ConstructionOnline Blog

Congratulations! You did it!

After hours of painstaking research, budget discussions, software demos, and exploratory trials, you sealed the deal on the ideal construction project management software for your company.

. . . Now what?

It may feel overwhelming when you are first tasked with getting your new-to-you construction management software up and running at your company, but that's where we come in - the experts who make up ConstructionOnline's Success Team. Our goal is your success, and we'll show you that better project management is as easy as 1, 2, 3…

Some construction professionals have dismissed the importance of customer service in the construction industry, not worrying if the customer experience is good, as long as the project result meets expectations. Don’t make this mistake - your company is not a single-dimensional company. Yes, you are a construction company, so you must provide quality construction services. However, the customer is the reason for your work, and so the entirety of their experience matters, not just the result. Extraordinary customer experiences create happy customers, and happy customers generate new business.

In my role as Success Coordinator for UDA ConstructionOnline, I’ve worked with hundreds of construction teams who have found that the implementation of UDA’s industry-leading construction estimating software has led to substantial revenue growth for their companies. Oftentimes, a company’s success can be determined early on by the priority they place on the simple things. For new customers getting started or current customers who are looking to do more, these are the three best practices that can be applied to support your success with construction estimating software -

Webster’s Dictionary says that success is “a favorable or desired outcome.” This means that to develop your definition of success, you will need to first identify the measurable outcomes you are hoping to achieve with your endeavor – allowing you to recognize the milestones of your success as they are reached. 

Known mainly for his military and political achievements, President Dwight D. Eisenhower found success following a principle he shared often, “[w]hat is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” In construction project management, the Urgent-Important principle suggests that project managers should ensure they are prioritizing the important tasks that might not have immediate deadlines. Here are three tasks that we think are highly important for construction projects that may not set off any of your urgent alarms.

Depending on who you talk to, the term “Change Order” can solicit a broad range of reactions. The most common reactions might include heavy sighs, eye rolls, or pursed lips, while some uncommon ones could have you ducking for cover as every object within reach comes flying at your head. For many, Change Orders have done more than enough damage to a bottom line to warrant the type of disgust merely whispering the word can invoke. For others, however, Change Orders are the golden goose; these select few have mastered the art of the Change Order, and these are the ones you should be paying attention to. 

A favorite adage of mine is “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.” But you have to know what you want to determine before you can know what needs to be measured. In construction, the industry with the lowest start-up survival rate nationwide*, what most business owners need to know is as simple as this – are we going to make it?

Your company may have started small, with little to no infrastructure to support the successful scale of your business. However, as you begin to experience periods of rapid growth, you will encounter challenges impairing the profitability, visibility, and quality of your company's jobs. Software plays a major role in helping you navigate these tricky times with ease, efficiency, and effectiveness.

John Wooden is a legend. During his 12 year tenure as the head coach of UCLA’s men’s basketball team, he won 10 national titles, including a record seven in a row. To put this in perspective, no other team has ever won more than two titles in a row – including national powerhouses like Duke, UNC, and Kentucky. Wooden’s success on the court will long remain the gold standard in the basketball community, but outside the sports world, his legacy is the incredible leadership that he displayed and passed along to others.

As a UDA Product Specialist, I spend a majority of my day working with construction professionals who are looking for construction management software. These professionals range from Residential Home Builders to Commercial General Contractors, Design-Build Firms to Multi-Family Developers, and large to small in company size and project scope. Every business is different, and while UDA's construction management software is designed to help just about anyone in this industry run a better business, we don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach with our clients. My job is to learn about the clients and their businesses, and act as a consultant to make the best software recommendation to fit their specific business needs. Sometimes, my recommendation ends up having to be that they need to take a step back and do some serious thinking before they will be ready to successfully implement project management software at their construction company.