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The Tools of Technology: A Contractor's Must-Have List
After all the hype and hullabaloo, these
are the technologies that will bring our
businesses into the future
BY FRED ODE
If it feels like the minute you buy a
new computer or some other techno-
gadget it’s outdated, you’re
right. Technology changes faster than
you can click the Send button on an
email complaining about your boss –
mistakenly addressed to your boss.
Unless you set out to be the gadget
geek who spends his time acquiring all
the new tools, it’s impossible to keep
up. Thankfully, in business, the best
tactic isn’t always to keep up, but
rather to sit back and let the true diehards
weed out the good from the bad.
You can then be selective, choosing to
invest only in the technology that has
been proven beneficial enough to last.
However, even this approach can be
time-consuming and frustrating. Just
when you think you’ve thoroughly researched
a technology, it’s obsolete or
made unnecessary by a newer technology.
Well, fear not! There are some technologies
that, while continuing to transform,
are readily available and offer great
potential to contractors now. Here, the
five areas where contractors should
consider investing, are explained simply.
Scanners
The “paperless world” has not quite arrived,
but many companies are buying
fewer filing cabinets by storing documents
digitally instead. Those dealing with paperwork
in the construction business know
the pains of shuffling the hundreds of
documents required for a job, and the
large size of physical drawings and plans
make them especially cumbersome.
The advent of faster, more powerful,
large-scale scanners and more accurate
optical character recognition (OCR)
software has allowed many companies
to reduce, if not eliminate, hard copies of
many documents. While the price of
large-scale scanners may seem off-putting
at first glance, companies using
a digital workflow find reduced costs
and greater efficiencies in other areas,
making a strong case for their return on
investment. Documents that are available
digitally can be sent via email, reducing
shipping costs and allowing
quicker access. Digital drawings can rely
upon automated scaling and measuring,
reducing human error in these areas.
Lastly, through precise document
management, digital documents offer a
tracking mechanism for the history of a
document and its revisions.
Digital cameras
A camera is a camera, right? Well, in
many cases, that’s correct. In the case
of a contractor who has to take daily or
weekly pictures of the progression of a
project, however, a camera that doesn’t
require the expense of developing
film and storing paper photos offers
much more. As the technology behind
digital photography becomes more
stable, the cost of cameras has
dropped and the quality of the picture
has improved. These facts, combined
with the comparative simplicity of
downloading a photo from a digital
camera to a CD or large computer hard
drive, make the digital camera a no-brainer
for contractors. Combined with
document management software or
more specialized photo management
software, this new technology should
save you both time and money.
Handheld computers
Known as handheld computers, personal
digital assistants, or just simply PDAs,
these tiny computers have seen
astounding developments in the last five
years. Originally just glorified address
books, handheld computers now do
much of what a laptop can do for traveling
workers, albeit on a much smaller
screen. With specialized operating systems
and software, users can accomplish
most of the tasks they’d need to
while on the road, including typing a
document, recording timecard information
in a spreadsheet or tracking tasks in
a to-do list.
When purchasing new handhelds,
you may want to consider devices with
built-in wireless capability, another developing
technology that will be essential for
contractors of the future. Combining
these two technologies allows almost
seamless data integration between the
home-office and the job site.
Wireless networking
Truth be told, this technology isn’t quite
there yet, but considering wireless networking
is the ultimate dream for most
technophiles, it will be soon. Debates
over standards for wireless networking
continue, but that said, it is possible to
create and manage a wireless network in
your office or for your off-site employees.
While the most obvious benefit to
wireless networking is fewer wires tangled
under your desk, the ability for offsite
employees to access the internet,
and by extension, your network, without having to plug their laptop computers or PDAs into
phone lines is without rival. For contractors working on
site, it’s extraordinarily difficult and expensive to install the
necessary wiring just so your employees can log onto the
internet. While the setup and planning for wireless access
for all your employees can be expensive and time consuming,
the possibilities once it’s up and running are
unbounded. Project managers can have real-time access
to your purchasing and accounting systems. Field
reports and daily logs can be uploaded on a regular
basis. Instant communication between employees at
different locations is possible, especially using the next
up-and-coming technology, instant messaging.
Instant messaging
It may have started out as a fad – college coeds
sending late-night gossip rife with “emoticons” and
short-hand abbreviations like ROFL and XXX – but
instant messaging (IM) has blossomed into a viable
tool for business communication.
If you’re not familiar with instant messaging, it
uses small applications running over the internet
and allows, as the name implies, typed messages to
be sent to recipients instantly. Popular applications
include AIM from AOL, Yahoo’s Instant Messenger
and Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, but there are
many other options to choose from. Versions designed
specifically for business users now offer
secure connections, multimedia and file sharing
options, and the ability to send text messages to
cell phones.
In today’s global business world, and particularly
for contractors, whose employees aren’t usually just
down the hall from each other, options for inexpensive,
quick communication are essential. When the
project manager at the job site has a question for
someone at the home office, being able to send a
question, immediately get an answer, and reply with
follow-up questions can be invaluable. And, unlike cell
phones, IM does not require a per-minute or per-connection
charge, Of course, users must be connected
to the internet in order to IM, but with IM installed
on your wirelessly connected personal digital
assistant, that’s not an obstacle.
Fred Ode is the founder and chairman/CEO of Foundation
Software, Inc. Ode developed a construction-specific
accounting software, Foundation for Windows,
that suits a range of trades. For more information, visit
www.foundationsoft.com or call 800-246-0800.
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