Often, construction companies use many different applications and systems that are not connected to run the entire business.

This situation is typical for many project-based companies. Over the years, business owners identified functional gaps in business processes and have bought or built applications to fill those gaps. Before you know it, they’ve purchased 10 to 15 or more applications to support your business processes.

The fact that few, if any, of these applications are connected is a big problem. Contractors end up spending time and resources analyzing, manipulating and reentering data in multiple systems, leaving room for problems that may be overlooked, mistakes to be made, and poor project and business performance overall. This chaos and lack of knowledge that follows from this disparate application landscape and the process as a result can be detrimental to the business.

Continuing to purchase different point solutions to fill existing gaps is not the answer. If 80% of the business is project-based, you need a solution that puts projects front and center. But unfortunately, many companies continue to buy systems to satisfy the 20%. Business systems today simply are not built to support project-based processes.

Construction companies need to look for a comprehensive system that supports their core project business processes.

Project business automation (PBA) does just that. PBA is a new category of business systems designed to integrate and automate the business processes of project-based companies. But PBA didn’t just come up out of the blue.

The Evolution of Project Business Systems

Over the past 50 years, project business technology has evolved in distinct generations.

• Gen 0: In the 1950s, the work breakdown structure was invented by the U.S. Department of Defense. In the 1960s, project management as a discipline began to emerge.
• Gen 1: In the 1980s, work productivity tools came on the market in the form of project management applications.
• Gen 2: In the 1990s to 2000s, “project ERPs” consolidated some various project functions under one roof. Verticalized project management apps developed during this time as well.
• Gen 3: Today, PBA takes a new approach putting project processes first and creates a business system to support the entire project life cycle from end-to-end in a completely integrated fashion.

The Next Gen Solution: Project Business Automation

Project business isn’t just about project, resource or cost management. It’s about managing an entire project-based company. More specifically, PBA eliminates the needs for point solutions and Excel spreadsheets, it integrates project business workflows and data, and enables real-time visibility across the entire company.

Having a project planning application or a project costing spreadsheet is not good enough to support the entire business process. To run a successful construction business, it’s critical to find a solution that makes projects a priority. PBA eliminates point solutions, automates processes, and enables real-time information sharing. Essentially, it creates one source of truth so everyone in your company is always on the same page.