In today’s digital landscape, no business is safe from cyber threats. Join our summit to learn how to protect your company from devastating cyberattacks.
In this informative session, you’ll learn:
This event is ideal for business owners, IT professionals, and security managers who are dedicated to protecting their company’s data and reputation.
Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly more prominent. You might think that your data isn’t valuable – We will help you learn why that thinking may change. Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to protect your most valuable asset – your company data!
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Register now to secure your spot at the Cybersecurity Awareness Summit and protect your business from cyber threats!
The Role of Cloud Hosting in Construction
Accessing data, applications, and resources from anywhere in the construction industry is a game-changer. Cloud hosting provides flexible, scalable, and secure infrastructure tailored to meet the needs of companies that spend most of their time out of the office. With the potential to reduce costs, improve collaboration, and streamline operations, cloud hosting has become a critical tool for businesses looking to stay competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving landscape. Construction companies need reliable access to project data, inventory systems, and team collaboration tools like other industries. Cloud hosting provides a centralized, accessible, and secure data storage and application hosting environment.
Here’s how cloud hosting benefits the construction industry:
1. Centralized Data Access for Seamless Collaboration
One of the biggest challenges construction companies face is managing the vast amounts of data that drive projects, production schedules, inventory, and client orders. Cloud hosting centralizes data, enabling employees to access real-time information from any device, whether in an office or on a construction site. This access keeps everyone on the same page and reduces costly errors, allowing teams to work with the most up-to-date information.
2. Enhanced Collaboration Across Locations
Construction companies often collaborate with multiple stakeholders, from designers and engineers to suppliers and subcontractors. With cloud hosting, teams can instantly access files, share updates, and collaborate in real-time. This seamless collaboration reduces delays, minimizes miscommunication, and enhances team productivity.
3. Scalability to Meet Project and Production Demands
Having scalable infrastructure is essential in industries where project demands can change quickly. Cloud hosting allows construction companies to scale resources up or down based on real-time needs. This may mean adding server space before a major project. This scalability ensures businesses pay only for what they need when they need it, making it a cost-effective solution that adapts to demand fluctuations.
4. Cost Savings with Reduced IT Overhead
Maintaining on-premises servers can be costly, requiring significant upfront investments, ongoing maintenance, and dedicated IT staff. Cloud hosting eliminates these expenses by shifting infrastructure management to the cloud provider. Construction companies benefit from predictable monthly costs, reducing capital expenditure and allocating resources to other business-critical initiatives.
Cloud hosting also reduces the costs associated with physical documentation, paper trails, and file storage, further streamlining operations and freeing up budgets for growth.
5. Built-In Security and Reliable Backup Systems
Data security and integrity are paramount for any company. With sensitive information on projects, client data, and proprietary designs, the construction industry requires robust security protocols. Cloud hosting providers offer built-in security features like encryption, firewalls, and multi-factor authentication, protecting data from unauthorized access. Regular backups ensure that critical information can be recovered in case of a system outage or security breach, supporting compliance and risk management efforts.
6. Remote Monitoring and Smart Operations
Cloud hosting opens the door to advanced technologies like remote monitoring and IoT (Internet of Things) integration, which are highly valuable in running a business. Construction teams can monitor project progress and equipment status. By leveraging IoT and cloud capabilities, companies can make proactive decisions to reduce downtime, increase efficiency, and avoid potential issues before they arise.
Future-Proofing Construction with Cloud Hosting
As the construction industry grows more complex, the technology that supports it must evolve. Cloud hosting enables companies to future-proof their operations, staying agile and adaptable as new challenges arise. By centralizing data, enhancing security, and facilitating seamless collaboration, cloud hosting helps companies in the sector to remain competitive and responsive to changing market demands.
Discover Cloud Hosting Solutions with Aktion Associates
At Aktion Associates, we understand the unique needs of the construction industry and offer cloud-hosting solutions specifically designed to support growth and operational efficiency. Our cloud hosting services provide the flexibility, security, and performance required to keep your business moving forward.
Contact us today to learn more about how cloud hosting can drive your business’s success. Let’s build a brighter future together.
The step-by-step incident response playbook that could save your business millions
In this comprehensive 60-minute webinar, we’ll move beyond theory to provide you with actionable, real-world strategies for responding to and recovering from cyber attacks. Whether you’re updating an existing incident response plan or building one from scratch, you’ll leave with practical tools and templates you can implement immediately.
Agenda
Who Should Attend
The construction industry is currently experiencing a digital revolution due to its complex projects and business operations. Cloud Financial and Project Management solutions are at the forefront of this transformation. Modern technology is not only changing the way projects are managed, but it is also redefining the industry’s future.
