April 14, 2025 • 22 mins
Salina Patel shares her journey into the construction software industry and provides expert advice on identifying the right time to invest in new ERP software. Learn about the red flags indicating outdated systems and the hidden costs they carry. Selena also discusses emerging trends like AI that are set to transform the construction industry. Don't miss her tips on what to consider when selecting new ERP software and how to ensure it aligns with your business needs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, and today I'm thrilled to welcome Selena Patel
to the show. A little bit of background about Selena
lum of the University of Georgia and has worked as
well as implemented a wide wide range of innovative solutions.
She is the marketing director for Strategies Group and she
(00:26):
drives brand awareness and engagement through creative strategies and campaigns
as well. Additionally, she also manages software partnerships and collaborates
with her dynamics sales team at Strategies Group. And I've
asked Selena to come on to the show to discuss
you know, when you know you need new construction software
(00:48):
and what people actually get wrong when looking for an
ERP software.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So Selena, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thanks for having me. Jennifer Love intro. Couldn't have said
it better myself. Really excited to be here today and
just happy to talk to you. I always love the
chance to talk to you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Absolutely, So let's first to share a little bit of
background about yourself. So how did your journey really go
or start in the software construction industry.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So I'm not gonna lie I didn't go out and
seek a career in construction software. It did fall in
my lap. I was looking for jobs in a very
hard economy. There wasn't a lot of opportunities with someone
with my level of skill set, and I just kind
(01:43):
of applied for all jobs in marketing that I possibly could,
and I fell into a job at Strategies Group, and
Randy Collins, the owner of Strategy Scrip, took a chance
on me and we kind of started moving and building
a marketing department at Strategies Group. The former marketing director
(02:04):
left and that's kind of how I ended up here.
It really wasn't something that I went out and seeked.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so construction found you.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, yes, it definitely did well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, let's get into you know, when does someone know
that they actually need a new construction software? So what
would you say would be like signs that your construction
business has really outgrown it software?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, so it can look different in different companies. Oftentimes,
you know, you need to make a change when things
just aren't working. And I know that sounds super simple
and pretty rudimentary, but when you start seeing things fall
through the cracks, or when you start seeing multiple repetitive
(02:57):
errors in your numbers or air in your processes. That's
that's probably a warning sign that your current process just
is not working for you. And Jennifer, you come from
this world. You you've seen this happen where a company
they they're they're off to a good track, they're growing,
(03:18):
they're they're reaching new revenue levels year after year. Uh,
but then they reached this cap. They reached this cap
and they can't go past that cap. Oftentimes, when a
company reaches a threshold that they just cannot penetrate past,
it's because there's some issues in their processes or they're reporting,
(03:40):
or they're yeah, they're their staff. Even so, when when
you've reached that point and you can't get past it,
that's a time to look inward and see where in
my business can I make changes? And oftentimes software is
a rather easy place to look first.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, absolutely, so, yeah, I see it most like when
it comes to reporting or uh duplicating of entries, right
like it's just not working anymore. So what would you
say would be like five red flags that's really time
to upgrade your construction software.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, so I would say the first thing is if
you see, if you see your competitors, if you see
your competitors thriving past you.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
If you're seeing them kind of go after it and
go into the future guns ablazing, and you feel left behind,
that's the first red flag that means that you need
to make a change. The second one I would say
is if you start having or start start spending a
(04:57):
lot of time in administrative pass that you feel are
below your pay grades. So if you're a CEO and
you're manually putting in data into a system that you
guys are using, that's a red You should not be
doing that. Your time should be focused on big picture.
Your time should be focused on other things. You shouldn't
(05:19):
be doing manual tasks day to day, So your team
is stuck doing manual tasks, that that's a red flag.
Number three is disjointed systems and siloed departments. So if
your estimating department is working in one software and your
(05:42):
finance department is working in another software and project management
your operations are working in a different software. Everybody's using
different solutions and none of them talk to one another.
Huge flat you're not going to be able to grow
that way. You're going to have data that's different in
different platforms and they're not gonna they're not gonna report upwards,
(06:05):
They're not going to be able to get accurate numbers.
