Choosing ERP Technology: Why Business Central for Construction?

Like many others, the construction industry is modernizing and digitizing alongside its customers. This means embracing future-ready technologies like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in favor of the industry’s long-standing yet error-prone, pen-and-paper-based approach to business management. 

As a result, the construction sector is looking at bringing in an estimated $11.13 billion in projected revenue this year alone.

With powerful digital and cloud-based tools that centralize data, improve productivity, reduce errors, and accelerate growth (i.e. ERP solutions like Dynamics 365 Business Central), construction firms are ready to adapt to any industry or market changes that may come their way. 

Today, flexible and agile ERP systems support construction companies’ digital and business evolution—but that success hangs on their ability to implement a solution that’s a fit for their unique business needs and that addresses the industry-wide call for modernization. 

How ERP Solutions Benefit a Modernizing Construction Industry 

In recent years, we’ve seen businesses across the construction industry continue to struggle with legacy systems and data silos, negatively impacting their project delivery and disrupting their supply chains. Today, it’s more important than ever to have full visibility over your data, and be empowered to use it to respond to employee and customer needs.

ERP software built for construction companies can significantly streamline processes: providing a single source of truth for your data and comprehensive financial insights while automating many aspects of their complex operations. It also has the potential to completely revolutionize how construction firms do business.

Historically, when construction teams have coordinated projects and tracked deadlines by hand, they’ve left ample room for duplicate entries, inaccurate notes, and costly mistakes. Now, that margin for error is a relic of the past. 

Dynamics 365 Business Central, a powerful and scalable ERP solution from Microsoft, supports every part of the kind of business management modernization the construction industry needs. 

The Right Fit: Why Business Central for Construction?

Rather than struggling with spreadsheets compiled from data across systems like they used to, any construction company can now leverage Business Central to quickly access information via customized dashboards). This, in turn, offers complete visibility into project finances, operations, profits, and more.

For this reason, among others, many of the most innovative leading construction companies worldwide have adopted a Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP system to improve their operations and project delivery (including Bechtel, Turner Construction, Balfour Beatty, and Kiewit Corporation). And where the leaders pave the way, others are bound to follow.

With Business Central, scaling companies can manage key construction processes with ease, including:

• Job quotes
• Project accounting
• Resource management (including labor and equipment)
• Subcontractor management
• Job material planning

Dynamics 365 Business Central is a solution tailor-made for small and mid-sized businesses, with built-in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) capabilities. It empowers these high-growth companies to quickly automate essential construction business processes and to gain real-time insights that allow them to keep construction projects on track.

It also helps construction organizations maintain a competitive edge thanks to its future-facing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. As an added bonus, the user-friendly interface of Business Central will be familiar to users of other Microsoft solutions, like Power BI. This means that teams will be able to quickly ramp up and start automating and future-proofing their business. 

The key advantages of investing in Business Central for construction, however, don’t stop there. Your business’s ability to hone insights from your data relies on having a centralized location for that unified data, as well as having capabilities for streamlined internal processes and robust analytics. Business Central, fortunately, offers it all.

1. Centralized Data for Your Company and Your Customers

Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-based software that ensures that all stakeholders (from engineers to contractors and subcontractors) can access and update data from one system, in real-time, including via mobile access. This means improved communication, fewer errors, faster problem-solving, and better project outcomes—plus more transparency into orders for your customers.

2. Simplified Project and Workforce Management

Dynamics Business Central provides a complete overview of projects, tracking progress, resource and workforce allocation, and budget compliance. In short, it serves as essential project management software for companies struggling with scheduling or keeping projects within budget.

3. Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting for Better Decisioning

Business Central provides advanced reporting and analytics tools, like time tracking and inventory management. These help in making data-driven decisions and forecasting trends, which can streamline construction tasks and help companies become more proactive in their response to performance fluctuations.

Data-Driven Insights Will Help Build the Future of Construction

For industries like construction, the integration of cloud-driven ERP software into their tech stack has been a huge step in the modernization of traditionally manual business processes. From improved cash flow to increased profits, ERP systems like Business Central offer comprehensive business management support that underpins a broader business transformation. 

In fact, ERP implementations, when done well, can reduce the cost of an overall digital transformation, as well as provide fresh business and data insights. The onus is on business leaders in the construction industry to take the leap, invest in business accelerants like Business Central, and (with partners like Cavallo) continue to find ways to leverage technology and data to stay agile in the face of ongoing change.