In this article, we introduce you to Matt Loft our new Queensland based Business Development Manager. Matt shares his career story. Discover what prompted his move from GM of a well-known Civil and Commercial Concrete Construction Company to that of a Business Development Manager for a construction tech company.
Matt moved to the Sunshine Coast from Maryborough as an apprentice chef. Coming from an iconic restaurant, he earned his stripes at a well-known Sunshine Coast restaurant. When he qualified as a Chef, he went on to own and run his own Café in NambourMatt moved to the Sunshine Coast from Maryborough as an apprentice chef. Coming from an iconic restaurant, he earned his stripes at a well-known Sunshine Coast restaurant. When he qualified as a Chef, he went on to own and run his own Café in Nambour.
Matt learned early on the importance of customer service, building a solid reputation and word of mouth recommendations. (And the importance of serving great coffee!)
Figuring out early in his career that the hours and expectations of a life in hospitality didn’t line up with the family life and lifestyle he was looking for, Matt applied himself as a labourer at Landcon, a Landscape Construction company. He enjoyed the physical work and learning new skills. He was mentored there by Mark Black and set about mastering the skills involved in concrete and landscaping.
Moving on to SDC Group in 2009, Matt worked his way from Project Manager to Regional Construction Manager and ultimately GM. SDC Group is a concrete construction company that completes both civil and commercial projects. His technical skills, business acumen and focus on managing client expectations were further developed during this time.
Matt lists his proudest work achievement to date as the day he was entrusted by Dennis Mohamed to manage his company SDC Group. He ran it like his own from day one.
In each role Matt has jumped in the deep end and thrived. He has learned new skills, focused on quality deliverables and on developing his key people. In fact, he says that is his job… to develop people to the point where his own job becomes no longer needed. This is where Neo Intelligence construction operations management software came onto his radar.
Whilst SDC Group had a solid operation run off shared Google docs in real time, there were high operating costs. This was particularly true when it came to operations management and admin. He thought to himself that there had to be a better way, a piece of tech, an app, some software that would simplify the teams complex scheduling and head office processes. He wanted to streamline Dennis’s business, to bring down costs, particularly for admin and payroll. He needed to make SDC Group run more efficiently.
He asked one of his scheduling team to do a bit of research in her down time, tasking her with finding him an operations management system that was cost effective and reliable. The team member’s spreadsheet, built from a bit of googling “operations software” included Neo Intelligence and a few others. He liked the sound of Neo.
Matt is a big one for due diligence and took the time to go to Melbourne to talk to and meet the founders of Neo Intelligence. He spoke to key clients and wanted to understand warts and all the pros and cons of transitioning to this paperless, iPad and web based software. The client feedback sounded too good to be true… they all said it was incredible. Transformative even!
Matt especially liked that the product had been developed to solve a business problem in a construction business. It was appealing that it had been built by tradies for tradies and that the return on investment was impressive. When Matt and his team implemented Neo Intelligence construction operations management software into SDC Group, they found that the savings they made paid for the software and delivered surplus funds they could allocate towards business growth.
After Neo was implemented at SDC group, Matt’s job there was done. He had brought down operating costs and developed the people around him so they could step up into his shoes. The SDC Group could be run from an iPad and the business owner could keep track of what was happening onsite in real time.
Each site foreman had all the information they needed at their fingertips. They could run their job sites like it was their own. There was no more running updated plans and drawings to various locations. They were all updated to the cloud and available in real time via the app. The scheduler with the spreadsheet was freed up to do more value added work.
Matt was often to be found spruking the benefits of Neo Intelligence to his network and connections. He was such an advocate, that when it came time to build out the team in Queensland he seemed like the natural choice.
Matt joined Neo Intelligence in July and has hit the ground running. Is there any better choice for a Business Development Manager than one that has faced the operational problems and implemented the product himself?! Matt is pretty comfortable selling the Neo Intelligence product because he knows that it works. He says himself that that he is excited about where Neo is going.
When he isn’t out and about seeing potential and current Neo clients, Matt enjoys hanging out with his young family. He is very involved in the local community and enjoys the Queensland lifestyle. Neo Intelligence welcomes Matt to our growing team and looks forward to watching him develop the team around him to do himself out of a job….. Again!
If you are structural trades business owner and would like to book a QLD demo of the Neo Intelligence construction operations management software you can get in touch here.
