Stahly Engineering
Download
Stahly Engineering
's full story here.
Background
Stahly Engineering is a fast growing civil engineering firm specializing in site development, transportation, water planning and grant writing with 5 offices in Montana and Wyoming, and quickly planning to open a 6th. In 2022, under the leadership of Amy Strainer, Stahly started their journey with Mosaic to manage backload and better manage who is going to get the work done, when.
The Challenge
Before Mosaic, Stahly used Deltek’s planning module, which was supposed to integrate projects, people, and schedules in one place. However, the tool was not the most reliable: when tasks weren’t updated on time the system would redistribute hours unrealistically, inflating workloads to look like one person was working 120 hours in a single week. Employees stopped updating the tool, the data became useless, and the module was abandoned altogether.
From there, the organization relied on improvised solutions. Large projects sometimes used Microsoft Project, but there was no consistent, one-size-fits-all approach. An Excel spreadsheet was introduced to track backlog and roughly project staff hours on a three-month horizon. The manual updates meant people entered guesses or adjusted numbers to make revenue targets appear achievable, which reduced trust in the process. The company even explored building custom software, but concerns about cost, maintenance, and potential incompatibility with Deltek updates led them to drop that idea. The end result was a patchwork system that lacked accuracy and reliability for long-term planning.
Stahly was in need of a tool that would allow their schedules, hours, and backlogs to be organized in one place and easily updated.
The Solution
After struggling with Deltek’s planning module, ad hoc spreadsheets, and inconsistent use of Microsoft Project, the team needed a system that could scale with different project sizes and provide accurate, reliable visibility into workloads. Mosaic was brought in specifically to address poor resource management and forecasting challenges.
Unlike the earlier tools, Mosaic integrated their project and people data in a way that gave leadership a clearer picture of backlog, timelines, and capacity. It also adapted to their varied project sizes and helped eliminate the guesswork and “made-up” inputs that plagued the Excel approach. Amy emphasized that Mosaic listened to their firm’s specific needs and helped shape solutions that worked in practice, rather than forcing a rigid one-size-fits-all process. This collaborative, tailored approach ultimately replaced their patchwork system with a more sustainable and trustworthy solution.
The Results
Better visibility and planning: Mosaic helped eliminate the old issues of overloaded schedules and guesswork, giving leadership a clearer picture of backlog and staffing. Mosaic improved their ability to expand projects and manage workloads more realistically.
Operational impact: Mosaic significantly improved how the company managed resources and the confidence with which they made decisions.
Since planning on Mosaic, Stahly Engineering’s revenue and headcount have been climbing:
- Stahly’s full-time employee count has grown from 53 to 65
- Stahly’s revenue continues to grow each year, increasing by 17.4% after their first year with Mosaic, 12.3% after their second year, and 8% after their third.
Conclusion
Stahly Engineering’s experience highlights the importance of having a purpose-built resource management solution that adapts to the realities of a growing firm. By moving away from unreliable modules, spreadsheets, and ad hoc tools, the team was able to replace guesswork with clarity. Mosaic provided the visibility needed to understand backlog, allocate resources realistically, and make informed decisions about staffing and project timelines.
The long-term benefits are evident: stronger operational discipline, consistent revenue growth, and the ability to scale headcount with confidence. With Mosaic, Stahly established a planning process that empowers leadership to focus on growth and trust the system to keep projects and people aligned.
.svg){kind=small}