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How small is too small for construction software?

Historically, it is easy to see how technology has been adopted and how it has fundamentally changed a lot of key business practices around us. From the first commercial use of technology in an 1890 United States census (Source) to the mass adoption of Steve Job’s iPhone, technology has always pushed the limits of what is considered possible and opened our eyes to further opportunities. Today, that same sentiment still exists.

Running a business is never easy. When dealing with a global health concern, this difficulty rapidly expands and forces many business owners to adapt in order to survive. We have seen many changes made by business owners and have helped many others transition towards a system which allows organizations to become more efficient – even in such trying times.

 

There is an old quote in business that says, “even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you are standing still”. In these challenging and uncertain times this is still very much true. If we stop moving forward as a business and all steps to improve, we will be faced with the huge force of inertia when trying to start up again. By standing still, will we lose talented employees and risk losing our share of the market to the competition who likely isn’t standing still? What can we do to keep moving forward? How do we keep our employees, customers and vendors safe during this pandemic? The logical answer to these questions, I believe, is through technology and using it effectively to your advantage.

At Asyma Solutions we have been championing the use of the web, remote access and effective automation in businesses for many years.

For construction companies this involves real time field and other data collection with project management access. The field staff are not required to manually prepare daily field reports, safety documents, employee or equipment time and then deliver them to the office administration.

For non-profit organizations and other types of businesses, technology allows for anytime access to management information from anywhere and provide field data collection for health care or other field staff. How does this help? You can continue to work with limited contact to others but maintain complete access to your information to effectively management your organization/business.

But what happens if you have a small business system like QuickBooks/Sage 50 or are not using a system currently that will allow for that type of access and functionality? The question then becomes, is your glass half empty or half full? We prefer to believe that the glass is half full. In business, we are all used to the continuous changing situations and issues both economic and social. This pandemic will eventually pass and go away. What can you do now?  The answer again is technology. Things have slowed down and you finally have some time to breath for a change. You have employees who are home, likely bored and looking for something productive to do. Why not keep moving forward and start looking at working on your business instead of in your business?

Our team at Asyma Solutions believes in using technology and have been promoting it to our customers for years. We utilize this technology ourselves through remote conferencing and hosted system access capabilities. We can provide hosting or full cloud accounting solutions like Sage Intacct to streamline operations.

The biggest issues and problems with implementing a new system and the related procedures involves the lack of time and focus of the customers internal staff. With the current situation the whole world is facing, contact and unnecessary face to face interactions can be greatly reduced through technology and therefore a perfect time to improve your organization for the future.  You have the time and the resources available and with the use of technology you can continue to move forward.

For more information about how technology and improved procedures can help your organization check out our web site www.asyma.com.

 

This year’s construction season is quickly winding down – cold and snow are settling in, as are thoughts of tropical vacations and relaxation.

When a company chooses a cloud service, they have certain expectations. First off, most companies plan to enjoy the cost savings in IT—not having to maintain a powerful, scalable server with guaranteed up time. Rather than paying for room to grow, they anticipate that the service will be able to expand during times of peak demand—referred to as elasticity. Second, they expect fresh software that they don’t have to update. The provider updates the software at frequent intervals for all subscribers. Third, flexible costs allow them to pay for just the features, number of users, and server space they need, when they need it. And lastly, they expect to access the service from anywhere, even mobile devices. These are the expectations of cloud, but do these expectations always align with reality?

Asyma and Sage have teamed up to provide a fully cloud based solution that is rated #1 in customer satisfaction by G2 Crowd winter 2019 edition. 

Operational Visibility

Information discovery and analysis is arguably the bedrock of human endeavor. It provides us with the necessary firepower to embark on business ventures, protect our assets, and build our spheres of influence. Good leaders will do well to seek out good information.

Thereafter, a book entitled Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by a gentleman named Donald T. Phillips outlines the habit Abraham Lincoln had of “running into” new information. Lincoln strode around the White House listening, as well as taking time to interview several townsfolk in the White House while he was in office. The result was he would often collide with new ideas, leading to thought generation and often influencing his interactions as a leader.

The same is true of our business. A dominant reason for meeting with clientele is due to the process of idea generation. New intel leads to fresh thought – And potential innovation thereafter, all resulting from the literal collision of individuals with data. This underscores the importance of regular face-time with our clients: It provides the basis for providing superior service thru understanding and recognizing the needs and challenges of those we serve. Thus, take the time to be present and collide with new information – Both for the sake of good business and good service.

I have been attending the SLA (Strategic Leadership Association) retreats for years now.  Each one has given me some new tools and techniques to better my business. The topics are always something useful to the business world but not why I attend.  I attend because of the wealth of knowledge in the room at each retreat.  The room is filled with business owners and managers that have a combined knowledge far greater than anything I could have imagined.  Being able to hear how they have improved their businesses, what has worked, what hasn’t worked and where they plan to get to in the future and how they will get there has been immeasurable in terms of value.

Budgeting is one of the most stressful times for all non-profit organizations and for-profit companies. This is usually annual process where management of each department must set their expenditures for the full year. Many times, the whole process of budgeting can take more than 3 months, waste a significant amount of management time and result in questionable budget amounts at best. Is Continuous budgeting the answer?

Continuous budgeting is the process of continually adding one more month to the end of a multi-period budget as each month goes by. This approach has the advantage of having management constantly reviewing the current month actuals amounts and then budgeting for the same month out one year. This incremental approach allows you to focus on only one month at a time instead of a whole year. The management is always looking forward instead of the rear-view mirror with historical financials. The downside of this approach is that it requires management to think about the future once a month, which may also be a good thing depending on how you look at things. If an organization uses participative budgeting to create its budgets on a continuous basis, then the total employee time used over the course of a year is substantial without the use of budgeting technology.

Continuous budgeting removes some of the rigidity and provides quicker reactions to changing conditions from the typical annual budgets. They may also reduce the amount of year end budget spending frenzy that is common with annual department budgeting (Spend it or loose it mentality). The new budgeting and planning solutions currently available can make the implementation of a continuous budgeting process much easier and reduce the annual stress of preparing the budget for the full year. By focusing on the organizations goals, one month at a time and using real-time current financial information, the accuracy should also greatly improve. Maybe its time for you and your organization to consider available solutions?

Check out our presentation on Thursday, January 15th on Budgeting and Planning.  Click Here for more information and to register for this complimentary event.