Gengroup Case Study
Gengroup: Building a Scalable, Modern Crane Service Operation
One modern, all-in-one field service platform gives Gengroup Crane real-time visibility, increased response time, and streamlined processes to grow and compete.
“To me, it’s the modern platform every crane service business should be using,” said Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane Corporation. “I recommend it to anyone I talk to.”
“To me, it’s the modern platform every crane service business should be using,” said Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane Corporation. “I recommend it to anyone I talk to.”
Bottom Line Up Front
With crewOS, Gengroup Crane replaced paper-based processes with a single modern system, cutting administrative time dramatically, accelerating payroll and reporting, and giving leadership real-time visibility they never had before.
Introduction
When Alec Turnbull purchased Gengroup, a leading crane manufacturer in Canada, he inherited decades of paper, manual processes, and disconnected systems that made growth harder than it needed to be.
Scheduling lived in one place. Inspections in another. Payroll was handwritten. Inspection Reports were built by retyping notes from paper forms into PDFs. Simple questions like “Which cranes are out of service?” or “What needs repair right now?” could take weeks to answer.
Like many companies in their line of work, Gengroup used a very informal, primarily paper-based process for completing change orders that had to be done completely manually. The manual process took up valuable hours and limited their ability to respond quickly for their customers.
The company was using inefficient scheduling and dispatching processes that added countless hours to the weekly workload, including having to manually re-enter the same data multiple times and navigate lengthy procedures.
Without real visibility, growth felt difficult and risky.
As Gengroup began moving forward, systems started breaking down:
Turnbull knew that if Gengroup was going to grow, compete, and eventually expand into new locations, the business needed a repeatable, modern way of working. They needed a system that made training easier, gave their team the right tools in the field, and gave leadership real-time visibility into what was actually happening.
Without modern systems, scalability felt limited.
That’s when Gengroup partnered with crewOS.
Since joining crewOS in June 2025, Gengroup has transformed how they schedule work, capture inspections, run payroll, and communicate with customers. By replacing paper and disconnected tools with one modern platform, they’ve been able to move faster, serve larger customers more frequently, and build a foundation that can scale as the business grows.
In the words of Gengroup:
“CrewOS is the backbone of our scalability. Previously, onboarding new clients placed a heavy strain on our administrative capacity; today, it’s a competitive advantage. We can now confidently pursue large, asset-heavy accounts, knowing our team handles the increased volume and criticality with ease. The true ‘stress test’ came in 2025 when we onboarded a single client representing 10% of our total service volume – we didn’t skip a beat.”
Gengroup's Challenges
Almost everything was done manually. Inspections were on paper. Notes were handwritten. Reports had to be retyped into PDFs. Scheduling, communication, and documentation all lived in different places. This made everyday work slow and error-prone, which delayed billing and cost real revenue, and it made finding past information a constant headache.
Simple tasks like checking the status of a crane, finding an old inspection, or preparing a customer report could take days, sometimes weeks.
Leadership didn’t always have real-time visibility into field activity, so updates often came in after work had already been completed.
In some cases, cranes remained out of service longer than expected before follow-up needs were clearly identified. When customers called ahead of audits for status updates, the team would need to pull information from multiple sources to provide a complete picture.
Without access to live data, Gengroup’s ability to respond quickly was limited, which in turn affected how efficiently they could scale and support additional customers.
Variations in how work was performed made it challenging to ensure consistency and efficiency.
To scale, they needed a system that made their process clear, repeatable, and easy to follow for every technician and office team member.
“We were totally overwhelmed with the administrative headache,” he said. “It took too long to find problems, define them, and jump on them.”
Alec Turnbull
President of Gengroup Crane
Why Gengroup Chose crewOS
Gengroup looked at multiple platforms, including inspection-only tools like InspectAll, but there was a noticeable pattern, one where most solutions required workarounds.
Inspection-only tools could digitize forms, but everything else still lived somewhere else. Scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and reporting were all disconnected.
“Everyone had a workaround,” Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane said. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, you can kind of do it this way.’ I didn’t want workarounds. I wanted something modern, straightforward, and supported.”
They wanted one platform that could support the entire operation consistently, reliably, and at scale.
They didn’t want to stitch systems together.
They didn’t want to hit a dead end after inspections.