Traditionally, the construction sector relied on a mix of paper-based processes and standalone software, leading to inefficiencies, data silos, and limited scalability. Cloud systems have revolutionized this approach by offering integrated, scalable, and real-time solutions.
In this blog post, we will discuss how cloud financial, and operations solutions are transforming the construction industry by providing real-time data insights and enabling collaboration between multiple stakeholders. These solutions are becoming increasingly popular among construction companies due to their ability to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase productivity. We will be analyzing the reasons behind the shift from traditional on-premises solutions to cloud-based systems, and how this change is having a positive impact on the construction industry.
Real-time Data Insights: Cloud-based solutions provide construction companies with access to real-time reporting from anywhere, at any time, and on any device. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and stores information in a centralized database, enabling quick decision-making and helping construction companies identify and solve problems early on. Access to information anywhere, anytime enables construction companies to track project costs more accurately by monitoring expenses and keeping track of purchased items on demand.
Collaboration between Multiple Stakeholders: The coordination of multiple stakeholders is crucial in delivering construction projects on time and on budget. Cloud solutions function as a bridge between contractors, project managers, executives, and different teams to ensure seamless collaboration. With real-time access to project data, stakeholders can make informed decisions and respond quickly to changes.
Flexibility and Scalability: Traditional on-premises solutions are often rigid and fail to adapt to changing business needs. On the other hand, cloud technology solutions present a flexible model that can grow as your companies need to grow and change. The cloud enables organizations to implement a modular approach to financial management. Businesses can choose and integrate specific cloud-based capabilities and applications that align with their unique requirements.
Enhanced Security: With cloud solutions, data is stored in a secured remote server protected by multiple layers of security measures, including firewalls, encryption, and backup. This eliminates the need for on-premises data centers. Not only does this reduce costs and improve data accessibility, but it also provides better protection from cyber-attacks and data loss.
Improved Business Intelligence: Cloud solutions also offer improved business intelligence capabilities, helping construction companies make data-driven decisions. It offers on-demand data analysis and reporting, which helps management make informed decisions and adjust strategies based on current trends.
The construction industry is beginning to recognize the significance of cloud solutions. These solutions enable construction operations to be more effective, collaborative, and adaptable. Companies that have not yet adopted a cloud solution should strongly consider doing so to modernize their operations and stay ahead of the competition.
In today’s digital landscape, no business is safe from cyber threats. Join our summit to learn how to protect your company from devastating cyberattacks.
In this informative session, you’ll learn:
This event is ideal for business owners, IT professionals, and security managers who are dedicated to protecting their company’s data and reputation.
Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly more prominent. You might think that your data isn’t valuable – We will help you learn why that thinking may change. Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to protect your most valuable asset – your company data!
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Register now to secure your spot at the Cybersecurity Awareness Summit and protect your business from cyber threats!
Businesses of all types and sizes find themselves relying more and more on technology. To stay functional, every modern company needs some type of IT assistance. Running a company is challenging enough without dealing with constant technology headaches. But once you decide you’re ready to hand off some or all of your IT responsibility to a managed services provider, how do you figure out who to talk to when there are so many choices? It can be daunting to evaluate and select the right technology partner for your business.
Below are three key characteristics to consider when deciding on a managed services provider.
1: Industry Expertise
Start by checking potential MSPs to be sure they’re familiar with your industry. So many generic MSPs really aren’t able to address industry-specific problems that might arise. With industry expertise comes knowledge of the ins and outs of your technology. This means knowing what requirements a particular piece of software needs to operate smoothly or which upgrades are necessary in order continue business as usual. The goals should be to keep your infrastructure healthy and eliminate downtime. When you partner with a managed service provider that knows the platforms your business runs, you gain confidence in the health of your technology.
2: Responsive Hotline Support
This builds upon the previous point, in that industry expertise is also extremely valuable in a hotline support team. A team of technology experts who can answer your calls quickly and efficiently should be another key factor in your evaluation of MSPs. Not all help desks are created equally, and unfortunately some businesses find themselves getting used to long wait times and speaking with people who can’t directly address their issues.
A good technology partner brings a full bench of support to every customer support issue. Whether a request is best resolved by a network engineer, an application consultant, or a software engineer, this program ensures that the appropriate resource is assigned to you. Be sure your new MSP has a proven case management and escalation protocol for timely and efficient issue resolution.
3: Remote Monitoring
Active monitoring and management of your system will keep it running smoothly. Remote monitoring items can include a cloud environment or server hardware, operating system status, and network performance. An MSP can also give you additional support such as database troubleshooting related to system uptime. You also might ask the providers if they can give you timely notice of developing issues, provide security, and perform regular system maintenance.