That's one of the biggest red flags. Number four is
employee retention. If you start seeing employees move to different companies,
you're seeing them kind of go for better opportunities and
things like that. Your employees don't feel like they can
(06:27):
grow within your company, which means that they don't think
that your company has a growth mindset. And oftentimes growth
mindset comes in investing in the future, So investing in
a new software solution will give that vision of new
forward thinking in the company. And then lastly, it's it's
(06:50):
kind of simple and obvious, is if you feel personally
that it's time to make a change, if you feel
something isn't right, then there's likely something going on that
needs to be reviewed. It needs to be looked over,
it needs to be refreshed even cold. And a software
(07:11):
change isn't just a full overhaul of a solution. It
could be just upgrading what you currently have or trying
to fix little pieces and parts of what you're currently using. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, and I can resonate with a few of those
that you said. When I was at a company with
a very old system, and we are working Saturday Sunday,
especially one month then don't even mention when it came
to year end or doing reviews with auditors how much
time it was taken until then we implemented the new
ERP system and we were able to work our normal
(07:48):
Monday through Friday, but then had that time to be
able to like actually look at our data and analyze
that to make strategic decisions. So I like those that
you pointed out out there. What would you say would
be like hidden cost of outdated construction software.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, so there's so many hidden costs of construction software
if it's outdated, if it's clunky. So the number one
thing I see is server costs. So a lot of these,
a lot of these software tend to be on premise
software that that are that are considered dated solutions. That
(08:31):
means it's being hosted in on site, in on a
on a server in a server room something like that,
and you're you're hosting it yourself. So the cost of
doing that is tenfold. You have to pay for maintaining servers,
you have to pay for a full it staff that
(08:53):
then works to host your software, upgrade your software work
on break fixes. Oftentimes. We saw this during COVID that
everybody needed the ability to work remotely. So if you're
using one of those those outdated solutions, you might have
to put a patch on it to be able to
(09:14):
work remotely using remote desktops us using different solutions to
make that work for you. So if you have an
on premise software, that's a huge hidden costs that you're
occurring year after year trying to maintain those servers. The
other big cost is that if you're on an outdated solution,
(09:39):
you're not innovating your your There's gaps in the system
that might be not allowing you to know your numbers
as well as you should, which could be that you're
bidding too low on jobs, or you're or you're you're
bidding too high on jobs, and you're losing out on
(10:02):
on on new work that you could potentially get at
a lower cost. There's all these things that align with
the reporting side of things, So if you're not if
you're not accurately and efficiently reporting, then you're you're losing
money that way. And the third hidden cost is in
employees training and training and innovating. If you're not training
(10:26):
your employees on a new software right away. The sooner
you the sooner you train on their new abilities. The
sooner you train on new technologies, the more you can
get out of that. So if you're on an outdated
system now and then five years from now you upgrade
(10:50):
to another new system, but that system is kind of
data technology, you're already behind the trends, so you're going
to have to then somehow correct for that. And oftentimes
that means shorter gaps in between software solutions, so you're
you're having to pay for upgrades more often. I don't
(11:11):
know if that made sense or if I was dealing there,
but no, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So let's say that, Okay, the company decided, all right,
we are going to do it. We're going to choose
a new ERP software. So tell me what do people
get wrong when actually looking for an ERP software? So
what would you say, like, what have you seen the
biggest mistakes contractors make when choosing an ERP.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I think the number one mistake in choosing a new
ERP is trying to get software just for the sake
of software. When you're going out there and you're just
getting a solution just to say that you have new technology,
or to to braw about what you have that's not productive.
(12:04):
You really want to look for a software solution that's
going to work for you. So what I always advise
people is to make a list of the features and
functionalities that are important to you. And maybe Jennifer, you're like, oh, well,
how do they know what features and functionalities are important
for them? Outline like your processes, Outline how you work
(12:29):
through your day to day in each department, your finance department,
your operations, your sales and marketing. Outlining how your processes
work really will highlight where you can automate, where you
can innovate, where you can throw things into a software
(12:51):
solution to record your data better. I think that is
step one is definitely outlining your processes and getting a
real understanding on how you want things to move through
your business. Part two of that is then taking those
processes and seeing where they're broken, where you can innovate,
(13:14):
where you can bring technology into either cut time or
really report better, or or take somebody out of a
role where they're doing a lot of manual things and
bring them into a higher position that can fit their
skill set better. So I think The number one thing
(13:36):
that people get wrong is just getting software for the
sake of software and not taking these things into consideration. No,
that's really good.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
What would you say, what is like what no one
tells you about when actually selecting a construction ERP software.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
So I'd say, no one, no one tells you how
many options they're truly are. I think like you, and
I know people people think of three or four big
players in the game and they're like, Oh, I guess
these are these are my choices of what my construction
software needs to look like. But there really is a
(14:16):
lot there. There are a lot of companies that are
innovating the game when it comes to construction technology and
what's out there. So I think that that's a big
misstep that people take is thinking that there's only one
or two different options and not realizing that there could
be something completely tailored to you that's specific to you.
