Construction Estimating Software Buyer's Guide: Implementation

A feature-rich estimating software application can overwhelm and frustrate new users, so you'll want to make sure your staff is prepared for the introduction.

"If, before the software is introduced, we brief our staff on the details and training schedule and prepare properly, this will help in the success of the implementation of our new application," said Phil Arnt of GCM Contracting.

Arnt provided the following timeline for implementing your new estimating software.

• Within the first three months, the program should be installed and the application's business owner should be scheduling beginner-level training courses.
• By the end of six months, you should be performing old processes within the new application.
• By the end of nine months, you should be fine-tuning all processes.
• By the end of 12 months, you should be implementing integrations and other special features. At this point you should also meet with your staff to discuss successes, failures and general application performance, and to start scheduling more advanced training courses.

Arnt recommended that, after training the staff in the estimating software's basic capabilities, you accustom them to the new features gradually. "Make a list of all the processes you use and, each week, pick one that everyone must make work with the new application. There's nothing overwhelming about learning one step each day, or even each week," he said.

Be very careful before turning your new users loose on features that integrate data with your construction accounting software; this should be the last step in the introduction. Instead, concentrate first on processes related to construction project management. They're usually more forgiving of mistakes and are less likely to cause data integrity problems.

As the weeks of implementation proceed, keep a time/date log of failures by both users and the application. Your implementation plan should include a plan-to-fail contingency, where you move to another product if a pre-determined percent of the implementation has failed.

When something fails, you'll want to immediately communicate with vendor support and ensure the problem is logged. Track response time and resolution; this may help you determine, down the road, whether the vendor can properly support the service level commitment you agreed upon.

Finally, remember that the average industry time to successfully implement any major software application is one year. "Of course there will be above average performers that migrate to a new application in 90 days successfully, or less," Arnt said, "but they are the minority."

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