Providers now need to be able to offer a multi-layered approach to ensure each customer’s success. As with any partnership, you want to be positive the MSP you choose fits your needs and understands your overall business goals.
Because Aktion excels at each point listed above, we believe that these unique qualities set us apart from the competition. Our experience as a technology provider focused on the construction, distribution and manufacturing industries gives our customers complete technology peace of mind. Our goal is to protect your technology, both primary business applications and the platform that they run on.
If you’d like to discuss Aktion’s Managed Services features and benefits, please reach out and I’d be happy to get you started on your Managed Services journey.
As we’ve seen increasingly lately, being able to work efficiently while also being mobile is critically important. As is the case with technology in general, the construction tech marketplace has seen an increased focus on the cloud. In particular solutions that are focused on collaboration and visibility into key financials. Being a long time Timberline / Sage partner, we’re excited to see the Sage Intacct product and offer it as a next generation option for the construction industry.
Sage Intacct sets itself apart from much of the competition. You get custom dashboards and reporting, streamlined access to your products and projects as well as a unique handling of multi-entity accounting. Many of our customers have multiple companies, and often those entities don’t communicate efficiently. We often hear how much customers appreciate the automation for financial consolidation activities and how it eliminates the manual processes. The inter-company eliminations are also automated to save time and smooth out the common multi-entity complexities.
Additionally, because Sage Intacct has an open API, you can connect to existing systems through a true cloud platform. This lets you integrate with the applications that are critical to your organization’s success in areas such as:
Sage Intacct is a cloud product that gives you the capability to see things real time from anywhere, with any device. So, your business grows, you’re truly able to take it to the next level. Technology continues to grow at an amazing pace. I’ve been in the business for quite a few years and I’ve seen many progressions and enhancements within the construction and real estate landscape. But with Sage Intacct, you get a true cloud solution that is constantly evolving with a best-of-breed approach.
Over time businesses makes decisions to grow in new directions which can lead to challenges in the future. We’re seeing three distinct types of companies in our target industries of Construction, Distribution and Manufacturing that have adopted new avenues of growth. We call these multi-industry hybrid companies.
One type is a distribution company that starts a lucrative value-add business to convert lower margin products into higher margin by offering modified or tailored products. An example is a packaging product distributor that creates custom packaging for a product used by an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) looking to reduce its manufacturing labor costs.
The second type is a manufacturing company that reaches capacity in its production operation and decides to add more buy-sell products. Expanding a manufacturing operation can be costly so dedicating some floor space to warehouse consigned or purchased inventory can add margin without a large investment.
The third type is a manufacturer that manufactures and installs a product. Aktion has a few clients that make cast concrete products and also need to install and service their products. This example has combined needs for inventory, manufacturing and project accounting which is an interesting combination of requirements.
Again these are just three examples. There are many more and I will go into a detailed analysis of specific challenges and solutions for these Multi-Industry hybrid businesses.
Of these three types, the majority are running their business using multiple disparate, disconnected software systems or, even worse, using a central accounting system and manually managing these additional requirements using spreadsheets and other home-grown methods.
As an ERP reseller and technology adviser, Aktion receives inquiries weekly from companies who need to modernize their business software and are looking for a single, integrated ERP system that meets the company’s diverse needs and growth capacity.
We anticipated these diverse and evolving requirements and earlier this year invested in adding staff, services, skills, and deliverables to provide these multi-industry companies with the software and support they need to run their business. The Multi-Industry (MI) Division was launched in January 2020.
The MI Division includes application consultants and software engineers focused on servicing the complex needs of a multi-industry company. To ensure the success of the new division, Aktion transitioned senior staff from our Distribution, Construction and Manufacturing practices.
The cornerstone solution of the MI Division is Acumatica Cloud ERP. Four years ago, Aktion became an Acumatica Gold Partner. Acumatica is a modern, cloud-based, integrated ERP solution that delivers everything a hybrid company needs to manage operations. Acumatica developed its own XRP platform which gives each customer control over integrations and upgrades, even in a SaaS environment.
Acumatica offers Construction, Distribution, Manufacturing, Field Service and Commerce editions. Each of these editions may be combined to include cross-over functionality needed for hybrid company requirements making it an ideal platform for Multi-Industry division customers.
In future blogs, I’ll go into more detail about some of the common hybrid business scenarios we’re addressing. Every business is unique and presents its own set of challenges, however; we’re seeing commonality and repeat scenarios to solving these complex challenges.
If you’re a hybrid company that’s struggling to find a solution, just know there is one available – Acumatica.
