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If you’re trying to grow your company without increasing your overhead, the secret is to make your resources go as far as possible. And the two most significant resources you have are your time and money. Using them as effectively as possible means choosing the right tools to help you build efficiently. 

Your teams are juggling work on limited bandwidth, struggling to stay organized and on task. Without efficient communications, they won’t be able to avoid rework. All of these setbacks are cutting into your ability to deliver projects on time, and under budget.

In order to help you grow your company, make it easier to run, and free up time in your day, start thinking about how software can help take your business to the next level. Here are four major ways to do just that:

1. Become more attractive to your stakeholders

You need to set yourself apart from your competitors. Organizations commissioning new projects should associate your company with innovation, vision, and continuous improvement. You can accomplish this by embracing new software that makes the jobs of project owners easier. Your software solutions can give owners visibility into your project, giving them confidence in you and your business. Openness about where the project stands, what you are doing to drive it forward, and how you are proactively approaching any risks can boost your reputation. Share any insight you can to show that you would be an asset to their long-term strategies.

Not only is it an asset to allow stakeholders benefits with your software solution, some project owners are even mandating the use of select software providers.

“The value and efficiencies provided by ���Ǵ��� prompted us to mandate that our general contractors use it. It is a significant part of Aligned’s ability to execute in some amazingly short timelines when it comes to delivering capacity,” says Andrew Schaap, CEO at Aligned, a leader in the data center space.  

2. Attract and retain great talent

Younger generations are now growing up with technology and learning to use construction software in school with programs like . It’s no surprise they expect their future positions to utilize tech to enable them to perform their job better and faster.

For example, tech proficiency is no longer optional for students pursuing an AEC degree. Skills that are used to differentiate candidates are now considered baseline requirements. These students are eager to learn, and for institutions to keep up, companies like ���Ǵ��� equip universities with the resources to educate the next generation of construction professionals.

“���Ǵ��� allows us to train our students on the software that’s actually being used in the industry, giving them a leg up on the competition when they graduate,” said Phillip Barlow, a professor from Calpolytechnic State University, which participates in the ���Ǵ���.org program along with 255 other top universities around the globe.

Using industry-leading software is not just expected by graduates. According to recent studies, companies who use software solutions are retaining talent at a higher rate than those who aren’t. 

A recent 2021 ���Ǵ��� ROI customer survey indicated that companies using ���Ǵ��� found that it helped with attracting talent acquisition. Sixteen percent of survey respondents said it also increased employee retention.

It’s no secret that employee retention is important to your bottom line—simply because employee turnover is expensive. reported that the direct costs for replacing an employee could reach as high as 60% of an employee’s annual salary—with total costs associated with turnover ranging from 90% to 200%.

3. Use a cost management solution that shows you where you’re losing money

The industry standard is no longer an ERP that is an “all-in-one system” for your field and office teams. Clunky accounting systems remain a record of truth but are unable to give field teams the visibility needed to see where they’re making or losing money.  

From gauging the real-time financial impact of labor costs and productivity against budget to managing financial risk with actionable monthly cash flow forecasts, cost management is all about reliable, enhanced reporting. The conclusions, in turn, should be trusted and built upon. Linking project management workflows to real-time cost management will connect the office accounting team with the project field teams. The result: digitally precise, collaborative, data-driven practices that promise a new era of true project control and clarity.

“The technology you use to manage project scope and schedule needs to connect to the technology you use to manage cost. We believe the second wave of construction’s digital transformation is here, and collaborative real-time cost management is at the forefront of it,” said ���Ǵ��� CEO Tooey Courtemanche at last April.

Cost Management allows you to have a true sense of where you are making or losing money in real time, allowing you to course-correct and avoid profit fade to finish projects on time and on budget.

4. Increase efficiency with a single technology solution

As you start to research how to grow your business, a technology solution that handles different aspects of your project is usually at the top of the list of ways to accomplish this.

Technology in the construction industry has taken off in recent years. However, to our many sorrows, it’s often only created more spaces for data, more silos, and more places for information to fall through the cracks. 

This wasn’t news to TEAM Construction, a general contractor based out of Las Vegas, who has used the full array of solutions.

“I’ve personally been through three or four construction management/accounting software launches in my career,” said TEAM Construction’s co-owner David Noble. “Starting with CMiC back in early 2000, SAGE products, Master Builder, Raken for our daily reporting and our safety, PlanGrid for document management—It was just a whole slew of things.

“Then we started getting introduced to ���Ǵ��� and what it could do. The expansiveness and inclusiveness of the platform, having all these different software solutions in ���Ǵ���’s one-stop platform—that really created efficiencies for us as an organization.”

An “all-in-one” technology solution like ���Ǵ��� marries Project Management and Cost Management, essentially allowing you to have all of your data on a project in one single place. This approach creates efficiencies with streamlined workflows and connected tools as well as accurate reporting that would otherwise be impossible. 

“Since we started using ���Ǵ���, there is a synergy to what they’re doing and how they’re doing it,” said TEAM Construction’s Project Engineer, Craig Bowers. “Before, we’d gone 10 years where everybody was doing their own thing. Getting everybody on the same platform, working the same way—that’s been a huge improvement. It’s allowed our organization to go from $20 million, to $40 million, to $100 million a year.”