(14:40):
For instance, there's there's companies that focus one on HVAC
contractors and they have software that's completely tailored to an
HVAC contractor there's software completely tailored to flooring. There's there's
(15:01):
very specific micro vertical specific software out there. But there's
also the big boys on the on campus that can
kind of take take into count any aspect of the
construction space. So looking into all of the options available
can be very overwhelming, but sometimes it's necessary to find
(15:24):
what can really work for you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And then we also have the softwares that you know
have closed or closed and open APIs right that it's
letting other partner softwares come in and talk to one
another and where you can do a bi directional with
inside it. So it's just really good to know what
(15:48):
you're getting yourself into when it comes to that ERP software.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah. So like on that note is people often think, Okay,
so if I'm getting a new or business management software,
I have to overhaul everything. That's not always a case
because there's those softwares on the market that have open
APIs have the ability to integrate with things that you're
(16:14):
already using. So you might not necessarily have to change
your payroll software or you might not have to change
your CRM system. It doesn't have to be a complete overhaul.
It can be bits and pieces of your software that
you're changing to make your processes better.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Absolutely, So let's shift gears. I just want to know
kind of like industry insights, what you think is happening.
So what emerging trends do you believe will significantly impact
our construction industry, Let's say in the next five years.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
So I think for one, AI, of course, I know
everybody's talking about it. You're like, Selena, what are you
going to say that not everybody else has hasn't already said?
And the thing is, I'm not going to say anything different.
It's there, AI, Yeah, AI is here. It's definitely going
to innovate the game. For instance, I was talking to
(17:19):
some people in the construction technology space recently and they
were talking about how they could make it better for
texts in the car. So I'm going from job to job.
I'm in HVAC tech and I'm going job to job,
(17:41):
and I want to pull up my notes for the
next job, just speaking into the phone and saying, Hey,
can you pull up my reports for my next job?
And can you read it out loud to me while
I'm in the car. So then it's it's safe, the
tech isn't on their phone and driving at the same time.
(18:01):
It's kind of a chat feature, so you can ask
it questions. You can see where where you have to head,
put it into Google Maps for directions, take any notes
that you might need to about how much it's going
to cost for the for the client, how much or
(18:21):
what materials you need, what have you, and then and
then by the time you're there, you're ready for the job.
So it's it's something that's going to save time. It's
something that could be safer than typing on a phone
or trying to pull up notes and reading it. And
(18:42):
it's it's yeah, saving time, making you more efficient and safer.
So that was just one example of how AI is
being brought into the construction space. I mean, obviously from
a sales and marketing perspective, a lot of things there
being taken into account from AI. And then on the
(19:04):
E r P side, a lot of reporting things are
gonna now include AI as well. There's there's now chat
box chat box in uh in in in in an
e r P. Sorry I can't speak today, where you
can ask it a question about your data and they
(19:24):
can deduce some some conclusions from your question. So you
could ask, oh, how many how is my cash flow
looking like for the rest of the month or the
rest of the quarter, and it can spit out a
number for you. So that's kind of where AI is
headed in the E r P construction space, and I'm
(19:47):
really excited about that. I think that's a huge trend
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And I think to bring this full circle is when
you are looking for a new ERP system or you know,
a new system, you know, I'm in the payroll, ask.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Ask that software you know what how are you implementing
AI into your software? You know, is this a tech
forward company as well? So those are definitely questions to
be asking as you're looking for a new ERP software
as well, because that's going to save you time.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent. If if you're investing in software
and AI isn't on the roadmap, if they don't have
a clear roadmap on what they want to do to
innovate in the future, it's probably not a solution you
want to go with. You want to go with ones
that are constantly evolving their their software. You want to
(20:46):
go with solutions that are looking for the future because
you're wanting to grow with this solution, You're not going
to want to make a change again in three years,
in five years. Europe implementations are headache. You don't want
to do it super frequently. So yeah, like you said, Jennifer,
if you're if you're not paying attention to the roadmap
(21:09):
or seeing what they have in store for the future,
then you could potentially end up with a solution that
you're going to have to replace in a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Absolutely, so tell for those that are interested in having
an evaluation of their tech stack being done. How can
people find you, Selena?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, you
could you could even shoot me an email at Spatel
at Strategiesgroup dot com. You can also check out the
Strategies Group website. Uh there's a calendar link on there.
