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It’s difficult to talk to your boss about buying operations software. It’s a relatively new category of construction software.
We get it – When our co-founders worked in heavy civil construction, there was no operations software; it was ALL estimating and accounting software trying to handle daily operations. Your foremen are not estimators, and your mechanics are not accountants.
Just because your company has been around for 10, 20, even 100 years – doesn’t mean there’s not improvements to be made. Oftentimes, companies simply aren’t aware of the software that's available today and the advances in tech that have been made in the past 15-20 years.
20 years ago, web apps didn’t exist. A mobile-friendly system that’s always up to date? Impossible. Logins and access for everyone at your company including field employees? Forget it.
Since then, a new category - operations-specific software - has emerged and is making a monumental difference for construction companies worldwide.
If you’ve been burned or unimpressed by software solutions in the past, you’re not alone - my co-founder and I felt the same way when we worked at a heavy civil contractor here in Wisconsin. We realized there wasn’t an operations software on the market that could truly meet our needs and handle our workflows, so we quit our jobs to build the software we wished we had.
You make and lose your money in the field – it's where the work gets done. But it’s also where constant changes can slow down your progress: weather, permits, scheduling issues, and more.
Therefore, your software has to be able to account for these constantly changing variables. Accounting and estimating software, while critical to the business, simply isn’t built to handle this and leads to frustrating double entry, out-of-date information, and general confusion that slows down your projects.
These same issues are present even with more traditional methods: spreadsheets, physical magnet boards, legal pads, or even just mental notes. If only a few people have access to the most up-to-date information, it’s not helping you be more efficient because you still need to make phone calls or even drive out to jobs to find the answers.
That’s why you need operations software. To make this happen for your company, you’ll likely need to answer questions about why this investment is needed and what the impact on the business will be. Read on to learn more about the top 4 questions you’ll probably be asked and how to handle them.
1. How will construction operations software improve our bottom line?
This is the obvious one – construction companies are not used to spending money on operations software, once again because it’s a new category. It will likely be the first time your company invests in a solution to help with crew scheduling or other areas. Therefore, there needs to be a clear financial ROI, or the conversation will be a non-starter.
The easiest way to build your business case is to think of the areas where the lack of operations software or some coordination platform is costing your business money today.
The Benefits of Better Information
Imagine the following example:
You’ve got a sewer reconstruct crew that has 10 trucks running, and it's a five-man pipe crew. You're talking thousands of dollars an hour.
Now, imagine that mainline excavator goes down with a blown hydraulic hose. If you can get a piece of equipment to that job site one hour faster, you just saved $3,000 in lost time for those trucks and that crew.
Here’s another example: Have you ever sent a lowboy driver to go move a piece of equipment that everyone thought was at a job, but it wasn't there when they arrived?
That lowboy driver just spent four hours of windshield time, accomplishing nothing.
Not only are you wasting that lowboy’s time, but that lowboy’s time might also be affecting the crew’s productivity because they needed that piece of equipment four hours ago.
Now you're that much further behind, and these things just stack. It’s hard to put a dollar and cent on that value lost, but you can imagine how quickly these costs can add up.
Are you losing track of where equipment is located? Do crews show up to the wrong job or show up even if work has been cancelled for the day? Or worse, are those crews showing up and the necessary equipment isn’t there? Does it take until the last minute to realize a piece of equipment needs maintenance?
All these incidents are costing the business money today – likely much MORE money than the cost of a subscription to operations software.
Operations software eliminates these incidents. For example, in IVO Systems, it’s impossible for employees to be accidentally double-scheduled or forgotten about. Icons pop up immediately indicating a conflict.
Similarly, you’ll see wrench icons on the TrackVO magnet board next to equipment with maintenance exceptions – whether that’s an active work order, an upcoming PM item, or a form submission with action required.
Sending Notifications, Weather Delays
How much time and energy does it take for you to notify employees of rain delays?
Now more than ever, companies are expected to pay “show up time” for employees that travel to the job site, even if the job was delayed or cancelled.
To avoid these costs, you have to prove that you notified someone to not show up for work. That becomes difficult if you’re just using group text messages, emails, and phone calls.
“Well, I didn't get it”, they’ll say. Again, these are things that happen. It's a tough situation - you don't want to point any fingers and say they did or they didn't. Is it worth the fight? Maybe you’ll just pay it. With a system like IVO, this is no longer an issue.
In ScheduleVO, you can see when the message was delivered, if and when they opened it, and how many total times they viewed it. This is the proof you’ve been looking for – stop paying show up time that could’ve been avoided.
With a better notification system, you’ll save your employees time, and you’ll save your company money.
2. How will this improve our workflow and company communication?
Remove Silos of Information
Our co-founders experienced first-hand the information gaps that exist between the field, shop, and office. Oftentimes, physical magnet boards, Excel spreadsheets, and other traditional ways to manage information are stuck in one place. Others at the company can’t see this information until it’s sent to them, and after it’s sent – it’s probably inaccurate 15 minutes later.
In IVO Systems, this problem no longer exists. Our online magnet boards update in real time for everyone at your company, from any device. Whether it’s an operator looking at equipment locations from the field, or a shop manager looking for equipment with upcoming PMs, everyone will always have the latest information.
