- Construction
Protecting margins through increased efficiencies is a critical aspect of the construction industry. With tight profit margins and tough operating conditions, construction companies are always on the lookout for ways to improve and grow. Let’s dive into how Construction for NetSuite can boost productivity for construction businesses.
Empowering CEOs with Real-Time Visibility, Benchmarking, and Drill-Down Capabilities
Real-Time Data: Dashboards give CEOs real-time visibility into important business metrics like project performance, finances, resource use, and operational efficiency. This allows them to monitor key indicators at a glance and make informed decisions promptly. They can use this information to evaluate strategic initiatives, allocate resources effectively, prioritise projects, and reduce risks.
Benchmarking and Comparison: With Construction for NetSuite dashboards, CEOs can compare current performance to historical data, industry standards, or goals they’ve set. This makes it easy to track their organisation’s development over time and pinpoint areas where it is succeeding or failing.
Drill-Down Capability: Construction for NetSuite dashboards allow CEOs to drill down into specific KPIs or areas they’re interested in, helping to spot areas for optimisation or intervention.
Let’s Consider the Benefits for Project Managers
Mobile Accessibility: Construction teams can access project information and carry out tasks remotely from the field using Construction for NetSuite, which is available through web browsers and mobile devices. This mobile accessibility increases project efficiency overall, simplifies real-time decision-making, and improves responsiveness.
Comprehensive Project Management: Construction for NetSuite provides a centralised platform for managing all aspects of construction projects, from estimates and budgets to schedules, subcontractor management, change orders, and progress tracking.
Real-Time Financial Visibility: Construction companies can see real-time project financials, including expenses, revenue, and profitability, with Construction for NetSuite. This lets project managers take proactive measures to avoid financial risks or budget overruns and make more informed decisions.
Flexibility and Scalability: Whether you’re tackling small or big projects, Construction for NetSuite is flexible and can grow with your needs. Its flexible architecture makes it easy to customise or integrate with external applications.
Not Forgetting the Administrative and Financial Team – How Does It Benefit You?
Retention automation: Making things more efficient is key here. With Construction for NetSuite, you can automate claim and retention calculations. This saves time and resources, boosts accuracy, and ensures payments are right on schedule based on project milestones and contract terms. It also cuts out human errors.
Vendor and Contract Management: Construction for NetSuite includes features for managing vendors, contracts, and procurement processes. It also provides a portal for submitting bids and documents. Financial teams can easily track vendor performance, manage contracts and purchase orders with a few clicks, and streamline buying, which saves money and makes things smoother.
Integrated Financial Management: Construction for NetSuite integrates financial management with project management, procurement, and other business functions. This gives finance teams a complete view of performance across projects, departments, and the whole organisation.
Compliance and Controls: With Construction for NetSuite, businesses can stay on top of financial regulations and internal controls by providing audit trails. This gives finance teams peace of mind that their data is accurate, secure, and compliant with relevant regulations and standards.
An Illustrative Example
Take a construction company that is working on multiple projects simultaneously, each with its retention requirements and deadlines. Without automation, the finance and accounting team would need to manually calculate retention amounts for each project, track payment milestones, and follow up with clients to claim back the retained funds upon project completion. This process could be prone to errors, delays, and inefficiencies, ultimately impacting the company’s bottom line.
Now, consider the same scenario with automation in place. With the Construction for NetSuite product which handles retention calculations and claiming, your construction company can automate these processes from start to finish. The system can automatically generate accurate retention schedules for each project, track payment milestones in real time, and generate invoices or claims for retained funds upon project completion. This not only saves time and reduces the burden on administrative staff but also ensures that the company receives its rightful payments without delay.
To conclude, the construction industry is ripe for technological disruption, and automation presents an enormous opportunity for companies to protect their margins through increased efficiencies. By leveraging automation to streamline the processes mentioned above such as retention calculations and claims, construction companies can unlock significant value, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and ultimately drive sustainable growth. With automation comes the potential to revolutionise the way we do business and propel the construction industry forward into a more profitable and prosperous future.
About the Author
Anna Carolan
Anna is an experienced professional in project management and change management roles, with a focus on IT systems development and implementation. Currently serving as the Project Consultant at OSSM, Anna assists in managing and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for large organisations and small-to-medium-sized companies.