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How can construction software limit construction costs?
Paul Madeira, Causeway Middle East COO, answers almost everywhere from a bid to the final account. Savings in time and money can be gained in automating the estimating process to provide a faster bid delivery. Specialist providers have developed a number of enabling technologies that provide clients with very demonstrable returns resulting in significant savings in the contractor’s supply chain.
Peter Cheney, Buildsmart managing director, answers our product can view what developers and contractors are spending on site and what they have left to spend. They can also track changes in the project and make sure that their budget takes into account these variables. If you beat what you are allowed to spend, then you can maximise profits.
Why is using construction software more useful in today’s market than it was during boom times?
Peter Cheney, Buildsmart managing director, answers during boom times margins are important but, they are not that important. If a project is to turn bad it would be immediately financed by another one. In bad times it’s a different situation because now they [developers] are not pulling in projects one after the other, so the projects they do have are becoming critical and, in turn, margins become critical.
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Paul Madeira, Causeway Middle East COO, answers if you accept that software solutions can help an organisation in all aspects of operating a good business, then I honestly believe that it is important to consider construction software at any period of time. Having said that, construction software can and does assist in the professional management of projects and has very visible benefits during harder times.
What are the current challenges faced with construction software?
Peter Cheney, Buildsmart managing director, answers our challenge is to make sure that all departments share the information that they have. If the payroll department keeps all its information in its domain, they cannot make it available to a person who really needs to know about it. These people need to know about a situation as its happening and not after, because cash flows on a continual basis. We have put software together that can manage all of this.
Paul Madeira, Causeway Middle East COO, answers the limitations are more to do with adoption than the software itself. As an industry, we are lagging behind others in the adoption of technology to solve business problems. With regards to the technology itself, Causeway’s view has always been to provide the industry with a platform to manage the entire contracting process from bid management, procurement, commercial cost management of projects, and financial accounting.
Where do you see the software market heading over the next five years?
Peter Cheney, Buildsmart managing director, answers Bill Gates said some years ago that the internet is the next big thing. He was right – everything we do now is web-based and makes use of the internet as a communication tool. This suits the construction industry down to the ground because it’s decentralised. So, we think software is going to be internet based and available to, hopefully, everywhere on the planet.
Paul Madeira, Causeway Middle East COO, answers There will continue to be consolidation in the market place for vendors that sell, specifically, to niche parts of the construction supply chain. We also believe that more and more companies will move from traditional hosted extranet collaboration systems to their own internal document and content management platforms that have the ability to extend to third parties.
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