“Get ready. The time has come for HVACR contractors to move up to integrated software that enables faster, surer management of all components of contracting and service businesses.”
That’s what we said back in November 2011, and even though technology moves at a breakneck pace (was that really over two years ago?), it’s still true today. In “Integrate Your Way to a Smarter Business,” we spoke to a number of contractors who discussed how their companies moved from ones that viewed software packages as add-on tools to ones that viewed software as their company’s total operating system.
Everyone agreed, if a contracting business is going to grow in terms of both profits and size, it requires a management efficiency that can only be achieved by successfully integrated software. If that sounds daunting to a small contracting business, that’s because it can be. Choosing the right software is not something to be taken lightly. It can be a big investment, and if you do it right, the return can be huge. Do it wrong, though, and it’s just money out the window.
And it’s not even something that can just be done, like a project with a start and end date. According to Greg Leisgang of JonLe Heating-Cooling, “It isn’t plug-and-play … It is an evolution that continues to improve over time.”
Based on the number of comments and questions posed by contractors on industry listserves, like the ACCA Contractor Forum, this is still a big and looming issue for contractors. Fortunately, even if technology has changed in the last two years, the good advice from contractors on how to navigate this tricky field is still the same. Read it in the original article here.
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