In heavy construction, there’s a growing understanding that using specialized construction field tracking software, along with accounting software, is an essential combination. Although many ERP or accounting systems offer some project tracking features, they’re designed with accounting logic and for accounting priorities, so they don’t always deliver the timely and specialized insight into construction project […]
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Industry-wide effort establishes standards and benchmarks for heavy civil contractors. Recent publication and promotion of the Heavy Equipment Comparator by the Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) and Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) has cast new light on an important way to improve heavy equipment maintenance.
Equipment essential in heavy civil work is expensive to own, operate and maintain. Still, many contractors struggle to measure their costs and the performance of their maintenance operations and to compare that performance against that of similar companies. A task force of AEMP and CFMA members was formed in 2022 to help them do both.
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What areas of technology advancement/deployment are you focused and why?
We focus on the core workflows where profits are won and lost: estimating, resource scheduling and dispatching, performance tracking, and equipment maintenance. We provide differentiating opportunities to manage them, not only more efficiently, but also more cohesively and collaboratively through a true software platform.
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Priestly Demolition is a family-owned company incorporated in 1993 that utilizes innovation, technology, and experience to service the construction industry throughout Canada and the United States. Priestly provides various services, including excavation, hazardous material abatement and demolition. Before discovering LoadSpring, Priestly faced a choice between upgrading their on-premise equipment or migrating their entire network of applications to the Cloud. Their dilemma was two-fold: they needed a new on-premise solution or cloud service provider.
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One of the most popular thought-leadership sessions at this year’s B2W Software User Conference validated one of construction’s top challenges and presented creative solutions.
Close to 50 contractors shared experiences and ideas in the interactive roundtable session titled Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Talent. Herb Brownett, a former construction company CFO and industry veteran who consults on financial and operational topics, facilitated the discussion.
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Early adopters are praising a new ONE Platform capability that allows them to generate equipment repair requests automatically from inspection forms.
Danielle Ehler at Zutphen Contractors and Jon Ewart at GW-EX are among users confirming that the new workflow helps them to identify and complete equipment repair work more efficiently. A new video from B2W illustrates the process.
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With utility construction growing and poised for a boost from increased infrastructure spending, Utility Contractor magazine and B2W Software are teaming up for a webcast to explore how contractors can complete projects more profitably.
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Claiming with only slight hyperbole that “the fate of the heavy construction world hangs in the balance,” Bill Walton is all in as keynote speaker for the 2021 B2W User Conference. The basketball legend is preparing to share insights into big challenges, world-class performance, great teams and winning and relate them to the construction sector in his presentation on March 2.
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Paying construction employees properly isn’t easy but doesn’t have to be as hard as some contractors make it. Two recent trade media articles explain the advantages of electronic field logs over processes built around paper timecards, spreadsheets and manual data transfer. An article in Building Profits magazine focuses on using technology to eliminate payroll errors and inefficiencies.
“When you’re using paper, there are a lot of data issues that arise,” says Eric Sellman, a vice president and general manager at M.A. Mortenson. “Handwriting can be an issue. People can put hours against task codes that maybe they shouldn’t be assigning those hours to.” Patrick Holland, vice president at A.J. Coleman & Son describes the payroll information transfer prior to adopting B2W Track as time-consuming, slow and not very accurate or reliable. “Information was submitted weekly, and there were weekly disputes, depending on the diligence of the supervisor’s input,” he adds.
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With an in-person event unrealistic, B2W switched gears and redesigned its 2021 User Conference. The result is Innovation Forward, an event featuring unique opportunities for software training and technology exploration. Sessions will run in late February and early March and be set up specifically for online delivery.
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Construction fleet management and field tracking are different, but two new B2W case studies show how the move from spreadsheets to specialized software pays off in both workflows.
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Bidding faster is the goal of every estimator, and B2W Estimate includes major features and capabilities that speed up the estimating process while ensuring accuracy. However, we have paid attention to some little things too.
A keystroke or mouse click might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of creating an estimate, but each one takes time. The larger the bid, and the more bids you do, the more they add up.
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Creating an efficient, effective plan and adjusting it on the fly are big challenges in heavy construction project scheduling. Getting the latest information about assignments to the people impacted shouldn’t be.
In addition to providing enterprise-wide visibility into a central schedule, B2W Schedule makes it simple for users to push notifications about assignments by email or text message immediately, accurately and efficiently. This is another big advantage that real-time, online construction scheduling software provides over processes that rely on spreadsheets, whiteboards and the chaotic, disconnected phone calls, emails and texts that many contractors are all too familiar with.
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The equipment maintenance approach at a mid-size excavation and site work contractor that recently adopted B2W Maintain software was very typical.
The owner has a mechanical background, knows every piece of equipment inside and out and takes pride in keeping his fleet in top condition. He was managing a relatively effective maintenance program based primarily on his individual knowledge and supported by some basic spreadsheets and paper-based process.
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The recent Safety Management in the Construction Industry 2020 SmartMarket report by Dodge Data & Analytics provides a comprehensive look at efforts by contractors to improve jobsite safety. Here are three highlights related to technology and the potential safety benefits of replacing paper-based processes for data capture and analysis with a system like B2W inform.
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Whether they’re looking for performance and cost advantages across essential construction projects in general or specific ways to better use mobile construction technology and desktop applications, more and more contractors are considering the Cloud. These are the most common questions they ask us as they explore options for running B2W estimating and operations elements in a cloud environment.
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Construction management software might not command the attention of heavy machinery at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020. Savvy contractors that visit software suppliers at construction tradeshows, however, could uncover opportunities that rival or even exceed the ROI value of that shiny new hardware.
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The unlikely football hero immortalized in the blockbuster film Rudy will be a keynote speaker at the 2020 B2W Software User Conference, and a senior strategist from construction consulting firm FMI will lead a unique panel discussion on innovation and technology. The annual event for B2W users runs March 6-8 in Las Vegas, prior to CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020, North America’s largest construction trade show.
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Individually, each of these habits can improve a contractor’s ability to estimate with maximum speed and accuracy, free up more time to focus on strategy and, ultimately, win more bids at better margins. There is also strong crossover and complimentary effect across all seven, with specialized estimating software and the concept of real-time connectivity playing important supporting roles. Additional details are available in The Ultimate Guide to Heavy Civil Construction Estimating & Bidding Software.
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Switching from paper and spreadsheets to specialized software brings proven advantages to the equipment maintenance workflow. The benefits increase when that fleet management software is connected in real time with the construction scheduling and the field tracking software.
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