By Steve Antill, Foundation Software

As the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions continue at the start of 2021, the dust is still settling for contractors and the construction industry. Although a stimulus package and recovery could be on the way, in the meantime, contractors’ focus should remain on finishing existing projects while preparing their business for whatever the future holds. To be ready for what’s in store, contractors need a plan — or, more specifically, an IT plan. A formal IT plan can help contractors explore viable tech options to increase the efficiency of their business, even in the face of the unfamiliar.

Keeping Ahead of the Competition

A good IT plan can save your business time and money, improve remote work, speed up workflow and strengthen data security, but it also helps to keep you competitive. That extra edge will be necessary to keep up as seemingly more and more contractors are beginning to realize the extra benefits technology brings to their businesses. In its 2021 Construction Hiring and Business Report, Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) stated that over 25% of respondents said that they planned to increase spending on tech for document management, project management, accounting, estimating, and human resources. 

Along with this increase in individual pieces of software, IT plans are also beginning to take a more rounded approach by looking at the entire picture of the tech platform to increase efficiency at every step of the way. Assessing which programs and platforms are client-hosted compared to vendor-hosted, for instance, helps to make sure that future software decisions align with IT plans. By having this mapped out ahead of time, owners can get a clearer picture of how they should proceed when implementing new technology, and ultimately reduce costs.

However, from finding the right product or platform to getting the team to use the technology correctly, it doesn’t always go according to plan. According to AGC, while over 60% of contractors indicated that they had a formal IT plan that supports business initiatives — compared to 48% in 2019 — many still struggle with choosing tech and training employees to use their technology effectively. By creating an effective plan — and sticking to it — contractors can succeed in their tech goals throughout every stage of the process.

Starting your own IT plan

Often, the best place to start creating your IT plan is by reviewing what you already have. Begin talking with your IT person or perform your own internal audit to get an idea of the software and systems you currently have in place, along with which of those programs integrate to “talk” to one another. Next, list the areas of your business that you know need improvement. In Foundation Software’s 2020 Construction Business Report, for example, 41% of contractors noted that they needed better communication between teams. 32% contractors struggled with manual processes, and 17% had problems with the lack of mobile and integrated technology. As common areas where problems tend to pop up, these may be good areas to begin your review. 

(Fig. 1 Construction Business Report)

With your audit of current tech complete, list out some of the needed features that your current tech doesn’t have. If you have one, talk to your IT person to see what feedback they have. Similarly, see what the office staff likes and dislikes about your current tech — and make sure not to leave out the field team, either! They may have different problems or encounter other issues that your office staff doesn’t. Keep this wish list in mind to help you narrow down your search to the technology you actually need and not just the software or tech that looks “pretty.” As always, whenever you’re looking for new tech, make sure it’s addressing your needs first. 

Keeping your employees involved in the IT plan also helps make it easier for them to “buy in” to any changes that have to occur. While a few employees may suffer from technophobia and be naturally resistant to any tech changes, putting new systems in place or altering the steps to routine processes can be frustrating for everyone involved. On top of that, new tech almost always requires more training, disrupting already busy schedules while making more demands from the staff to fit in training time.  Because of this, it’s important to keep your employees in the loop with your tech plans.  If there’s a feature that makes their tasks easier, you may not want to get rid of it — or specifically invest in new technology because it offers that feature if they don’t have it. It can make all the difference in how work moves through the office.

Exploring integrations

After finding what you and your employees need from your tech, talk to your software vendors to see what suggestions they have, even if it’s for products they don’t specifically offer. Ideally, your vendor will have a solution that addresses all your needs while also integrating with your current software. 

Through integrations, you can connect separate programs together to allow for cross-usage that normally wouldn’t be possible. For instance, a contractor may have software that specializes in job costing, but they may find that they’re spending too much time moving that data over to their bidding estimate software. With the right integration, they’ll be able to access job costing data and features right from the bidding software’s interface. In the end, this results in saving time while also preventing any costly re-entry mistakes.

Many contractor’s IT plans often fail to include services that work with each other, resulting in more time wasted on entering the same data in multiple locations. According to the 2020 JB Knowledge ConTech Report, over 22% of construction workers said they use over 6+ construction-based apps. Not only can this cause “app fatigue” for your staff from having to cycle through all of these programs but without integrations connecting these different tools it also becomes too easy for data to become scattered and segmented across multiple platforms. With the proper integrations in place, necessary information can be easily shared with minimal user intervention, ultimately reducing errors and creating a single source of truth for your data. 

What’s on the horizon

While projections initially were thrown off by the COVID-19 pandemic, contractors may see government relief sometime within the next few months. But in the meantime, don’t sit around waiting for recovery to just happen. Be proactive about improving your workflow through information technology. Forming an IT plan will help you recognize areas you can improve in the short and long term and prepare you for whatever the future holds. 

About the Author

Steve Antill is the CRO at Foundation Software and Payroll4Construction.com, where he leads the charge for continual revenue growth, including new entry points into market to serve contractors. He invests much of his time building partnerships and relationships across the construction industry with contractors, CPA firms, associations and technology vendors. Over 20 years, he’s led more than 1,000 software selections and implementations for contractors of numerous sizes and trades.

Foundation Software delivers job cost accounting, project management and mobile applications, along with payroll services, to help contractors run the business side of construction. For information, call (800) 246-0800 or email info@foundationsoft.com.