HPT Cloud
Houston Post Tension is a full-service concrete reinforcement company in Texas. They approached my business partner Glib Tsyrklyevych and me to replace an old Microsoft Access system and a pile of spreadsheets.
I designed HPT Cloud, working with their CEO and VP of Operations on entirely new workflows. It manages 70,000+ SKUs with pricing that changes by customer, by takeoff type, and by where the project is. It also handles estimates, orders, fabrication, tagging, packing, field labor, material certifications, and compliance.
Testimonial
"Nicolas worked seamlessly with our team to design an intuitive application that both our new and experienced employees have picked up and used with ease. The new operational platform has injected efficiencies into our workflows, transforming the operational model from a reactive to proactive organization. I highly recommend him!"
About the project
Notes on the process
Glib owned engineering (backend and frontend) while I designed the workflows, made the front-end components, and did most of the product management. We launched in phases, moving key parts of the manufacturing process over first while also deploying NetSuite as the company's accounting system. Rolling out in stages allowed us to get feedback from the team on the shop floor and adjust the workflows as we went.
We kept HPT Cloud simple and extensible, balancing how much the client could customize against how complex the system got. The goal was to avoid locking them into rigid business logic, without the architecture growing every time a workflow changed.
Pricing
Previously, pricing had to be manually updated with spreadsheet uploads, so a price was only as current as the last upload. Now costs and prices are pulled live at all times, based on purchasing data and a set of pricing table rules. This allowed estimators to work from current numbers without waiting on anyone to upload a new spreadsheet.
LLM-assisted estimating
More recently we trained an LLM to automate parts of the estimating process, so estimators no longer match line items by hand. I designed the review screen where they check the model's work before it reaches the estimate. Any match below a certainty threshold (generally 85%, though it varies by the type of item) gets flagged for a person to confirm or correct. This took the matching work on an estimate from hours to minutes.
Key results
Since launch, HPT Cloud has saved hundreds of employee hours per week across the management, estimating, manufacturing, and field teams, along with significantly more accurate data.