Five signs it’s time to rethink your construction ERP support

A good construction Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can be the difference between a viable project and a failed one. It can save you time and money while increasing productivity and ensuring your project complies with relevant regulations.

However, as you grow, the time might come for you to find that your current ERP system or support isn’t meeting your needs anymore. When that happens, you need to upgrade.

But how can you tell when the time is right? Here are five signs that you’re outgrowing your current ERP support and need to rethink your provider…

1 – You are having to do manual paperwork again

The workload in all areas will scale up and become as complex as your business. That means more data and administration are needed, and you’ll soon be able to see if your current ERP support can handle the increased load.

If you have to create workarounds and fix errors by hand, that’s a good sign that you may have outgrown the current system. However, the most obvious sign is that you are having to do manual paperwork again and this defeats the point of having ERP support in the first place.

This is especially true for ERP systems that are not designed for construction specialists. That lack of specialisation increases the likelihood that they can’t handle all the industry-specific paperwork that a scaling construction company requires.

If that’s happening to you, switching to an ERP provider designed for construction, like 4PS Construct, will solve the problem. It will scale with you and seamlessly integrate additional workflows from new, bigger jobs so that you can expand your operations without fear – or extra paperwork.

2 – You can’t tell whether you are compliant with regulations or not

One of the biggest advantages of an effective ERP system is that it takes care of all your compliance reporting by automating the administration away responsibly.

Your data integrity, security, monitoring, and audit trails should all be taken care of through effective ERP support.

However, if you’ve outgrown your ERP system, then it might not be able to handle all aspects of your compliance reporting easily and require more manual work to ensure you are fulfilling your legal responsibilities.

If that’s the case, you need to rethink your ERP support and move to a system which can handle more complex reporting so that you can be confident of regulatory compliance.

3 – Response times are getting longer

If your company is growing and taking on bigger jobs, you will naturally need more support from your ERP provider.

Increased detail and complexity will lead to more questions and support tickets. However, if your ERP provider cannot scale in the same way, you will start to see response times become longer.

That can cause delays in the office and on site, which lead to a loss of productivity, financial costs and programme slips and you also run the risk of seeing compliance and regulatory challenges if your ERP support can’t keep up with your speed of growth.

The best way to combat this is to choose ERP support that is dedicated to the construction sector so that they know how to scale with you effectively and boost your growth rather than hinder it.

4 – Your employees are getting frustrated, and staff turnover is increasing

One of the most significant benefits of a good construction ERP system is its smooth task assignment, which ensures that the right people are doing the right jobs at the right time. This maximises productivity, reduces delays, and makes everyone happy.

However, when that communication breaks down, and people are not given clear instructions, problems will start to occur. Employees will naturally become frustrated, and job satisfaction will fall, possibly leading to higher staff turnover and delays on site.

If you see an increase in workers asking for instructions, standing idle or simply not understanding the tasks given, it may be a sign that it’s time to rethink your ERP support and upgrade to a more capable system.

A good ERP support system will keep workflows moving efficiently no matter how much you grow or how complex a job might be.

5 – You’re missing out on useful industry insights

Finally, if you notice that you are running into problems due to a lack of industry knowledge, it’s a good sign that you need to rethink your ERP support.

For example, you might see an increasing number of health and safety incidents on site because patterns in the data were missed. Or your budget could be allocated incorrectly because your ERP provider doesn’t understand construction timelines on larger projects well enough.

In such cases, a lack of construction industry knowledge can cost your time, money and even your company’s reputation. If you notice this happening, it’s time to find new ERP support like 4PS Construct, which was built to provide dedicated support for the construction industry.

Download our brochure to learn more about what makes 4PS Construct the leading construction ERP software on the market today.

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