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Is Your Construction Business Missing Online Opportunities?
A nuts-and-bolts approach to web
utilization for contractors
BY FRED ODE
Never before has it been this
easy for construction managers
to find bidding opportunities,
subcontractors, employees,
facts about changing regulations, and
even the tools to do business than it is
now–through the world wide web.
Web-based technologies are also
making a huge impact on real-time
communication, which, according to a
recent industry-wide research report,
can save construction firms between
5 and 10% of a project’s cost.
With that in mind, how is your e-business
doing? Do you even have an
e-strategy for within your company?
Or, are you e-motionally exhausted
just thinking about it? Perhaps, but if
you focus on the opportunities and
the cost savings of e-business, you’ll
eagerly move from inertia to interactive
online use.
First, you need to ask yourself
what your business needs to accomplish.
Is your goal to reduce costs,
build relationships, be more efficient,
or all of the above? Online opportunities
are virtually limitless for any business.
But for the construction and
design industries, in particular, the
following areas are key to building
business and staying competitive.
Online bidding
Where once builders and contractors
had to rely solely on references, word-of-
mouth and the telephone, today’s
construction firm can connect to
thousands of bidding opportunities
online. In addition to huge national
sites that list open construction bids
in all areas of construction (e.g., constructionwire.com, bidocean.com,
constructionbidding.com), there are
others (e.g., BlueBook.com, nationalcontractor.com) that include your
company’s name in their listings and,
if available, a link to your website.
Most of the larger sites are fee-based,
and some (e.g., biddataline.com) will
use the parameters you give to
search the web for bidding opportunities
and notify you via e-mail when
your criteria have been met.
Even more important to your business
could be the numerous web
sites that list local, industry-specific
projects
(e.g., city.cleveland.oh.us/services/businesscenter.html) as
well as sites to states (e.g., ocnonline.com in Ohio), county or city governments,
(e.g.,
cuyctyengineers.org/notices/index.html), Port Authorities, universities, or
other public buying authorities. Depending
on your company’s area of
expertise, you should take the time to
build your own in-house online directory
and check these sites periodically
for new project listings.
Project management
Once you’ve landed that business-building
project of your dreams, you
want to make sure everything runs
smoothly and cost effectively. At the
top of your priority list should be online
communication tools to help you
manage your project every step of the
way–from the initial design through
the final construction phase. To say it
another way: use the Internet to view,
share and edit documents from remote
locations in real-time.
There are a number of online project
management products available,
and you will need to do some
research to find the one that will work
best for you. As a start, I suggest you
check out some of the following
most-used products, including constructware.com, buzzsaw.com, ebuilder.com, e-IDC.com, and primavera.com.
When selecting a tool of this kind,
you need to keep in mind such criteria
as security issues, cost per user, your
communication needs (do you need
web conferencing or will instant emails
suffice?). With CAD drawings,
blue lines and the reams of paperwork
inherent to the document-heavy
construction industry, one of the
greatest achievements in this area
involves improved graphic technology.
Some systems offer digitized
viewing of documents and papers,
while others now offer users the ability
to mark up and redline CAD drawings
and documents and to distribute
them to multiple parties quickly and at
a lower cost.
Contractor-specific resources
Almost any information important to
your business can be found online. In
fact, it can usually be found faster and
easier than any other single resource.
Everything from union issues and AIA
contracts to HUD regulations and
occupational and safety considerations
is just a mouse click away.
Need consultants who are experts in their fields and specific to your industry?
You’ll find them on the web
too. For example, zweigwhite.com
offers consulting research and business
strategies for the architecture/
engineering/construction industry and
nasbp.org lists various surety bond
professionals. Our very own
foundationsoft.com will soon offer a national
directory of CPA firms with a focus on
construction.
Think about the companies, government
offices and associations you
do business with on a regular basis.
As you would for online bidding sites, I
suggest gathering a list of web addresses
most important to your business
and adding them to your “rolodex” of favorite web sites. The
resulting list of at-your-fingertip resources
will be well worth the time
spent compiling it.
Can’t think of what to include?
How about industry-related news? No
need to maintain a library of publications
or hard-copy articles. Specific,
up-to-date information can be found
instantly via industry news sources
such as (e.g., construction.com,
sweets.com, enr.com.) Additionally
there are many industry trade publications
and association web sites (e.g.,
abc.org, agc.org, cfma.org, asaonline.com, necanet.org, apwc.org, aicnet.org, agc.org, constructech.com.) If
you’re not sure of the association web
site, look it up in bluebook.com. Another
great way to stay current is to sign up
for industry-specific clipping services
(e.g., webclipping.com, qia.com). For a
fee, you’ll receive e-mail notification of
news pertinent to your business and
according to your pre-stated criteria.
Don’t forget to include links to
businesses you associate with regularly,
including insurance, legal and tax
services. And there are business-specific
sites to consider. For example,
excavators are now taking advantage
of e-Bay like sites
(equipmentmls.com and machinerytrader.com) to buy and sell equipment.
Architects can download AIA
documents (AIA.org) for contract
negotiations with contractors. Contractors
who bid on government jobs
could save time by checking such
sites as hud.gov/offices/olr or
osha.gov. And the list goes on.
As with most things, the Internet
presents a good news/bad news
scenario. The good news is that it
allows you to access an enormous
amount of information to help your
business grow and compete. The bad
news is that your competitors have
access to this information as well.
How you use it is up to you.
Fred Ode is the founder and chairman/CEO of Foundation
Software, Inc. Ode developed a construction-specific
accounting software, Foundation for Windows,
that suits a range of trades. For more information, visit
www.foundationsoft.com or call 800-246-0800.
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