Unlike many of our competitors, we built our modules to be truly integrated with each other – no more double data entry. When someone enters new information in IVO Systems, the system gets updated in real time for everyone.
Built to Handle Your Unique Workflows
Let’s be honest – construction professionals aren’t exactly known for being “computer people”. Our goal was to build a software platform that is the perfect combination of “robust and capable” & “simple and easy-to-use”.
Within IVO, we’ve made it possible to accomplish the same tasks in different ways because we understand companies, and even employees within the same company, have their own unique workflows.
- Create a new work order directly from an inspection form submission, from the TrackVO magnet board, or by searching for a piece of equipment from anywhere in the system.
- Add a new hour meter reading from the Maintenance Dashboard, from our magnet boards, on a work order, or even from a dispatch ticket.
We don’t want to change the way you do things at your company. Our goal is to streamline your processes to make them quicker and more efficient than they are now.
3. How will this improve our employee experience/quality of life?
Preparing Employees for the Day Ahead
For field employees, uncertainty about plans for the next day can be a major source of stress. With our ScheduleVO notifications, it’s quick and easy to send out schedule information for the next day and choose what information is relevant to your employees.
They can see where they’re scheduled with Google/Apple Maps pin drops, what other employees and vendors will be there, how many trucks are scheduled, and a list of equipment and attachments currently at that job. Depending on your modules, they can even see things like scheduled equipment moves, utility locate information, and more.
There's a big difference between doing punch list work on a reconstruct - fixing terraces and mudding manholes - versus loading 12 trucks and having to pack a lunch because you're going to be working your butt off all day.
For an operator who, at most companies, could do both things - it's stressful waking up in the morning, thinking you were going to do one thing, and ending up doing another.
Now, they can be mentally prepared coming into work, ready to get things done, knowing exactly what they need to do - as opposed to waking up in the morning and being a little bit stressed saying, “I don't know what I'm going to do today.”
Remember that these ScheduleVO notifications are interactive – if you change something in the system, their schedule will update in real time so that they’re always referencing the most up-to-date information (you can always re-notify them as needed with the click of a button).
Reducing Unnecessary Phone Calls
How often do you find yourself answering or making phone calls about schedules, equipment locations, and maintenance information?
We've had customers with dispatchers and schedulers who say, "I start getting phone calls at four in the morning until 10 o'clock at night.”
Some people are getting hundreds of calls per day - that's just not sustainable. No matter how organized you are, you just can’t keep track of 300 daily phone calls effectively.
To reduce these calls and improve your quality of life, all of that important equipment, maintenance, and schedule information lives on online magnet boards that everyone at your company can access – even when they’re out in the field.
By reducing these calls, you won't lose the personal touch with your field employees. You'll give yourself MORE time to make those personal, check-in phone calls that you want to make.
4. How will implementation work?
Implementing software for a construction company is always a concern, and it’s a valid one.
Sitting down and spending a week implementing software? You're building projects, you're bidding projects, you're repairing equipment - you don't have time for that.
That's what we're here for. All we need is an equipment list, a job list, and a user list.
We can bring all that information together, review it, set it up, get your approval, then import it into IVO Systems. Done.
Most software companies have an implementation process that lasts weeks, months, or even years. With IVO Systems, it truly takes just days to implement our software.
With our Excel import setup, all you need to do is send us your Excel lists. We’ll modify, format, and import them into IVO Systems (after we run it past you to make sure it's set up for your situation).
Remember that we lived and breathed this industry - we’ll help you through this process and get you off to the races as soon as possible, answering all of your questions along the way.
Depending on your needs, we’re happy to offer formal training for your team. However, we often see customers explore the software and learn it as they go. Additionally, IVO Systems has a library of instructional content built directly into the app that addresses common questions and workflows.
The bottom line: why choose IVO Systems?
- We built IVO Systems with heavy civil operations in mind. We’re not an estimating or accounting software trying to manage operations.
- We’ll work harder for you. When you call us with questions, you’ll get our A-Team. At IVO, making sure you’re confident using the software and seeing results is our number one priority.
- Our lead software developer and co-founder, Bob Lien, has spent over 15 years in construction. Bob has a unique skillset and RARE combination of experience that allowed us to envision and build a software platform that truly solves your problems.
- Unlike many of our competitors, we built our modules to be truly integrated with each other – no more double data entry. When someone enters new information into IVO Systems, the system gets updated in real time for everyone at your company.
- Implementing IVO Systems takes days – not weeks, months or years.
- An operations-specific software will improve your quality of life. This has been the foundation of IVO Systems, and why we built it in the first place. Heavy civil construction has enough variables, with things changing every seven minutes. You need a solution that reduces uncertainty, improves communication, and saves you time and money.
We’re always happy to talk about how IVO Systems could work at your company. Please reach out with any questions, and if you’d like to set up a demo to take a closer look at the software, click here.
If you’ve made it this far, we’d just like to say, “thank you” for taking the time to learn about the benefits of operations software – we really look forward to having further conversations and working with you to improve your operations.
