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Selecting Construction Software

riverguide_construction_software_160.jpgThe other day one of the owners of RiverGuide, Inc. contacted us and invited us to their site to look around. I was quite impressed with the concept and focus of the site. Software selection in the construction industry is something that is extremely important yet few executives and owners spend the time necessary to really make a good selection.

One very useful resource on their site is a whitepaper called The Best Practices Guide to Selecting Construction Software.

I read this cover-to-cover this morning and it should be a must-read for ANYONE who is thinking about or who is implementing any construction software.

One of the key points they make is one we always try to get people to focus on. Figure out your company work processes first, then figure out whether the software can support those processes.

If you are talking to the sales person and they can only talk to you about "features" simply thank them for their time and find another sales person.

Processes and efficiency make money - features are relatively minor details. Too often we see software that was selected based on some "neat" features that are actually never used and in the grand scheme of the business they are not even part of any process that actually makes a profit.

This would be the equivelant of selecting an excavator based on how many stations the radio gets rather than focusing on the 2-3 things that really matter such as excavation capacity and hourly operating costs yielding a production per dollar number that can truly help you make a decision.

Some of the slides from our Integrated Operations& Accounting for Contractors training module that are appropriate to this point are below.

Posted by David on February 27, 2007 07:28 AM|Permalink

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