Architectural Engineering Construction General Contractors

Construction companies face a unique subset of challenges in implementing effective IT strategies to support their business...

...The challenges encountered are centered around the diversity of work roles.  For instance, an Estimating department generates contract leads, assembles job bids, communicates with subcontractors and ultimately has to submit a bid in a time-critical setting under tight security.  Estimators need high availability, fast communications and secure systems in a single location.  Conversely, a Building department is generally running several projects simultaneously, each from a local management site near or on the job-site, but needs reliable access to central data systems, central communication facility and reliable communication channels to sub-contractors.  there are usually specific requirements for communications by the job owner, where documents must be synchronized or maintained between internal data systems and an outside party (particularly for local and state government-oriented work) necessitating a flexible approach that can be extended to connect with the job owner’s systems in a robust and secure way.

Each departments is crucial to the value stream for your business.  They must be provided with the right tools and handled with the right understanding and expectations to provide the level of service to support and enhance their business operations.

These firms deal with the development of Land, buildings, rehab etc. The companies will be unique in that they typically will run multiple companies out of one office or it will be centered on the remote aspects of the projects being worked on

• Software utilized could be Sage Timberline several modules could be used from Accounting, Project Management, Estimating
• Remote workers utilizing VPN technology
• Remote email
• Terminal server Thin Client technologies
• Workers in most cases could be working in trailers
• Technology knowledge is extremely minimal on the end-users side of the business
• Uptime while always important is not a critical need in most cases
• Reliability and storage of files is important
• Loss of client information could translate into $$$ lost
• Collaboration tools could be important
• SharePoint and development opportunities possible
• Large amounts of data are present on the network (pictures, PPT, multimedia)
• FTP Data
• Mobile access to email
• Contact Management (Goldmine, ACT! or custom application)
• Mobile device access