You can book a meeting right with us, So lots
of options to reach out to us.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Awesome. Well, Selena has been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I always enjoy talking to you and hopefully we can
have you back on the show soon and we'll think
of another topic. So with that again, thank you so
much and until the next show.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, thank you, Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
All right, and today I'm thrilled to welcome Selena Patel
to the show. A little bit of background about Selena
lum of the University of Georgia and has worked as
well as implemented a wide wide range of innovative solutions.
She is the marketing director for Strategies Group and she
(00:26):
drives brand awareness and engagement through creative strategies and campaigns
as well. Additionally, she also manages software partnerships and collaborates
with her dynamics sales team at Strategies Group. And I've
asked Selena to come on to the show to discuss
you know, when you know you need new construction software
(00:48):
and what people actually get wrong when looking for an
ERP software.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So Selena, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thanks for having me. Jennifer Love intro. Couldn't have said
it better myself. Really excited to be here today and
just happy to talk to you. I always love the
chance to talk to you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Absolutely, So let's first to share a little bit of
background about yourself. So how did your journey really go
or start in the software construction industry.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So I'm not gonna lie I didn't go out and
seek a career in construction software. It did fall in
my lap. I was looking for jobs in a very
hard economy. There wasn't a lot of opportunities with someone
with my level of skill set, and I just kind
(01:43):
of applied for all jobs in marketing that I possibly could,
and I fell into a job at Strategies Group, and
Randy Collins, the owner of Strategy Scrip, took a chance
on me and we kind of started moving and building
a marketing department at Strategies Group. The former marketing director
(02:04):
left and that's kind of how I ended up here.
It really wasn't something that I went out and seeked.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And so construction found you.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, yes, it definitely did well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Perfect.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, let's get into you know, when does someone know
that they actually need a new construction software? So what
would you say would be like signs that your construction
business has really outgrown it software?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, so it can look different in different companies. Oftentimes,
you know, you need to make a change when things
just aren't working. And I know that sounds super simple
and pretty rudimentary, but when you start seeing things fall
through the cracks, or when you start seeing multiple repetitive
(02:57):
errors in your numbers or air in your processes. That's
that's probably a warning sign that your current process just
is not working for you. And Jennifer, you come from
this world. You you've seen this happen where a company
they they're they're off to a good track, they're growing,
(03:18):
they're they're reaching new revenue levels year after year. Uh,
but then they reached this cap. They reached this cap
and they can't go past that cap. Oftentimes, when a
company reaches a threshold that they just cannot penetrate past,
it's because there's some issues in their processes or they're reporting,
(03:40):
or they're yeah, they're their staff. Even so, when when
you've reached that point and you can't get past it,
that's a time to look inward and see where in
my business can I make changes? And oftentimes software is
a rather easy place to look first.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, absolutely, so, yeah, I see it most like when
it comes to reporting or uh duplicating of entries, right
like it's just not working anymore. So what would you
say would be like five red flags that's really time
to upgrade your construction software.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, so I would say the first thing is if
you see, if you see your competitors, if you see
your competitors thriving past you.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
If you're seeing them kind of go after it and
go into the future guns ablazing, and you feel left behind,
that's the first red flag that means that you need
to make a change. The second one I would say
is if you start having or start start spending a
(04:57):
lot of time in administrative pass that you feel are
below your pay grades. So if you're a CEO and
you're manually putting in data into a system that you
guys are using, that's a red You should not be
doing that. Your time should be focused on big picture.
Your time should be focused on other things. You shouldn't
(05:19):
be doing manual tasks day to day, So your team
is stuck doing manual tasks, that that's a red flag.
Number three is disjointed systems and siloed departments. So if
your estimating department is working in one software and your
(05:42):
finance department is working in another software and project management
your operations are working in a different software. Everybody's using
different solutions and none of them talk to one another.
Huge flat you're not going to be able to grow
that way. You're going to have data that's different in
different platforms and they're not gonna they're not gonna report upwards,
(06:05):
They're not going to be able to get accurate numbers.
