“The licensing language has two elements: access to the data and access for integration,” says Christian Burger, president of Burger Consulting Group in Chicago, which advises construction clients on how…
How do your processes and systems compare to your industry peers? How do your company’s business processes and systems measure up against industry averages, and best-in-class construction contractors? Amid all…
Burger Consulting Group (BCG) recently had the opportunity to work with a large specialty contractor with multiple locations across the country. At the time we were engaged, our client was…
What are they? Who are they intended for? How are they enforced? What makes them special? By: John Solon I Senior Project Manager, Burger Consulting Group Burger Consulting Group (BCG) has…
As construction companies race to keep up with emerging technologies and new solutions, their organizations must adapt as well. Nothing is more disappointing than new technology recently procured and marginally…
I just finished an educational session for my friends over at Master Builders of Iowa. This was the second of a two-part series on technology in Construction. The session was…
A software implementation can be a complex and overwhelming project for any organization. However, here at Burger Consulting Group, we have in-house resources to assist you in this endeavor. One…
In the world of sports, just remaining competitive (let alone being the best in a particular field) requires several areas of focus. One of which is the continuous evaluation of…
As IT leaders, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be more agile as an IT organization. The construction technology landscape is constantly changing in terms of the applications in use, how they are deployed, and the needs of the end-users. We must adapt and take lessons from other industries to allow IT to become more flexible to meet demand. There are multiple articles and books on implementing agile methodologies that provide the “how-to” knowledge. For this piece, we want to focus on two areas, one that requires a fundamental shift in IT thinking: the transition from “operators” to “managers”. The other is the adoption of a repeatable framework for becoming more agile.
Managers are required because more of their time is spent overseeing and working with a broader range of vendors which requires a different skillset and potentially some retraining. The adoption of a repeatable framework for strategy identification through execution is required in order to meet in the increasing demands for faster decision making and reaching a return on investment (ROI).
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Future of ERP
There are two aspects of ERP that make that solution among the stickiest in the industry (meaning least likely to be changed out); cost and disruption. Said another way, both relate to the difficulty in implementing the types of systems. In my 30 years within the industry, I have yet to hear a controller or CFO express delight in the prospect of another ERP deployment. Even so, a significant number of people evaluate the ERP marketplace each year with a view to better automating their accounting and operational functions. This seemingly benign process can bring its own cost, frustration, and risks. Certainly, making the wrong decision can be costly in terms of investment and personnel time to not meet the organization’s expectations. This topic could easily fill two or three newsletters. However, for those considering their options, the focus here is only on the most significant developments that are in the ERP space for contractors.
In no particular order, these developments include a lack of support for manufacturing/fabrication functions, sufficient project management functionality, an open architecture for integrating with other applications and publishing tools that provide a higher level of capability than typical report writing.
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