Canadian electrical contractors carry millions in street lighting, signals, and surplus inventory that never gets reused — because purchasing can only search by exact SKU. RunBlu's AI-powered Stock Identifier finds functional matches across vendors, forces in-stock buying first, and turns eroding assets into recovered capital.
The Material Control Layer for Canadian Electrical Contractors — $10M to $100M
The RunBlu Advantage
Your team searches by part number. If the SKU doesn't match exactly, the system says “out of stock” — even when a functionally identical product from another vendor is sitting 40 feet away. So purchasing writes a new PO, margin erodes, and the yard keeps growing.
RunBlu's Proprietary Stock Identifieruses AI near-matching to recognize that Vendor A's luminaire is a functional match for the Vendor B stock already in your yard. It searches across manufacturers, cross-references specifications, and surfaces what you already own — before a single dollar leaves the company.
$1.2M+
Average eroding inventory for a $30M electrical contractor — street lighting, signals, and surplus that sits unused because nobody knows it's a match.
87%
Of “out of stock” results are false negatives — a compatible product exists on-site but doesn't match the exact SKU searched.
40–60%
Capital recovery potential in year one when in-stock buying is enforced before new procurement — margin protection at the point of purchase.
How It Works
RunBlu creates operational rigidity around material flow. Every item that enters your yard is identified, indexed, and made available for reuse — before purchasing ever opens a vendor catalogue.
Every material delivery is captured at the tailgate — quantities, conditions, photos. Returns from job sites are logged the same way. Nothing enters the yard without a record.
RunBlu's Stock Identifier ingests every item — cross-referencing vendor part numbers, specifications, and functional equivalencies. It builds a living index of what you own, not just what your vendor calls it.
When a job needs material, RunBlu searches your existing inventory first — using near-matching, not exact SKU. It surfaces functional equivalents across vendors and enforces in-stock buying before any new PO is created.
The Financial Case
Millions in usable inventory is sitting in your yard right now, invisible to purchasing. RunBlu's near-matching unlocks that capital by surfacing functional equivalents that would otherwise be repurchased.
Recover what you already own.
Every unnecessary PO is margin walking out the door. By enforcing in-stock buying at the point of purchase — not after the fact — RunBlu protects project margins before they erode.
Stop the bleed at the source.
No more tribal knowledge about what's in the yard. No more “I think we have some.” RunBlu creates an enforceable material process — receiving, indexing, allocation, procurement — that doesn't depend on who's working that day.
Process that outlasts people.
Exact SKU Search (The Status Quo)
Purchasing searches by vendor part number — misses functional equivalents from other manufacturers
Street lighting and signals inventory depreciates in the yard because it doesn't match the spec sheet SKU
New POs issued for material you already own — margin erodes on every project
Yard becomes a graveyard of "eroding assets" that never get reused
CFO sees growing inventory value on the books but zero capital recovery
AI Near-Matching (RunBlu)
AI identifies that Vendor A's luminaire is a functional match for Vendor B's stock in your yard
Multi-vendor price search finds the lowest-cost option — including what you already own at $0
In-stock buying enforced before new procurement — margin protected at point of purchase
Dead inventory converted to active capital — eroding assets become recovered revenue
Full audit trail: what was reused, what was purchased, and why — CFO gets clean reporting
Street lighting, signals, wire reels by footage, conduit by stick count. AI near-matching across vendors like Eaton, Hubbell, and Acuity — so your yard stock gets used before new POs get written.
Ductwork, pipe, fittings, and equipment from fab shop to rooftop. Custom fabrications tracked from shop drawing to installation.
Copper, PVC, cast iron — pipe, valves, fixtures, and rough-in kits. High volume, repetitive materials where over-ordering compounds fast.
One dashboard, every trade. See every subcontractor's material flow on the project without chasing spreadsheets.
A material control layer is a system that sits between procurement, field operations, and financial systems to provide real-time visibility into material state across the full lifecycle — from purchase order to installation to reconciliation. Unlike ERPs or inventory apps, it tracks the physical material itself, not just the transaction.
ERPs track dollars and transactions. Inventory apps track what's on a shelf. RunBlu tracks the material itself through six enforced states: Ordered, Received, Stored, Allocated, Installed, and Reconciled. Every state change is an immutable event. When RunBlu says you have 200 feet of conduit in Bay 4, it means someone put it there, nobody has moved it, and it's not allocated to another job.
RunBlu is built for specialty trade contractors including electrical, mechanical/HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, and civil contractors, as well as general contractors who need visibility across all subcontractor material flows. It's designed for contractors in the $5M to $50M revenue range.
RunBlu is implemented in four sprints over 17 to 24 weeks: Foundation, Receiving, Allocation, and Readiness. We configure the system around your workflows, train your people, and go live together. It's not a plug-and-play app — it's a controlled rollout designed around how your team actually works.
Contractors typically recover $400K to $700K in working capital in year one through reduced over-purchasing, waste elimination, and improved reconciliation. The average contractor over-purchases 10-20% of material due to unreliable inventory data. Eliminating that alone often delivers 13x+ ROI.
Yes. RunBlu is the material control layer — Procore is the project management layer. They're complementary systems. RunBlu integrates with Procore as well as accounting systems like QuickBooks and Sage.
We'll analyze your current inventory, identify eroding assets, and show you exactly what's recoverable. No slides. No pitch deck. Just the numbers — and a clear path to margin protection.