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Getting More Efficient Through Technology

By Charlie Blore

On construction sites and in sales trailers from coast to coast, builders are constantly looking to improve their mobile communication and management tools. In fact, it’s arguably the fastest growing class of tools in the industry today.
Keeping up with all this change can be difficult. What are the newest tools on the market? Is it time for me to upgrade? These are questions that builders are asking of themselves and the companies that deliver their technological solutions.
According to Bell Canada’s vice-president of business sales, Michael Weening, however, the builders with the most to gain are those who don’t even know what they’re missing.
“[Customer interest] started out with tracking, and now it’s gone to: ‘You know what? We can get a lot of data from this; how can I use that to improve how I run my business?’,” Weening says.
Indeed, in the past, mobile solutions have been about improving communication between the field and the office. From being able to take photos in the field to having the ability to complete paperless reports in the field to tracking assets, these are some of the more well known functions of the last generation of mobile tools.
The next generation, however, seems to be focusing more on productivity, both in terms of measuring it and maximizing it. This class of tools is giving builders quantifiable information about how their employees work, which they can then act upon to deliver measurable efficiency improvements.
This new generation operates often as an extension of tracking software. Bell’s Mobile Resource Management software series, for example, not only allows companies to not only track assets in the field but can provide them with detailed information about how those assets are used. This data can include idle times and even detailed information about how specific functions of the asset are used. Weening cites a particular example as illustrative of how builders are using the next generation of tracking software.
“[The company] had a CAT, and whereas a normal operator would shift the automated transmission from forward to reverse 100 times in a period, this operator was doing it 1000 times. And what it led to was that the CAT was going in [for maintenance] at a faster rate,” says Weening. “When a bulldozer goes in for maintenance there are the costs of repair but also for that machine not being available.”
Weening notes that builders have reported the savings to them, in terms of labour hours and maintenance on equipment, can exceed tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Communications in a Box
Another key issue for builders, particularly in remote rural areas, is connectivity. Having access to the signals necessary to operate wirelessly can be a bit of a challenge. Bell currently offers a one-stop solution that allows builders to connect to whatever they need, no matter where they are.
The Site Boss is a briefcase-sized hub, which provides internet access as well as voice-over-ip and fax-over-ip communication.
“In the past, getting a land line on remote locations or getting internet access could be difficult and time consuming,” says Weening. “Now, with the Site Boss product, it’s literally a suitcase that provides you all the connectivity you need to run a site.”

Eliminating Double Entry
The common thread through all these solutions is that they maximize productivity and minimize wasted resources. To that end, builders are increasingly looking for systems that reduce the need for double entry and the potential errors stemming from it.
Corecon offers software solutions that do just that, and are geared toward small and medium-sized builders. Corecon’s software fills the holes between Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel, which most small and medium-sized builders use for everything from job costing to scheduling and ordering.
“If there’s a husband and wife team, which is just the typical customer, he might be on the job site and he’s recording information, and the wife is receiving the paperwork from the suppliers, sub-trades and staff,” notes Ian Broadfoot, Canadian reseller for Corecon. “So the first value is eliminating duplicate entry. The second is that because you’re eliminating duplicate entry, there’s a reduced chance of error. And of course there’s a time savings in that you don’t have to do it twice.”

Tailor-made Solutions
Of course there’s always the possibility that your business has a need to fill, and none of the resources currently on the market fit the bill. Luckily, there are companies like Builder Lynx which you can turn to for custom made solutions.
“We build software, as a service, to help the builder manage his business better – whether its sales, construction, delivery, after-sales service or finances, we basically help them track information more effectively,” says Anthony Moots, vice president of Builder Lynx.
The company can build those solutions alongside, or overtop of, your existing systems, and can deliver you access to these solutions through web-based platforms on your computer or mobile device.
Strong communication and efficient work are crucial to the success of any business. Technology has done and continues to do a tremendous amount to improve both in the construction industry. Sometimes just knowing what solutions exist in the market can be half the battle.


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