NASHVILLE -- The construction industry has certainly hit a rough patch, as nearly 1 million construction jobs have been lost in the last year; nonetheless, the message of last week's Meridian Systems User Conference was that there are opportunities to be found.

Norbert Young, the president of McGraw-Hill Construction, used Tuesday's keynote to highlight a couple areas of growth.

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as many already know, allocated roughly $130 billion for infrastructure, public building and energy grid construction projects. (No money was officially set aside for school construction, though individual states may allocate funds for that purpose.)
• There's also green building. This is still a small piece of total construction ($29 billion last year in a $1.2 trillion business, according to McGraw-Hill's data), but LEED specifications are increasingly popping up in construction projects, especially those over $10 million.

Nice work if you can get it. But how do you get it, and how do you manage it? For the former, Young pointed to the McGraw-Hill Construction Network (MHCN), which lists more than 600,000 construction projects in the United States that can be searched on a number of criteria, including geography, project type and "shovel ready" status. For the latter, Meridian Systems noted in Monday's keynote that two new products, the Prolog Oversight Pack and the Proliance Government Stimulus Package, include reports and collaboration tools to help contractors meet the accountability requirements associated with ARRA projects.

Such products can help contractors find and manage new opportunities, especially now that Meridian Systems software and McGraw-Hill's Project Document Manager (PDM), which ties into the MGCN, are interoperable. However, completing such jobs is about more than following the money. It also necessitates some soul-searching for contractors as they address questions such as the following:

• Do ARRA projects fit within our core competencies, or must we broaden our horizons to take on such jobs? And can we do so with the employees that we have?
• If we do take on an ARRA project, how will it affect our plan for the next 12-24 months?
• Can we devote time and energy to gaining experience and credibility as a green builder without sacrificing essential work?

Construction software such as Meridian Systems' Prolog and Proliance and McGraw-Hill's PDM cannot answer those questions for you. It can, however, help you find projects, bid on projects, manage projects and ensure that all invoices for a project are paid on time. It can even help you assess the type of projects that you can and cannot take on in this, or any other, economic climate. That should help you find the construction opportunities that make the most sense for your business.