Over on the BuildTopia blog, Erik Cofield recently put together a rather thorough post called 101 Questions to Ask When Buying Construction Management Software. The list is quite comprehensive, covering construction and sales functionality as well as setup and warranty information. (Cofield is the national accounts manager for BuildTopia, so it’s a safe bet that he has heard all those questions at one time or another.)

Now, you very well may be thinking, “Am I seriously going to ask all 101 questions when I’m meeting with a vendor? That will take days!” Of course not — even the most basic construction management software demonstration will (or should) cover stuff like purchase order management, scheduling and CRM, not to mention support and training.

Rather, think of the 101 questions as a checklist. As the vendor demo progresses, take plenty of notes, and be sure to ask any questions that are not covered. If the sales rep does not have an immediate answer, grab a business card and get in touch with the rep after the demo. Be sure to read through all the material the sales rep provides, too.

When all is said and done, go back to the 101 questions and, now, answers. Focus on what the software cannot do at all or can only do if you acquire an add-on or module. How are important are those functions to your business now? What about four or five years from now, when you have more staff and more construction projects to manage? If a particular piece of software cannot perform the tasks that matter most to your business, then you need to keep shopping.

As we note in our own Construction Project Management Software Buyers Guide, a software package is an investment. That means it can take several months to find the software that suits your company best, not to mention several more months to acclimate yourself to the software. However, if you do your homework, and arm yourself with a checklist of 101 (or more) questions at the outset, then your investment in construction management software should pay for itself — many, many times over.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Project management and scheduling software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.