Ontario Construction News special feature
Some business decisions are complex, with nuances and variables to consider. But others are simple, when you can quickly assess the risk, reward, and required investment.
The decision to consider 123worx to increase efficiency, reduce costs and prepare your general or sub-trade business for growth fits into the “simple” category.
The Ontario-based software company promises almost immediate cost saving and business growth with its solution that offers complete project management, business management and collaboration management in a single easy to use application.
For example, OakWood, an Ottawa-based design and build company has been one of the early adopters of this solution. It reports that it has grown four-fold over the past eight years and gives credit to the efficiency achieved using 123worx – an advantage that would turn a struggling construction business into a solidly profitable business or turn an average business into a mega-profitable growth machine.
This growth is achieved without a stressful up-front investment. Users sign up for the cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) software and pay per user per month only for the time they use the software. One-on-one live support and onboarding ensures that the payback is immediate and does not require any upfront cost.
123worx vice-president Bharat Rudra says the software is designed and developed to solve the real-world challenges faced by the construction companies in North America. The software combines efficiency, productivity, flexibility and ease of use to ensure that companies are up and running with the least effort.
OakWood president John Liptak says his company runs completely on 123worx. It has been instrumental in the rapid growth of his business. Using 123worx, OakWood manages all aspects of the business from first contact with the potential client followed by the sales process, estimation, proposal, project management, safety management and all the way through warranty and marketing. With 123worx, there is no need to purchase multiple software packages for project management, document management, contact management, scheduling, customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration with clients and partners and for many other aspects of everyday business.
“The payback is enormous,” Liptak said. “We would have had to hire 20% more staff if we were not using 123worx. It has been a blessing not only because of the higher efficiency but also it is very difficult to find talent due to the construction boom over the past several years.
Rudra says the payoff for new clients is almost immediate. “Our team works with clients to determine their requirements and design a progressive transition and onboarding plan so that the construction team can start using parts of the software immediately and start using advanced features as users become familiar with the software. This brings the learning curve to a minimum,” he said. “We see clients productively using 123worx the first day after onboarding and generally see clients achieve a return on investment in their first month.”
123worx is designed to keep user flexibility in mind. There are no two businesses that use the exact same business process. 123worx provides complete flexibility to adapt to client’s business processes. For example, trades will have different business process than renovators and builders. 123worx offers the flexibility to configure the system not only for the organization but also for the individual user. Integration of the most popular software Microsoft Office 365 and Gmail makes it easier for users to easily adapt to 123worx.
Rudra says: “Imagine the ease of use when the software lets each user customize the software for their specific needs only with a few clicks.”
Liptak says the software has proven to be an effective tool for collaboration. Once the data is entered it remains in the system eliminating the need for re-entry. Project teams share documents, drawings, photos and collaborate in preparing the estimates, schedules and executing projects. Built-in Client and Trade Partner portals allows project managers to collaborate with the clients and trades by allowing them to share documents, payment timeline, selection sheets, project schedule and other details. “We use the 123worx real-time live dashboards for accurate and comprehensive views of the company financials along with status of each project, even employee performance,” Liptak said.
“I think one of greatest advantages of this software is its real-time data access that helps prevent costly errors usually caused by sharing stale data,” he said. “We don’t lose change orders and we know our labour and materials costs – and are confident that our quotes reflect the actual cost of the work – and that ensures profitability.”
Rudra said other construction management software options either are often inflexible and force businesses to operate within the software’s narrow parameters or require users to bolt on or third-party services for extra features at significant additional cost. Conversely, 123worx can be seen as a platform that allow contractors, trades, renovators and builders use the features that best suit for their businesses needs, so that new clients don’t need to fundamentally change their way of doing business.
“This software can help growing businesses manage their expansion,” said Liptak. “I know many companies hit a brick wall when it comes to growth. That is natural as the complexity of doing business increases with growth. Using 123worx, we have been able to keep the growth complexity to a minimum, because 123worx can manage 10 employees and 100 projects with same ease as 50 employees and 500 projects. 123worx is our secret sauce.”
For more information, visit 123worx.com or email
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