More and more, construction companies are turning towards technology to streamline their operations instead of away from it. But being able to find the right fit for your needs requires a strategic approach to effectively implement and use that technology.
Here are three key tips for evaluating and selecting the kind of solutions that will meet and even exceed your construction company’s needs.
Designate a team
Identifying needs and wants takes a broad amount of participation across different departments and different levels. But you’ll also want to select a designated team that can systematically evaluate your options. These people will be charged with ensuring your technology investment is a good fit and will be embraced by the entire company as an effective and useful tool.
Make a “needs” list
The pain points are often well known amongst your team members but making a clear list of what you need is very important. Company leadership may want to get employee feedback to help develop this list, allowing them to feel a part of the process. It might sound simple, but clear goals make a significant difference in identifying what kind of technology you need. Instead of broad complaints, turn the pain points into specific objectives that can be achieved. Below you’ll find a few examples of ways to hone your pain points into needs for a legitimate solution.
Pain Point: Sharing reports with different people in my construction company is difficult to do.
Need: We need a way to quickly and easily share reports with multiple people in the company so that people have information needed to do their jobs.
Pain Point: The data I need is not available to people in the field.
Need: A mobile solution that can be used from anywhere would allow better collaboration among different departments.
Participate actively in the implementation
After your designated team makes recommendations and a decision is made, you still need to remain involved. Getting a solution implemented requires active participation. You will want to stay in close contact with the people at the solution provider you selected. There will be timelines, training and possibly occasions to adjust as needed when any roadblocks come up.
Strong planning leads to success, so approach this strategically. Once you’ve selected the solution or solutions needed, gone through training and implementation, your patience and hard will be apparent. Aktion supports a wide variety of technology options for the construction industry. When you’re ready to look at those choices, please reach out to us.
Founded in 1909, John E. Green is a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated mechanical contractor headquartered in Highland Park, MI. One of the largest mechanical contractors in the US, the company is consistently rated as one of the most diversified, full-service union mechanical, fire protection, and service contractors. Specializing in the automotive, commercial, education, government, food service, healthcare, industrial, municipal, pharmaceutical, and resort/entertainment industries, John E. Green delivers piping systems, plumbing, fire protection, HVAC, fabrication and design build.
Service: Aktion Cloud Services
Software: Sage 300CRE/TimberScan
Industry: Construction
Website: johnegreen.com
We’re operating 100% remotely and we’ve had 100% uptime. We couldn’t have done it without Aktion and their Cloud services. Sage and Timberscan both are operating smoothly. We trusted Aktion and never considered going with another hosting provider.
A Sage Construction Accounting software user since 1996, John E. Green wanted to continue to use Sage Accounting, which was the backbone of the company, and modernize its operation, as well as provide employees with the tools to work remotely. The solution was to move its business-critical applications including, Sage Accounting and TimberScan to Aktion’s Cloud.
John E. Green’s back-office accounting software was deployed and maintained on company on-premise servers. This deployment required company internal staff to be responsible for software upgrades, uptime and 24/7 availability. “After talking with the Aktion team and hearing about its Cloud services, we made the decision to move Sage Accounting and TimberScan to Aktion’s data center. To achieve what we wanted to achieve, it was the right decision to have Aktion host these applications,” John said.
John cited a meeting at Aktion’s headquarters, seeing the data center and meeting the Network Operations Center (NOC) staff as key to the decision to move to Aktion’s Cloud Services. “We had three criteria. We wanted to limit the variables, we needed reliability and uptime obviously, and we wanted a trusted partner. Our team saw the entire operation first-hand and heard the commitment from the Aktion team. We didn’t need to consider any other provider,” John said.
A team of key employees and stakeholders from John E. Green met regularly with the Aktion cloud services team to map out an implementation strategy and timeline. One of the steps John E. Green elected to add during the implementation process was the use of a data test environment. “I trusted Aktion but I was a bit nervous about using live data during the migration. Aktion spun up a test environment for our data and we tested everything there. It ended up being money well-spent,” John said.
Adding to application uptime peace of mind for John E. Green was the assurance that Aktion’s disaster recovery service was also in place. Both Sage Accounting and TimberScan were backed up and always available.
Currently, 100 John E. Green employees access their Sage Accounting and TimberScan software through Aktion’s hosting services. Since the company went live on Aktion Cloud, they have experienced 100% uptime.
If you’re wondering what kind of impact a modern, cloud‑based ERP could have on your organization, Aktion brings the industry expertise, honest guidance, and technical depth to help you get there.
We don’t just implement software — we help you build the operational backbone that supports your next stage of growth.