That's one of the biggest red flags. Number four is
employee retention. If you start seeing employees move to different companies,
you're seeing them kind of go for better opportunities and
things like that. Your employees don't feel like they can
(06:27):
grow within your company, which means that they don't think
that your company has a growth mindset. And oftentimes growth
mindset comes in investing in the future, So investing in
a new software solution will give that vision of new
forward thinking in the company. And then lastly, it's it's
(06:50):
kind of simple and obvious, is if you feel personally
that it's time to make a change, if you feel
something isn't right, then there's likely something going on that
needs to be reviewed. It needs to be looked over,
it needs to be refreshed even cold. And a software
(07:11):
change isn't just a full overhaul of a solution. It
could be just upgrading what you currently have or trying
to fix little pieces and parts of what you're currently using. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, and I can resonate with a few of those
that you said. When I was at a company with
a very old system, and we are working Saturday Sunday,
especially one month then don't even mention when it came
to year end or doing reviews with auditors how much
time it was taken until then we implemented the new
ERP system and we were able to work our normal
(07:48):
Monday through Friday, but then had that time to be
able to like actually look at our data and analyze
that to make strategic decisions. So I like those that
you pointed out out there. What would you say would
be like hidden cost of outdated construction software.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, so there's so many hidden costs of construction software
if it's outdated, if it's clunky. So the number one
thing I see is server costs. So a lot of these,
a lot of these software tend to be on premise
software that that are that are considered dated solutions. That
(08:31):
means it's being hosted in on site, in on a
on a server in a server room something like that,
and you're you're hosting it yourself. So the cost of
doing that is tenfold. You have to pay for maintaining servers,
you have to pay for a full it staff that
(08:53):
then works to host your software, upgrade your software work
on break fixes. Oftentimes. We saw this during COVID that
everybody needed the ability to work remotely. So if you're
using one of those those outdated solutions, you might have
to put a patch on it to be able to
(09:14):
work remotely using remote desktops us using different solutions to
make that work for you. So if you have an
on premise software, that's a huge hidden costs that you're
occurring year after year trying to maintain those servers. The
other big cost is that if you're on an outdated solution,
(09:39):
you're not innovating your your There's gaps in the system
that might be not allowing you to know your numbers
as well as you should, which could be that you're
bidding too low on jobs, or you're or you're you're
bidding too high on jobs, and you're losing out on
(10:02):
on on new work that you could potentially get at
a lower cost. There's all these things that align with
the reporting side of things, So if you're not if
you're not accurately and efficiently reporting, then you're you're losing
money that way. And the third hidden cost is in
employees training and training and innovating. If you're not training
(10:26):
your employees on a new software right away. The sooner
you the sooner you train on their new abilities. The
sooner you train on new technologies, the more you can
get out of that. So if you're on an outdated
system now and then five years from now you upgrade
(10:50):
to another new system, but that system is kind of
data technology, you're already behind the trends, so you're going
to have to then somehow correct for that. And oftentimes
that means shorter gaps in between software solutions, so you're
you're having to pay for upgrades more often. I don't
(11:11):
know if that made sense or if I was dealing there,
but no, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So let's say that, Okay, the company decided, all right,
we are going to do it. We're going to choose
a new ERP software. So tell me what do people
get wrong when actually looking for an ERP software? So
what would you say, like, what have you seen the
biggest mistakes contractors make when choosing an ERP.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I think the number one mistake in choosing a new
ERP is trying to get software just for the sake
of software. When you're going out there and you're just
getting a solution just to say that you have new technology,
or to to braw about what you have that's not productive.
(12:04):
You really want to look for a software solution that's
going to work for you. So what I always advise
people is to make a list of the features and
functionalities that are important to you. And maybe Jennifer, you're like, oh, well,
how do they know what features and functionalities are important
for them? Outline like your processes, Outline how you work
(12:29):
through your day to day in each department, your finance department,
your operations, your sales and marketing. Outlining how your processes
work really will highlight where you can automate, where you
can innovate, where you can throw things into a software
(12:51):
solution to record your data better. I think that is
step one is definitely outlining your processes and getting a
real understanding on how you want things to move through
your business. Part two of that is then taking those
processes and seeing where they're broken, where you can innovate,
(13:14):
where you can bring technology into either cut time or
really report better, or or take somebody out of a
role where they're doing a lot of manual things and
bring them into a higher position that can fit their
skill set better. So I think The number one thing
(13:36):
that people get wrong is just getting software for the
sake of software and not taking these things into consideration. No,
that's really good.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
What would you say, what is like what no one
tells you about when actually selecting a construction ERP software.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
So I'd say, no one, no one tells you how
many options they're truly are. I think like you, and
I know people people think of three or four big
players in the game and they're like, Oh, I guess
these are these are my choices of what my construction
software needs to look like. But there really is a
(14:16):
lot there. There are a lot of companies that are
innovating the game when it comes to construction technology and
what's out there. So I think that that's a big
misstep that people take is thinking that there's only one
or two different options and not realizing that there could
be something completely tailored to you that's specific to you.
