Do you feel intense competition from firms at home and abroad? Is there pressure on your company to innovate? Are the administrative demands of your business overwhelming?
You are not alone. Businesses in the construction industry and construction management must have the capacity to prove themselves within a competitive market environment favouring companies with flexible project management and optimized use of material resources.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a solution that gives you a range of integrated solutions to support every aspect of your construction business, including planning, revenue estimates, and project control.
So, what is ERP software, and what are the benefits it provides for the construction industry?
What Is An ERP System?
An ERP system consists of integrated software applications to standardize, streamline and integrate business processes of human resources, distribution, supply chain, finance, procurement, and many other departments depending on the company setup. Usually, ERP systems run on an integrated platform that uses standard data definitions based on a single database.
Advantages Of ERP Systems For Construction Companies
One of the most challenging decisions you may face is picking the best ERP system for your construction business. The decision is made even more difficult by the massive range of capabilities and features you need to consider. As with any industry, choosing a provider with industry experience is crucial.
Steadfast Solutions has proven experience in the setup and maintenance of enterprise ERP systems for companies throughout Australia. Some of the benefits we offer businesses include:
1. Management Of Business Costs
If you are like most construction companies, you will likely engage with your clients on a contractual basis. Before you acquire the tender for a construction project, you need to submit a bid containing cost estimates.
Because different clients have unique priorities, they pick a winning bid based on a company’s reputation, the proposed design, and, most crucially, the estimated cost in the proposal.
ERP software could help you gain an advantage by determining an accurate estimate for material, labour, design, and project milestones and timelines. As a result, there is a negligible deviation between the actual costs and your projections.
Besides estimating the costs, construction ERP solutions also allow you to establish your revenues and determine how much profit or loss a project generates. As such, you can better manage your time, costs, and resources in future projects.
2. Integration Of Business Solutions
Your business consists of many moving parts, from payroll and accounting to supplies and operations. You must record all these internal activities, as well as every piece of data that you collect from your clients, business partners, and suppliers. Your entire company requires access to this data so that your team can make informed decisions — but how do you manage it all and still handle your day-to-day tasks?
ERP systems will help your construction company, no matter its size, consolidate all the information you receive from different sources and streamline your operations. With a fully integrated ERP solution, you can aggregate all your data into a single database, letting you automate and manage business processes and procedures across your enterprise from within a unified platform.
A well-implemented ERP system enables your company to reduce the time needed to complete almost all your business processes.
3. Project Planning
Within the framework of the construction industry, poor planning results in substandard work on projects and the possible downfall of a company. As a contractor, you could face heavy losses in labour costs and lost business due to delayed completion of your projects. Such lower your profits, dents your company’s reputation, and erodes your clients’ goodwill.
Better channelling of resources for timely project completion depends on effective planning for effective use of your workforce, architectural designs, schedules, and raw materials.
Implementing a construction ERP system will help you plan your budgetary allocations and control your expenses. ERP software will also help your company avoid downtime, construction delays, and possible contractual problems with your clients during project implementation.
4.Data Security
One of the significant advantages of an ERP solution for your construction company is data security.
In essence, data is at the heart of all ERP systems. By allowing easy sharing of company data across your functional silos like finance, marketing, customer service, operations, and more, you enhance the overall efficiency of your business.
However, widespread, enterprise-wide access to data requires you to control who can view and edit information. If each functional unit operates a disparate system, securing the different data stores and ensuring that data remains secure when transferred from one team to the next can be a nightmare.
Construction ERP solutions have built-in access controls and security measures to ensure data integrity. With a unified database and single input system, these platforms make it much easier for administrators to improve the accuracy and security of data.
5. Enhanced Communication And Collaboration
Communication and collaboration are crucial for the success of your business. Efficient management of internal operations requires clear and regular communication between employees. However, you might find that your teams work in silos due to the time and effort that cooperation requires. However, the intrinsic communication features of modern ERP solutions make collaboration simple.
Your construction ERP system not only has email but could include chat, video forums, and mobile text messaging for more accessible interdepartmental communication. As a result, your staff, including those working remotely on project sites, receive real-time bulletins, notices, and updates.
Talk To Steadfast Solutions For ERP Systems For Your Construction Company
Having a full-featured ERP system to link all your business processes is not enough. You need experienced experts to map all its functions to your business units and ensure that it is robustly set up and properly maintained.
Steadfast Solutions, one of Australia’s leading IT services companies, has a team of software experts that provide a range of business technology services to companies in Perth and Brisbane. We serve a broad spectrum of clients, from professional organizations to manufacturing firms and construction companies.
Get in touch with us, and let us provide your company with an ERP solution that will give you an edge over your competitors.