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April 2010 >>
Gain Operational Efficiency with Field-to-Office Software
For contractors, overcoming the inherent challenges of managing multiple customers and subcontractors across jobsites, producing accurate estimates and preventing paperwork bottlenecks can seem insurmountable.
A shift, first in mindset and then in processes, can alleviate traditional headaches like delayed billing due to missing or slow-to-be-filed paperwork, miscalculations due to transcription errors and confusion about how a job’s progress compares to the estimate.
From an owner’s perspective, the contractor hiring process used to be limited to price, résumé and safety record. A fourth factor, accountability, is now taken into account. Project owners expect visibility into cost overruns and productivity. Because these tools are available, contractors that can offer accountability and real-time visibility into processes are coming out ahead, especially in a recessionary economy in which every dollar counts.
From a contractor’s perspective, the challenge is to develop accurate estimates, evaluate job completion percentages throughout the project, and finish the job on time and on budget. Often, data capturing is a disjointed, disorganized process fraught with needless duplication of effort and too many reporting mechanisms—from punchcards for timekeeping to paper-based purchase orders, delivery slips and receipts.
Onsite Data Capture
Information flow for generic accounting software is woefully inappropriate for the construction industry because information for contractors flows from the field into the office, not the other way around. Simply adopting a technology solution with a field-in approach is not sufficient. Field data capture solutions that send raw data in from the field—but fail to process this data and integrate it into the contractor’s existing back-office accounting and reporting software—do not maximize efficiency.
Solutions that offer seamless integration with back-office systems are best because they improve processes and eliminate duplication. Inefficient common practices may mean that jobsite information is recorded and then re-recorded as often as five times before it reaches home base to be entered into an accounting system and properly processed.
Software solutions that capture data in the field and instantaneously route it into back-office systems not only eliminate paperwork headaches and transcription errors and speed up the process of billing and payroll, they also provide accurate, real-time, actionable information to enable contractors to better manage their crews and assess materials, labor and other variables.
Using a software platform that provides such visibility enables contractors to provide specific information to their customers about issues that may have impacted productivity. In some job environments, weather may play a role, or the cost of materials or labor may change. Understanding exactly what is happening in the field at all times is a significant competitive advantage.
Purchasing Decisions
Another old business paradigm that needs to be challenged is who makes key software purchasing decisions. This function (which can be construed as either a burden or an opportunity) is shifting from CFOs to operations executives. Having COOs and CEOs make software purchasing decisions is more sound from a business perspective because these executives need the most visibility into business processes.
The problems traditionally associated with reporting and billing can be eliminated using the right technology and assigning software selection to the right group of people. Contractors that realize this will better weather current economic conditions and come out ahead of their competitors.
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Friday, September 3, 2010