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How CMA Unlocked 5X ROI with 4M
Key Results
- 75% Labor Time Savings from Utility Research
- 75% Increase in Team Capacity with Same Headcount.
- 50% Reduction in field investigations
Customer Profile
Chen Moore & Associates (CMA) is a mid-sized Florida-based ENR 500 firm, coming up on its 40th year in business. Originally a water and wastewater consulting firm, it has grown to provide a comprehensive suite of civil engineering services, including transportation, land development, water resources, and general civil engineering.
Background
As CMA’s client base grew and projects increased in complexity, the wait for utility information was slowing down their proposal turnaround times and concept plan development. Additionally, as they expanded to other geographical locations, they needed the ability to demonstrate local knowledge and familiarity with project sites. Their existing processes were no longer sufficient to meet these evolving demands.
CMA turned to 4M for instant access to the reliable utility data you can trust and verify — all in one platform — to grow revenue, boost team capacity without adding headcount, and gain a competitive edge.
4M’s Impact
CMA’s $14,400 investment in 4M’s Foundation Data is a strategic growth initiative to unlock capacity, uncover new revenue streams, and free up budget to grow smarter. To date, CMA has unlocked $72,000 in annual value, yielding a 5X ROI.
This investment will continue to dramatically increase project throughput without expanding headcount. And that’s not the only impressive result they’ve seen from working with 4M.
- More throughput, same headcount – By reducing utility research time from 8 to 2 hours per project, CMA instantly unlocks 75% more team capacity, allowing the current staff to support more projects and scale project delivery without additional hires.
- Capital for reinvestment – The $72,000 in annual value can be redirected toward new bids, client development, and innovation initiatives, amplifying CMA’s market presence while strengthening internal capabilities.
- Protect margins—With 4M’s trusted utility data, CMA can reduce costly change orders and improve accuracy on lump sum and T&M contracts. Fewer surprises = healthier margins.
- Opportunity cost – The 75% reduction in research time frees engineers to focus on design optimization, permitting acceleration, and billable work, shifting time from low-leverage tasks to high-value impact.
Stronger bids, more wins – Faster, more accurate utility data gives CMA a competitive edge. By submitting smarter, lower-risk proposals, CMA improves win rates and earns greater trust with clients, converting actionable insights into revenue.
Straight from the Source
Hear what Rob Best, Principal Civil Engineer and Orlando Office Leader at CMA, had to say about his experience with 4M.
Challenge: Slow Utility Data Access
For all of their previous project proposals and project designs, CMA’s biggest challenge was obtaining the utility information they needed to submit a timely, accurate bid, particularly for new clients.
“When a proposal is advertised, especially if you don't have the heads up to start preparing for it, there's a really quick turnaround time to prepare your material, your approach, your concepts, and get that included in that proposal,” Rob says. “So that's a big risk to be able to obtain information and have an effective approach and angle to your proposal while still meeting that timeline.”
They would have to submit requests for utility data to Sunshine 811. Some utility owners are very responsive, but others can take months to provide the information that CMA needs.
When CMA was planning to bid on a project to upgrade Lake Eola Park, the central park in downtown Orlando, it hadn’t been updated since the 1980s. It was a challenging project, but an exciting one too, due to the scope and the centrality of the park to the community.
“Something that the city asked the design teams to focus on was identifying any challenges with existing utilities within the park limits or the project limits, minimizing those impacts,” Rob says. They also asked how CMA would plan their phasing work to prevent outages, not just to the park but also to the neighboring communities.
Before 4M, their typical process would have taken weeks, which they couldn’t afford if they wanted to impress the city of Orlando as a major client.
“We would have to go through that process of pulling a Sunshine 811 design ticket, finding out who the suspected utility owners are out there, reaching out to them, coordinating, and hoping that they could provide us information within our time frame to incorporate that, and actually address some of these approach considerations from the city within that time frame,” Rob notes.
Solution: 4M Foundation Data
When he used 4M’s Foundation Data to identify the utilities in the project area for the Lake Eola Park bid, Rob wasn’t expecting to see much within the park itself because a lot of the information he needed was usually restricted to what’s in the right-of-ways.
“When I did the request for the park, I was hoping to get some items, thinking most of it would be around the perimeter of the park where the four adjacent roadways are,” he notes. “But lo and behold, it had data for everything within the park, which was amazing.”
And not only did he get more information than he expected from this initial search, he found it almost instantly.
“With the snap of a finger, I get all this information by simply drawing the project limits—data that would otherwise take hours or days to gather through the traditional process,” Rob says.
This combination of speed and reliability helped impress the city of Orlando when CMA presented its bid for the Lake Eola Park project. In fact, CMA used the 4M data in its proposal to the city. Being able to show them that they had comprehensive utility information on the project site highlighted the services and expertise they could offer the project.
“The City of Orlando liked that we had already done one of the first steps, which was using 4M to prepare a utility map that we could use to move into the design phase with,” Rob says. The city noted, too, that having this information allowed CMA to talk about avoiding the utility conflicts that could cause disruption.
Right off the bat, CMA impressed the city with their preparedness and their detailed proposal, demonstrating the level of client service and satisfaction that CMA is now even better equipped to provide on every project.
Starting Every Pursuit with 4M
After the first few projects with 4M went well and more people at CMA started using it, 4M has become an essential part of their workflow. Running a 4M project data request is now one of the first steps they take on every proposal or project pursuit.
“Even on sites we’re unfamiliar with,” Rob says, “4M enables us to quickly tailor our proposals and prove local expertise to clients."
Looking Ahead
That 5x return on CMA’s initial investment in 4M is just the beginning. It’s not just about revenue and profits, but also about building relationships and trust with their clients on every project and the safety of their crews.
“We had a great showing in front of the city of Orlando,” Rob says. “It's a big client. They were very impressed that we have this technology and this tool to be able to address utility concerns going forward.”
They’re now planning to hold internal meetings to ensure everyone at CMA knows about this incredibly valuable tool to use on all different types of pursuits and projects.
“I wouldn't say that it's going to completely replace our due diligence process,” Rob notes, “but it does complement it as one of our most valuable resources in our toolbox, both through proposals, concepts, and even the basis of design reports or design build projects.”
4M is a strategic investment to grow revenue, boost delivery capacity, and gain a competitive edge. By freeing up internal capacity, enabling more competitive bids, and creating reinvestment capital, CMA positions itself to deliver more projects, win more work, and grow smarter.
Want to estimate how much your potential ROI is when you use 4M on your next project? Try our ROI calculator and see for yourself.
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