or an extended warranty on an appliance, every day consumers are introduced to options that upgrade a sale. These offerings, called “Hot Sauce,” are deemed a little something extra that can enhance a purchase. The same holds true for countertops. Hot Sauce can dramatically improve your profitability with the most immediate earnings boost you can do for your company. The Hot Sauce selling software provides content, images and pricing so that every consumer-facing employee can be your best salesperson. Hot Sauce selling software offers meaningful metrics that enable you to track sales, integrate with Moraware and automate communications with your customers and your team. Visit www.hotsauceyourtops.com to learn more about this powerful selling tool and how users are increasing their profitability with every sale.

LT3Raptor by Laser Products Industries (LPI)

Companies are continuing to navigate through labor shortages and high demand in various ways, including transitioning to a digital process. LPI is giving fabricators the opportunity to get a glimpse of what is just the start of the future of LPI with its LT3Raptor software.

The benefits of going digital are enhanced with LT3Raptor. With built-in Templating Intelligence technology, enhanced user-friendliness, and cloud capabilities, LT3Raptor is designed to template jobs quicker and easier than ever before, helping expedite your process and get more jobs done per week.

LPI wants you to be a part of the future and help them reinforce the foundation of digital templating and fabrication and evolve it. To be a part of this evolution and keep up to date on the latest news, beta testing opportunities and more, go to www.laserproductsus.com/innovation and sign up for this exciting opportunity.

PHOTOTOP 5 by Fabricator’s Choice

PHOTOTOP 5 from Fabricator’s Choice just keeps getting better with added power capabilities. Functionalities include the ability to auto-create miter strips, auto-create lamination, auto-dimension on PDF output and more. PHOTOTOP 5 makes templating fast and accurate, and the program is easy to use. Professional training and online support are available. Integrate templating with office inventory, job management systems, and shop equipment. Multiple software licenses are not required to expand PHOTOTOP 5 to additional templaters. Simply order ORGANIZE Field Kits, which include a laptop, camera and markers. The exclusive Organize On-site Tool provides immediate confirmation and file delivery of the most highly detailed digital templates in the business. PHOTOTOP users enjoy frequent upgrade options due to ongoing developments. For more information, visit www.fabchoice.com.

Pinpoint Status

There’s never been a better time to transform your customer experience. PinPoint Status’ mobile app and platform sync with your scheduling software to:

• Automate appointment reminders and reduce call volume with two-way texting.

• Eliminate missed appointments. Customers get an accurate estimated arrival time via service tech GPS location monitoring.

• Build customer loyalty. Customer experience is transformed through simplified two-way text communications, service technician photo identification and bio, and requests for customer feedback.

• Measure employee performance and build online reviews. Automatically ask customers to review their service after a job is done. Generate employee performance reports and help capture positive online reviews.

Created by Nick Began, co-founder of The Rock Heads Group USA, PinPoint Status eliminates communication gaps between in-home service providers and the homeowners they serve. Low flat rates and a user-based monthly subscription model make PinPoint Status a simple, affordable solution for companies of any size. For more information, visit www.pinpointstatus.com.

Prodim’s Proliner: Streamlining Surface Fabrication Since Day One

Countertops, backsplashes, bathrooms, stairs and more: All these beautiful things begin with an accurate measurement. Prodim’s Proliner measuring tool creates exact, detailed digital templates in minutes. Measurements can be reviewed and changed on-site and exported as ready-to-use production files for CNC machines. Specialized Prodim Factory software enables fabricators to manage, digitize and improve their daily business processes. Eliminate uncertainty before installment while connecting field, office and production teams using only one platform.

The Latest Improvements:

Prodim Factory 5.0: Integrated Photogrammetry

Prodim’s latest software release, Prodim Factory 5.0, sets a new bar for today’s fabricator. The seamless integration of Proliner on-site measurements with real life pictures provides insight and project control never achieved before in the industry.

Site Control: Check Your Digital Templates with Photos

Match an image captured by camera with measurements or drawings. You can show your picture in drawing/editing view or in the rotating 2D/3D view. This increases awareness and guidance while editing, and it reduces the risk of mistakes.

Interpolate: Simplify, Connect and Enhance Complex Shapes

Quickly simplify complex shapes, connect open shapes and address imperfections. Reduce points! Simply slide between smooth and accurate to the position you want. This is a a great solution for templating a space that has irregularly shaped floors. This saves you a lot of time and clicking.

Vein Match 2D/3D: Create Vein Designs With Realistic Perception

If you process the layout created in DRAW to MATCH, it will instantly be presented in a 2D preview. Use the 2D layout for vein matching, but the 3D experience improves your perspective! Zoom, rotate and create snapshots of favorite views or match views with photos.

Smart Nesting: Simple, fast and realistic nesting

You immediately see what is going to happen! Pieces are now automatically labeled for easier piece identification. Use the auto-alignment function to align all pieces (with or without considering in/out lines) and edit the cutlines to solve impossible corners or other challenges.

To find more information about this powerful tool designed for today’s fabricator, visit www.prodim-systems.com.

