A Whole New Market
January 22, 2010
Walking the show floor at IBS (Intl. Builders’ Show) in Las Vegas this week, Jan. 19-22, one trend is quite clear in the residential market—it is a whole new world in construction.
Amid tough economic conditions, builders are finding themselves leveraging new avenues of business such as more small-scaled projects, light commercial work, custom work, or remodeling. The good news is construction technology providers are coming to market with new solutions to meet these needs.
One example is Job Simplicity from HomeFront Software, www.homefront-software.com, Calgary, Alta., which addresses some of the challenges of the smaller builder such as manual reporting. Builders can use the product to estimate, schedule, manage customer relations, and integrate accounting systems such as QuickBooks from Intuit, www.intuit.com, Mountain View, Calif.
Another example is the new HomeDev product from Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, www.constellationhb.com, Markham, Ont., which is designed for builders and remodelers to manage construction projects.
The product is a solution for job costing, project management, budgeting, trade comparison, and purchasing. The product uses Microsoft Excel, Project, and Outlook to manage and present data. For builders that are used to working in this type of environment, HomeDev has that similar interface.
The product also uses a Microsoft SQL to manage the data and SharePoint and email to share the documents. Integration with QuickBooks is an ideal fit for smaller contractors.
Given the current economic challenges, builders can transition with the times and find their niche in the marketplace. Construction technology is making the transition as well, addressing some of the key concerns of remodelers and smaller builders.