Wisconsin-based Consulting Firm Serves Over 300 Clients Per Year Using GQueues and Google Apps to Stay Organized

Vierbicher is a team of engineers, planners, landscape architects and surveyors committed to providing the highest level of skill and expertise to clients throughout Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. Founded in 1976, Vierbicher has four offices in Wisconsin: Madison, Reedsburg, Milwaukee Metro and Prairie du Chien. Vierbicher's multi-disciplined, team-based approach enables them to bring unique perspective to projects and deliver creative solutions, efficient project flow, and cost effective results for their clients.

Vierbicher's strength lies in their ability to provide an integrated suite of planning, community development, economic development, landscape architecture, land surveying and civil engineering services within one focused team. Vierbicher has been delivering unmatched customer service to private and municipal clients on land and community development projects for more than 40 years.

Managing Their Workload

Engineering Manager, Craig Mathews, joined the Vierbicher team as an engineering intern in 1991. Throughout the past 25 years, he has actively participated in the successful outcome of hundreds of municipal and private development projects. He currently manages a group of 14 employees and oversees several projects at any given time. Mathews recalled that the company first used Outlook for managing their emails and task lists, but switched to Google Apps for its simplicity and all-in-one service.

When Mathews was promoted to a manager position in 2011, he began searching for a tool that would help him guide weekly workload meetings and support his team in tracking their tasks and collaborating on projects. When he found GQueues, he realized that it was a great fit for them because it had everything they needed in a task management program and it interfaced seamlessly with Gmail, Google Contacts, Calendar and Drive.

Assignments Keep Projects Moving

GQueues is the primary task management tool for Vierbicher's engineering group in Reedsburg, WI, where they manage single and multiple projects for approximately 300 clients throughout the year. Mathews explained that every active project has its own queue that's shared with every employee on the team. Tasks are updated daily and new tasks are added as projects evolve. He noted that his team takes pride in getting their work done on time and GQueues due dates are really helpful in keeping them on target. The team meets on a weekly basis where they review project queues together and talk through their tasks to make sure everyone's on track to meet their deadlines. In between meetings, the team communicates via GQueues notes. Mathews explained that the seamless integration between GQueues and Google helps keep everything in one place. With things like notifications for deadlines and assignments, people can see updates on their projects without having to sign in to a separate account.

Mathews explained that as a manager, he really likes the collaborative features of GQueues, such as assignments, shared queues and tags. He shares new project queues with the entire team since he doesn't always know who will be assigned to different aspects of a project ahead of time. This allows everyone to collaborate and gives control to other project managers who can add and change things as needed. Mathews appreciates that once assignments are delegated, his employees know what they're responsible for right away. "People understand that they're getting notifications for things they need to do, so they pay attention," he explained. With the help of shared queues, he's able to see if something isn't done on time and he can follow-up with that person. According to Mathews, tags make it easy for employees to proactively search for projects based on job categories. "If we have surveyors who might be looking for something to do, they can go into GQueues and sort by the survey tag and say, 'Okay, this needs to be done; I'll go do that,'" he explained.

Collaboration Helps Get Things Done

According to Mathews, GQueues has helped improve communication amongst his team. "GQueues is a great way for me to communicate tasks that need to get done and make sure we're not missing things." He explained that trying to manage his inbox has become more difficult over the years, but now when he gets an email request from a client, he goes straight to GQueues to create a task, set a deadline and assign it to an employee. GQueues helps him get things out of his head and out of his inbox so his team can take action on them. Mathews shared that GQueues helps support his team meetings as a way to come full circle on their communication. He knows that when he assigns tasks throughout the week, employees can ask questions using GQueues notes so they don't have to wait to talk about things in person.

Mathews observed one of the greatest benefits of GQueues is its ease of use, which helps him and his team work more efficiently. "I like that GQueues is clean, intuitive and easy to use," he noted. He mentioned that other tools can be overwhelming and take more time to figure out. Mathews appreciates that getting familiar with GQueues doesn't require a lot of research. "GQueues allows us to share tasks more efficiently and ensure that we're not dropping the ball on completing assignments," he explained. This helps Mathews and his team provide clients with creative consulting services which enable them to efficiently and effectively meet their goals and objectives. This philosophy, along with unmatched customer service, has helped them maintain consistent growth in a highly competitive field.