HOW I DO IT


Davoli says her


“I think a lot of owners look at a CTO role and they’ll pull up Indeed and look at salaries for CTOs, and say, ‘Well I can’t afford that.’ Maybe you don’t need that at first but what you do need is somebody who is thinking about


technology first.” - Michael Mayberry, CTO for Level Green Landscaping


responsibilities include implementing their vision as it relates to technology so that their operations and accounting teams can run as efficiently and profitably as possible. She manages their IT infrastructure, the tech hardware issued to their employees and offices, and IT software that operates their business. She also helps with technology in the field such as robotic mowers.


“In recent years we have significantly moved our company forward by creating an ERP (Enterprise Resource Platform) meaning most of our software systems are integrated so the manual redun- dancies are reduced, and the process is more streamlined,” Davoli says. “We have also introduced robotic mowers ranging from small self-contained units for lawns to large remote-controlled models for lagoon and road embankments.” Depending on the size of your company, a CTO can sometimes end up being your go-to IT person as well. Mayberry says in his case there is no line between the two roles. He says at


24 The Landscape Professional //July/August 2021


times it detracts from his main focus and he is currently evaluating when they need to add another person to handle IT-related tasks.


“Once it starts taking up so much of that person’s time that they can’t focus on both things, that’s when you need to draw a hard line and divide this out,” Mayberry says.


HOW A CTO HELPS A BUSINESS Having a CTO allows you to have somebody on your team who is dedicated to implemetning technology and finding new ways to utilize technology within your company to reduce friction.


“Our main focus as a company when utilizing technology is to be able to allow our managers to manage more without adding extra people or without making their life more difficult,” Mayberry says. “We want to maintain a good work life balance, and we want to be able to provide tools that allow people to do that, so that we can manage more work per manager, which keeps our overhead costs down, which then allows us to take care of our people better and allows us to be more competitive with pricing.” Whether creating automatic reports, or dashboards, or apps to communicate with clients seamlessly, Mayberry says anything that can be automated is huge


because it frees up a person’s time to do something more important. Mayberry says his most important job is convinc- ing people that change is good. “The industry as a whole has gotten to where it is because they have perfected things back in the 80s,” Mayberry says. “That has certainly taken us up to around the 2000s but it is not going to take us to 2050 and beyond. We have got to change how we’re doing things and how we expect our customers to interact with us and to buy services from us.” Davoli says by focusing on technolo- gy the company is better able to support operations, accounting and admin so they can do their jobs as efficiently as possible.


“Simply put, it is most important for


a CTO to support the operations team as best as possible to meet their needs so they can be successful at what they do; as well as support the accounting and administrative side of the business,” Davoli says. “It is important that the employees are properly trained and comfortable operating their IT equip- ment, be it iPhones, iPads, Surface Pros, etc. as well as to have IT tools in their hands functioning properly. Technology can be quite frustrating when there is a hiccup with something not performing properly, so it is really important to keep things running as smoothly as possible.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44