QuickQuote by Crystallyne Enterprises

Whether you fabricate laminate, solid surface, wood, granite or engineered stone, QuickQuote Countertop Estimating Software from Crystalline Enterprises can save you time, eliminate errors, and entice new customers with faster, easier countertop quoting and drawing. It features a uniquely intuitive interface that creates a fully-labeled scale drawing alongside every quote. Its flexible pricing system offers multiple pricing methods so virtually any material can be quoted, and it provides the option to customize items and services to fit a particular business. Quotes can be printed alongside the drawings on a single page, exported to different formats such as PDF, and transferred directly to QuickBooks. The built-in schedule provides a place to keep track of everything from fabrication to installation, and the internal slab inventory lets users lay out the parts on the slabs for more accurate material counts. For more information and a free trial of QuickQuote, visit www.quickquotecountertops.com.

Quote Countertops

This award-winning kitchen and bathroom industry software offers 3D kitchen and bathroom visualization and instant quoting for both consumers and sales teams. Quickly design and quote a new kitchen or bathroom countertop, room renovation, cabinet reface, tub/shower conversion and more using this integrated and easy-to-use software, which generates leads, streamlines the sales process, increases average ticket sales, and serves as an invaluable tool for sales team training. Quote Countertops’ focus is on their clients’ success, and that means you’ll benefit from unparalleled and personalized onboarding, training, and technical and marketing support. To learn more, visit www.quotecountertops.com.

Pathfinder by Park Industries

The Pathfinder workstation is designed to capture precise, fully calibrated images of slabs in high resolution. Whether you want to build a visual slab inventory library, create scaled images for further programming on your CNC saw, Fab Center, or CNC saw/waterjet, the Pathfinder workstation is a rock-solid platform for consistent, accurate imaging. The Pathfinder is the tool that will reduce your material costs by enabling you to efficiently and effectively manage your full and partial slab inventory while also giving you the ability to accurately vein-match slabs and provide 3D rendering visualization for your clients. For more information, visit www.parkindustries.com/pathfinder.

Slabcloud

Let your clients see what you have in stock. Slabsmith Inventory software offers up-to-date inventory with accurate slab dimensions and high-quality images for each product. Slabcloud offers automatic synchronization with Slabsmith to allow for 24/7 inventory accessibility. You will have access to the latest technology, ensuring that your clients will correctly see your entire range of products on all your devices. The Slabcloud Kitchen Visualizer is unmatched by offering a unique, real-time stone preview feature. Allow your customers to visualize their dream kitchen using your inventory of products. Slab Inquiry allows your clients to ask questions about any specific slab in your inventory with quick customer service. With Slabcloud Inventory Integration, your website will benefit from consistent updates that will improve your search engine optimization. Learn more at www.slabcloud.com.

Slabsmith

Slabsmith is an integrated system that creates tight links among the office, showroom, warehouse and shop. It includes the most powerful inventory management solution, which provides accurate and detailed slab inventory status. By producing digitized slabs that are trueto-life in both color and dimension, it captures all the relevant properties of the original slab that was photographed. It provides the ability for anyone in a company to quickly locate and view the slabs in inventory based on any of the properties of the slab. The Perfect Match layout module provides tools that are customized for the specific needs of users to lay out countertops efficiently.

Incorporating Slabsmith into your business can increase profits and lower operating costs; yield increases of 8-10% are typical. For more information, visit www.slabsmith.com.

SPEEDlabel

Since 2017, SPEEDlabel has changed how fabricators label and track materials in production. It can be used with hand drawings or CAD files and works automatically with most countertop software. The labels are waterproof and tear-proof and come off easily at installation. There are customized label designs, including top, bottom and edge formats. SPEEDlabel provides a quick understanding of the status of every part in the shop and helps ensure entire jobs are kept together, improving accuracy and efficiency. SPEEDlabel was developed by fabricators to help other fabricators streamline processes, stay organized and improve quality control. For more information, visit www.speedlabel.net.

StoneApp ERP System by StoneGrid USA

By combining the most commonly used fabrication and business software, StoneApp allows you to confidently run your business with insights and Process Flow Organization that empowers. It is a comprehensive, simple-to-use and robust software system built for efficiency, allowing users to enter leads, move to a quote, promote to a job, manage material, create schedules and assign production resources without repetitive data entry. Users can also control margins through price books, built-in cost analysis and commission structures. It reduces errors and manages production with scheduling, parts tracking, field applications and capacity tools. Users can manage purchasing and inventory with reconciliation and valuation reporting tools. It syncs with QuickBooks and Sage to eliminate data entry time and errors, and with Slabsmith to bring in photos, and more. For more information, visit www.stonegridusa.com.

ThroughPut

Named a top 10 supply chain management solution provider in 2021, ThroughPut delivers a holistic view across upstream and downstream operations to drive key decisions faster for optimum output and business performance along with a smooth flow of materials, processes, people and information. Accurately identify and expose patterns to predict demand trends. This end-to-end AI-enabled supply chain solution drives operational efficiency with relevant data and implemented solutions. Move away from traditional forecasting methods and legacy systems for robust tracking of accurate datasets to forecast demand in real time. Find out more at https://throughput.world/.