Why Construction Companies should embrace Software as a Service (SaaS or cloud-based software)

I am not a huge fan of acronyms or intialisms.

Unfortunately the Construction and Software sectors are. We had a lively debate in our office last week regarding the difference between the two. I have posted the definitions here so I never make the mistake of referring incorrectly to these word formation processes again!

Acronyms : The term acronym is the name for a word from the first letters of each word in a series of words (such as sonar, created from SOund Navigation And Ranging)

Initialism : An initialism is an abbreviation consisting of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase (for example, BBC is an initialism for British Broadcasting Corporation)

I apologise in advance for using these acronyms and intialisms in this post but I will explain in layman’s terms what SaaS can do for your Construction Business.

Cloud-based solutions have several benefits over on-premise solutions:

• Simple and inexpensive deployment.
• Access to data from anywhere, including mobile devices.
• No hardware or maintenance costs.
• Fewer data security issues.
• Seamless product updates.
• Affordable, pay-as-you go pricing.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) : is business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to store and manage data from every stage of business. This ERP approach historically involves on-premise software and licensed users within your company. The ERP approach also includes in many cases long term contracts and costly implementation and training required for end users.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) : SaaS applications use SSL technology to ensure that data passing between their web browser and their servers is encrypted.

I think that is enough wordplay in one post.

The following questions can help Principal Contractors and House-builders determine if SaaS is a good option for their business.

• Can some of your Company’s applications and software be moved to a hosted environment?

• Does your Company want to reduce IT and hardware costs?

• Does your Company have a reliable Internet connection and a reliable 3G or 4G network?

• Do team members who work remotely need to log into your software on a regular basis?

With improved IT infrastructure and instant application deployment among your remote workforce, clients and sub-contractors, SaaS is something to consider as it becomes more prominent in the construction industry.

SaaS is arguably a much more  affordable option for the Principal Contractor or House-builder  who is not ready to completely commit to a new in -house ERP system.

Software can cost  thousands of pounds in capital cost and start-up. The initial  cost and the level of IT support to run a program sufficiently have hindered small construction companies in the past, but with the pay-as- you-go method of SaaS, these barriers disappear which allows smaller companies and teams to enjoy feature-rich applications that are traditionally used by the larger companies via the ERP approach..

Take control of your Customer Care today, empower your team members, Clients ,Sub-Contractors and purchasers to collaborate with you on their defects and repairs.

Our demo site is fully loaded with your common defect and repair scenarios.

Watch our 85 second overview video to see how the application handles your everyday Customer Care issues with ease through simple ticket creation.

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*Featured Image courtesy of capterra.com