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Turn On a Dime to Make a Mint
As all contractors know well, no two projects are ever exactly alike and projects never go exactly as planned. Changes are inevitable throughout the entire construction lifecycle and you need to have the flexibility and capacity to adapt. When able to turn on a dime and manage changes, construction companies can save money, increase productivity, and improve profitability.
To properly manage the construction’s bid-to-cash cycle, savvy contractors are leveraging the benefits possible using a complete construction management software solution. An all-in-one solution provides end-to-end control by encompassing functionality for estimating, accounting, and project management.
Cutting Through the Chaos
Bid day is an extremely hectic time for any contractor. The more prepared you are, the better chance you have of landing the job. With an all-in-one solution, you can minimize risks and focus on the task at hand; putting out the best number to be awarded the project.
Being on top of your game is essential on bid day. There is usually a last-minute flourish of activity to prepare the final proposal with the accurate numbers and a profit margin. Subcontractors and material vendors respond or send updates to quotes up until the last minute, and estimators must be flexible and have attention to detail to be sure the right numbers are in the bid and that they’re competitive.
A complete business management solution delivers a single location where estimators have all pertinent information conveniently available to create the original estimate, consider bid day instances, issue and manage invitations to bid, and produce the final proposal and bid with accurate numbers for confidence and profitability.
Plus, with tools to better negotiate a contract, contractors can simplify design specs and provide detailed breakdowns, as well as easily identify, in real-time, what to change to save money, easily manipulate a proposal’s price on the fly, propose what-if scenarios, or make changes to the bottom line. Able to make up-to-the minute adjustments before sending a bid, contractors can react quickly during negotiations and better compete on bid day.
Don’t Be a Chump About Change
Changes to construction projects are common and can be driven by a number of internal and external issues, including: weather, site conditions, material specification changes, owner preferences, and coordination between other on-site contractors.
If you don’t manage changes effectively, you could be leaving money on the table, or worse, paying for work you are performing. Whatever the cause, contractors cannot afford to suffer loss of time or money.
To truly manage changes effectively, your team – from estimating through project management – needs to work together efficiently. All players on a project should be involved in the change management process due to the potential operational and financial impacts to your company.
Related to the earlier subject of bid day, change impacts estimators when they receive revised plans and need to takeoff a job again and recalculate for a fresh estimate. Depending on the size and the scope of the project, the estimator could spend many hours poring over multiple pages of plans to assess changes. If this were to happen on or close to bid day, there is much stress to produce the bid with the best numbers and no mistakes. However, using a complete software solution, estimators can easily compare plans, identify changes, and recalculate costs to estimate the revised project with speed and precision.
Change management is especially critical for project managers. It’s crucial to be able to assess the operational and resource requirements of any project as it is evolving. By leveraging software, project managers are better able to identify changes quickly and determine impact on the project, so they can plan to complete project within time and financial limits.
Accounting/controller professionals must also be involved in the change management process by carefully tracking the financial details of the original contract. The ability to effectively manage changes and their financial impacts are crucial to the organization’s financial health as changes can quickly drain resources if not identified immediately and managed effectively.
And, of course, owners should be particularly interested in monitoring changes and the status of change requests as they can have a significant impact on the company’s overall health both operationally and financially.
Using an inefficient or antiquated process to coordinate all the details and move them through the required steps can be painful and fraught with errors and missed opportunities that negatively impact the company’s productivity, cash flow, and the bottom line. With all-in-one software, construction companies have accurate and timely information to easily analyze, identify, estimate, budget, propose, execute, and bill for changes.
Less Digging, More Decision-Making
A complete construction management solution offers dashboards, which provide a convenient way to make informed decisions quickly, with graphical snapshots and drill-down access to important information. For example, rather than relying on frequent trips to see and update the big white board many construction businesses use to track bids and jobs in progress, they can take advantage of software’s dashboards that can be used to track and manage all moving parts of bids, projects, and financials.
Increased Agility
Changes take place at every phase of a construction project and often must be addressed in real-time. For project managers that are often at a job site or on the road and need to manage changes efficiently, it can be a disruptive process fraught with the time-sucking hassles of chasing down information and juggling questions and requests.
Contractors are familiar with using type of paper-stuffed job folders where all project-related details are maintained, which needs to be continually updated and is in the possession of a single person at the company. However, with a software solution’s virtual binder of real-time accurate project information that’s easily accessible by anyone in the business, whether in the office or in the field, contractors can more efficiently manage projects, minimize risks, stay on schedule, and maximize profitability.
Having anytime, anywhere access to data (via iPad application, for example), contractors are able to manage with timely decision-making, and can easily track progress of projects, be more agile in the field, and better account for all aspects of the job from beginning to end.
About the Author
Jim Flynn is President & CEO at Maxwell Systems, a leading provider of complete construction software solutions for estimating, job cost accounting, and project management. For more information, please visit www.maxwellsystems.com or e-mail jflynn@maxwellsystems.com.
To learn more about a complete construction software solution for concrete construction and general construction, please contact Maxwell Systems at 800-688-8226.
