Dear BuildIT User,

Like a fine Napa Valley wine, BuildIT keeps getting better with age. This latest upgrade focuses on 2 main areas - your contacts, and ease of use. 

Improvements to Contact Management

Let's face it - people do business with people, so your people (contacts) are the most important resource you have. Communication issues are undoubtedly the big profit killer in most construction businesses. Our new features will help you better manage communications with key people on the job - and that's a good thing.

Log on and click the "contacts" tab. In the left margin menu you'll see which contacts are "job specific".

Did you know that with the BuildIT's "contact management" system you can do the following:

• Send one piece of communication to every key person associated with the job (via email, fax, or cellular text message).
• Remind all your sub-trades of a change to the schedule.
• Email attachments (or better yet, "sharing links" for large files) to a select group of contacts.
• Keep track of "who's who in the zoo" for every job that you do.
• Easily send out text messages without getting thumb cramps trying to key into a super small cell phone key pad (leave that for the tweenies).
• Share schedules for free with any contact in your database... use "Contact Schedules" to keep key folks in the loop with the tasks you have assigned to them.

Oh, and our development team wanted to add that some major "under the hood" tweaking and code re-writing was done to shave off time off page refresh rates (in this micro-wave fast food age, we know that time is money, and every fraction of a second counts !!).

Changes to the Gooee (uh, that would be GUI*)

What do most folks look for when they come to BuildIT?

Scheduling. 

So we made it painfully obvious what to press when you want to see your "schedule". Ah, that would be the "schedule" tab. And next to that would be the "calendar" tab where you would expect to see your appointments. We also made the job picklist in the top left yellow to make it stand out.

We changed the "do it" drop down menu in the top right to "do this", and we made it look more like a button. We even highlighted it yellow. It's an important control - and some new folks were just missing it. 

We've also consolidated all help to one button. Click on "help" in the top right, and you'll be greeted by a tabbed page, allowing you to get the help you need fast.

(*GUI = Graphical User Interface, in case you really wanted to know!)

Additional Enhancements

We've made text boxes accept more information, updated the job contact responsibilities dialog, allowed you to expand the workspace and hide the left margin menu in many screens... all based on user feedback of course.

Keep those suggestions flowing. Help us help you, and we both win. 

The BuildIT Team
1 866 585 5050 x1
www.builditsystems.com

I saw an ad in the January 2008 Construction Executive magazine for an estimating software company. The text read:

"He thought all-in-one software meant "all-is-well" software. He thought wrong."

And there's a picture of this frazzled guy in a suit going balistic. I love it, and I agree.

Made me think about the landscape of construction software options you are likely coming across in your research. And the opinions offered by the self-appointed professionals (read: sales guys that want to sell you their software) on what you should consider before buying software.

For most small to mid sized construction businesses, having one software system that does it all may sound good in theory, but it rarely works. Imagine a mechanic having one tool that does it all - I picture a Swiss Army knife type ratchet that weighs 100 LBS and does as many things.

So what about the Swiss Army knife of construction software? If it exists, it has to cover a lot of ground, end to end, all facets of your business. It will be comprehensive, complicated, and come at a high price. And for most construction pros we talk to, most of the time, it's overkill.

BuildIT is narrow in focus, by design. We saw the gap in construction software back in 2000 and how an Internet accessible system could span that gap. So we only focus in 3 main areas: scheduling, file management and communications.

We didn't see the need for more/better construction accounting software. Quickbooks (contractor edition) has been around for some time, and is used by the majority of construction pros that have connected with BuildIT. It's a "back office" system, done offline typically, and by a bookkeeper or consultant.

As for estimating software, we make recommendations but again, most are using a spreadsheet that they have developed... and we're not about to build a watered down version of Excel.

The gap - managing the details, the scheduling, the mountain of information that is created throughout the building process, information that needs to be stored, accessed, communicated/shared, and archived.

We also realized another thing... a printed schedule is out of date about an hour after it's printed. We knew that construction pros needed more than a pretty Gantt chart on a piece of paper. They need a real time scheduling system that keeps all key people on track, singing off the same song sheet. That is where BuildIT really shines. The system integrates your jobs with scheduling, contacts, and files... all project related information is in one place, stored securely, and accessible 24/7 by the folks that need to see it and act on it.

OK, if we're a Swiss Army knife, with 3 attachments, then we're somewhat manageable. Or you can buy construction software like the picture above and spend the next year or two trying to figure it out! Then again, it may be the right decision for your company (there's a buyer for every product out there).

Scott Hutchinson
scott@builditsystems.com
1 866 585 5050 ext 1