“This system gives me control in the middle of all the daily chaos. It’s saved me so much time and kept me sane.”
McAlvain Construction is a third-generation, Idaho-born construction firm headquartered in Boise. As part of the Big-D Family of Companies—one of the largest construction organizations in the country with annual revenues exceeding $2 billion—McAlvain serves a wide variety of industries across the western U.S.
Since 1980, McAlvain has delivered construction management, general contracting, design-build, and concrete services. With a reputation built on quality, the company continues to expand while staying rooted in its values of integrity, innovation, and excellence.
“It's the best thing I've ever had. It makes everything so streamlined.”
Before Field Materials, McAlvain’s procurement process was slow, manual, and error-prone. Communication with vendors was scattered across emails and phone calls, and information was constantly falling through the cracks.
Orders arrived as paper forms or email attachments, which Bret Gibleau, Equipment Manager, had to manually split, send to individual vendors, track in spreadsheets, and re-enter into Viewpoint Vista for accounting. Even then, the job wasn’t done—he still had to email vendors, wait for responses, gather pricing, and create the actual purchase order. The entire process cost Bret and McAlvain valuable time and energy, and offered little visibility into where things stood in the approval workflow.
“I was handling approvals manually, chasing project managers, and trying to keep it all straight in spreadsheets,” he said.
“Everything’s in one place. We can message vendors right inside the platform, and those conversations are tied to the order forever. I don’t have to chase anything.”
With Field Materials, McAlvain now has a centralized, digital procurement system that syncs directly with Viewpoint Vista. “It's the best thing I've ever had” says Bret “it makes everything so streamlined.”
Now, orders are initiated by superintendents or project managers, routed through a dual-approval workflow, and sent directly to vendors—without a single spreadsheet or email chain. As Bret describes, “everything’s in one place. We can message vendors right inside the platform, and those conversations are tied to the order forever. I don’t have to chase anything.”
Field Materials also eliminated the need to manually recreate orders in Viewpoint Vista. “Data entry used to be a huge time suck. Now the PO sync is automatic—I don’t even think about it. That alone has saved me hours every week.”
Over 1,500 orders have been processed through Field Materials, allowing Bret to keep pace with increasing project demands.
This streamlined process has allowed McAlvain to manage a much higher volume of procurement work without adding headcount—all while improving accuracy, speed, and transparency.
From project managers to accounting, everyone can now see the status of orders and communications—without relying on scattered emails or paper trails.
By integrating Field Materials into their workflow, McAlvain has built a modern procurement process that supports growth, reduces burnout, and improves operational efficiency from the field to the office.