They didn’t want different processes at every location.
crewOS stood out because it removed those risks entirely.
Instead of forcing Gengroup to adapt their business around software limitations, crewOS provided a single system for inspections, work orders, time tracking, payroll, reporting, and more, all working together in one platform.
That meant:
- No stitching tools together to fill operational gaps
- No inspection-only dead ends that stalled billing and follow-up work
- No retraining teams per location as the company grows
For Turnbull, the decision was strategic.
“We need to be better than our competitors,” he said. “It’s hard to grow when you operate the same as everyone else. crewOS lets us compete and win.”
Gengroup didn’t choose crewOS to digitize paperwork. They chose it to build a repeatable, scalable operating model that reduces risk, controls costs, and supports growth both now and in the future.
Implementation: Moving from Paper to One System
Switching from decades of paper to a modern platform seemed scary, but Gengroup’s transition was smoother than they expected.
Technicians already had some exposure to digital tools, so adapting to crewOS felt natural.
“After a single onboarding/training session with the crewOS team, our entire team was live on crewOS.” Julianna Adamusiak, Operations Coordinator
Before crewOS
With crewOS
Before crewOS
With crewOS
The crewOS Difference
Leadership:
“It’s a much more approved and simpler version of what they’d used before,” Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane, said. “Onboarding for them was pretty seamless.”
Office:
“I love it,” Julianna Adamusiak, Operations Coordinator, said. “It’s helped a lot with organization and being able to see everything you’ve ever needed.”
Engineer:
“Two or three years ago, our processes were unorganized and led to headaches,” Rushabh Brahmbhatt, Service Supervisor, said. “Now we know exactly where to go.”
Technician:
“I like this better. I don’t have to save pictures on my phone anymore to submit later. It’s all done in the app.” Randy – Overhead Crane Technician
crewOS Difference: Increased Speed That Wins More Work
One of the biggest changes for Gengroup is speed.
With crewOS, the moment an inspection is completed, technicians and managers know what to do next. That speed doesn’t just improve service. It wins more work.
“The second a tech completes an inspection, he knows what to focus on,” said Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane. “The goal is to get a quote out—or at least call the customer—while the tech is still on site. In a scenario where a customer has 20 or 50 cranes, that’s where we really shine. Now, we can service big customers more frequently than our competitors.”
crewOS Difference: Save Time and Headaches
Payroll was a huge pain point for Gengroup before crewOS.
“I’d be in on Fridays tallying numbers,” Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane said. “If guys worked over the weekend, I had to come in early Monday to redo everything before accounting needed it.”
Now with crewOS:
“They look at a report, make sure numbers look right, and submit. That’s it.”
Employees feel:
- Less burnout.
- Fewer late nights.
- Better quality of life.
crewOS Difference: An Operating Partner That Supports You
For Gengroup, features matter, but partnership matters more.
“What’s bigger than any feature is the intangible,” Alec Turnbull, President of Gengroup Crane said. “We can call and make changes. We have access to you guys. We can move ahead faster than anyone else.”
Technicians meet regularly to suggest changes.
“They come into my office and share recommendations,” Turnbull continued. “We can adjust things on the spot. They feel heard.”
This keeps adoption high and value accelerating, not stalling.
Conclusion
Gengroup is building a foundation for long-term growth.
From day one, Alec Turnbull’s goal was to make sure Gengroup never outgrew its systems. He wanted technology that could scale with the company, not hold it back.
“When we open new offices or buy other companies, we won’t be caught needing better technology,” Turnbull said. “We can grow with crewOS so we’re prepared at any time.”
With crewOS in place, Gengroup now has a repeatable, modern operating model. Every new technician, every new office, and every future acquisition can follow the same proven process. That consistency makes growth faster, smoother, and far less risky.
But for Turnbull, the real excitement is what comes next.
“What excites me is the future,” he said. “Understanding quoting, margins, what customers will buy, and looking at data and making smarter decisions. That opens a whole new world for us.”
By connecting inspections, work orders, time tracking, payroll, and reporting in one platform, Gengroup now has the data they need to think strategically, not just operationally. They can see what’s working, what isn’t, and where the next opportunity lives.
Gengroup is building a business that’s ready for whatever comes next. With crewOS, Gengroup has the systems, visibility, and confidence to grow without limits.