In the next ten to twenty years, “electrical contractor” will no longer be a suitable job title for electricians. They will transition into “energy contractors” to support the fast-growing green construction market.

We see this as a coming renaissance in electrical contracting. There has been a revival of interest in the electrical trade as home owners and corporations adopt alternative methods (e.g. solar, wind, etc) to power buildings. What’s driving this? Federal incentives, lower material costs and savings from reduced energy spending.

This is the first in a series of “state of the industry” reports in which we will share our observations on construction software industry trends. While reporting the recessive state of the industry is not breaking news, there are some interesting trends that we can share. Not everything is gloomy, and significant technological shifts are underway.

Given the recent deadline for registering LEED v2.2 projects, we were reminded of a post we wanted to write: how construction project management software can be used to track LEED credits.

Tracking LEED credits requires software functionality similar to that required for more traditional construction project management. Consequently, a few leading vendors have re-purposed their technology to make this

So you’ve decided to consider getting the proper financial accounting and reporting package for your construction business. It’s a daunting task on the one hand and exciting on the other. The general idea is to bring into your organization a tool that will better allow you to understand what is making money, what is costing money, and to provide information allowing you and your in-house accounting team to keep up with the paperwork requirements that go along with being in the construction business.

Project management software for construction helps contracting firms stay on-budget and on-schedule by tracking key items during the building process. Given the complexity of construction projects, project management software comes with a variety of features and functions to meet the demands of commercial and residential jobs. Advanced construction project management software systems include modules for scheduling, accounting, bid procurement, document management and estimating.

Regardless of how responsibility is shared in a project, building owners bear the ultimate risk. They write the checks for overruns. They feel the pain of delays in the form of lost revenue opportunity. Finally, they pay the additional costs of a facility built for project profitability rather than long-term operating efficiency. Everyone but the lawyers will agree that litigation won’t recover these costs.

Project managers and accounting staff are often a world apart. They differ in personality, computer skills and the type of work they do. While many contractors are content to let these two worlds remain separate, the best companies are integrating what’s managed in the field with what’s accounted for in the office. Importantly, these industry leaders are finding that opposites do attract.

Still estimating the old-fashioned way? Pen, paper, and bare-bones spreadsheets still comprise the cost estimating “systems” of the majority of construction firms. Why is this so, when just about everyone uses accounting and project management software applications? We hear lots of excuses, ranging from “I’m the only one who really knows the material and labor costs in my region” to “It’s easier to do it by hand than to learn a new program”.

One of your techs is sleeping in his van behind Arby’s. Purchasing has no idea where to allocate the $1,000 invoice they got from Midtown Supply. Meanwhile, you can’t figure out if the ACME Corp service contract you negotiated last summer turned out to be profitable.