ERP For Construction Companies

We will define your needs and wants as well as how you would ideally use new automated solutions across your entire company, whether you are a data center, property management company, construction and engineering firm, homebuilder, low voltage, or security integrator firm.

Construction software management is difficult without the right people in your corner. After finalizing your construction software and services contracts, EAG stays with you to oversee your implementation until you successfully go live.  We will oversee integrations, data migration, change management, budgets, design and configuration, walkthroughs, training, testing, and go-live cutover, and will provide executive and project sponsor support throughout the duration of your project.

We will guide you through selecting the best-fit, most cost-effective business applications and implementation partners.

• Use of spreadsheets for planning and scheduling of projects is inefficient and makes project tracking more difficult. 
• Lack of real-time per-project analytics, reporting, and roll-up by area.
• Time-consuming manual data gathering and consolidation for Cost to Complete reporting.
• ERP is missing functionality to financially manage Projects and Work Orders for billing.
• Information does not filter down to each department in the system, creating lack of visibility into employee training records, time and expense records, and unnecessarily difficult job costing. 

• Inability to track and transition projects from opportunities to active projects, to completed projects.
• Budgets for projects and payroll must be imported into the system creating duplicate work.
• Lack of visibility into what projects a subcontractor is assigned to.
• The amount of paperwork needed to maintain projects is overwhelming to new employees.

Our rapidly-growing mid-market clients are already very busy with their day jobs and do not have time to become ERP experts.  Though your key people still have to devote some time to an ERP initiative, hiring an ERP consultant frees them up to focus on the important ERP decisions while keeping the focus on their day job.

The more complex your business, the more likely for difficulty when selecting and implementing software.  ERP Advisors Group will help you uncover your true needs and will only vet the most viable options for your size, requirements, resources, and strategy.

We will create your requirements document and demonstration script with industry-standard best practices in mind while retaining what is unique to your company, leaving out the manual workarounds.

Many clients hire us when they suspect there will be a business case for new software, especially in a manufacturing company on legacy applications.  ERP Advisors Group helps stakeholders buy into what is best for the company by getting their input at multiple stages including the Needs Analysis, Selection, and Implementation.

A frequent complaint we hear from prospects who tried to select software on their own is feeling confused about the software's capabilities.  We have vendors show your requirements during their product demonstrations.  This ensures you feel confident about selecting the best products to meet your needs.

We negotiate tens of millions of dollars of deals every year for our clients.  We provide contract reviews on all terms and conditions, including software, services, and every agreement embedded throughout the contract. Our clients receive price protection for many years to come on their purchases. While we don't guarantee it in writing, we normally save our fees on this step alone. Check out our Guide to Contract Negotiations.

Construction companies are unique in many aspects, from W2 payroll or “payroll” for subcontractors and other 1099 employees to project management to full financial control over internal accounting and project budgeting. Each aspect of a construction company’s operations must be carefully accounted for and addressed within their ERP system.

And, unfortunately, core needs like Job Estimating and Budgeting are not built directly into most ERPs. Construction companies often need a construction-specific ERP or an ERP with a strong ecosystem of construction-specific solutions. The same goes for most scheduling and field service needs. Due to the complicated nature of construction, most companies rely on an array of software applications as opposed to a single solution.

Additionally, Construction companies need an ERP or ecosystem that can handle AIA billing which is not necessarily a core feature. It often takes a very specialized approach to ensure a clear, concise method to meet AIA standards for generating progress payments, accounting for stored material, and documenting all other associated costs. This type of specialized accounting is an essential ERP feature for any successful construction company. Construction companies need to be able to effectively provide scopes of work and manage project payments throughout the entire lifecycle of extremely complex, multi-phase projects.

Some ERPs offer very basic Field Operations and Field Service capabilities directly in the system, out-of-the-box. However, those capabilities typically fall short of what a mid-sized Construction company would need. We usually recommend our customers with complex Field Service requirements consider additional Field Service Management (FSM) and third-party solutions. Most importantly, any FSM or third-party solution implemented should seamlessly integrate with the core ERP.

Every ERP is different and offers varying degrees of Project/Job Cost accounting. Industry agnostic ERPs will have less embedded functionality than construction-specific ERPs. Most ERPs have some capacity to manage project cost structures; however, this often involves some manual work to carry over time and labor, material costs, etc.

As projects increase in complexity, most construction companies will turn to specialized Construction solutions or partners with deep industry expertise to configure the system for these requirements. Strong, robust Job Cost Accounting is essential for construction companies looking to make better decisions, bid more effectively, fairly price their projects, and efficiently allocate resources.

Each ERP offers varying degrees of functionality to meet inventory and warehouse management requirements. Basic inventory management capabilities often come out-of-the-box, but most ERPs require a separate Warehouse Management solution for more advanced requirements. If you go with a construction industry-specific ERP, more inventory and warehouse functionality may be embedded in the core ERP.

No. ERPs typically do not have CRM built in, although many have native CRM solutions on their platform that can be optionally added on. For deep industry functionality, it is best to look at best-of-breed solutions or look to select a construction focused ERP with a strong ecosystem of applications such as CRM.