(14:40):
For instance, there's there's companies that focus one on HVAC
contractors and they have software that's completely tailored to an
HVAC contractor there's software completely tailored to flooring. There's there's
(15:01):
very specific micro vertical specific software out there. But there's
also the big boys on the on campus that can
kind of take take into count any aspect of the
construction space. So looking into all of the options available
can be very overwhelming, but sometimes it's necessary to find
(15:24):
what can really work for you. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And then we also have the softwares that you know
have closed or closed and open APIs right that it's
letting other partner softwares come in and talk to one
another and where you can do a bi directional with
inside it. So it's just really good to know what
(15:48):
you're getting yourself into when it comes to that ERP software.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah. So like on that note is people often think, Okay,
so if I'm getting a new or business management software,
I have to overhaul everything. That's not always a case
because there's those softwares on the market that have open
APIs have the ability to integrate with things that you're
(16:14):
already using. So you might not necessarily have to change
your payroll software or you might not have to change
your CRM system. It doesn't have to be a complete overhaul.
It can be bits and pieces of your software that
you're changing to make your processes better.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Absolutely, So let's shift gears. I just want to know
kind of like industry insights, what you think is happening.
So what emerging trends do you believe will significantly impact
our construction industry, Let's say in the next five years.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
So I think for one, AI, of course, I know
everybody's talking about it. You're like, Selena, what are you
going to say that not everybody else has hasn't already said?
And the thing is, I'm not going to say anything different.
It's there, AI, Yeah, AI is here. It's definitely going
to innovate the game. For instance, I was talking to
(17:19):
some people in the construction technology space recently and they
were talking about how they could make it better for
texts in the car. So I'm going from job to job.
I'm in HVAC tech and I'm going job to job,
(17:41):
and I want to pull up my notes for the
next job, just speaking into the phone and saying, Hey,
can you pull up my reports for my next job?
And can you read it out loud to me while
I'm in the car. So then it's it's safe, the
tech isn't on their phone and driving at the same time.
(18:01):
It's kind of a chat feature, so you can ask
it questions. You can see where where you have to head,
put it into Google Maps for directions, take any notes
that you might need to about how much it's going
to cost for the for the client, how much or
(18:21):
what materials you need, what have you, and then and
then by the time you're there, you're ready for the job.
So it's it's something that's going to save time. It's
something that could be safer than typing on a phone
or trying to pull up notes and reading it. And
(18:42):
it's it's yeah, saving time, making you more efficient and safer.
So that was just one example of how AI is
being brought into the construction space. I mean, obviously from
a sales and marketing perspective, a lot of things there
being taken into account from AI. And then on the
(19:04):
E r P side, a lot of reporting things are
gonna now include AI as well. There's there's now chat
box chat box in uh in in in in an
e r P. Sorry I can't speak today, where you
can ask it a question about your data and they
(19:24):
can deduce some some conclusions from your question. So you
could ask, oh, how many how is my cash flow
looking like for the rest of the month or the
rest of the quarter, and it can spit out a
number for you. So that's kind of where AI is
headed in the E r P construction space, and I'm
(19:47):
really excited about that. I think that's a huge trend
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And I think to bring this full circle is when
you are looking for a new ERP system or you know,
a new system, you know, I'm in the payroll, ask.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Ask that software you know what how are you implementing
AI into your software? You know, is this a tech
forward company as well? So those are definitely questions to
be asking as you're looking for a new ERP software
as well, because that's going to save you time.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent. If if you're investing in software
and AI isn't on the roadmap, if they don't have
a clear roadmap on what they want to do to
innovate in the future, it's probably not a solution you
want to go with. You want to go with ones
that are constantly evolving their their software. You want to
(20:46):
go with solutions that are looking for the future because
you're wanting to grow with this solution, You're not going
to want to make a change again in three years,
in five years. Europe implementations are headache. You don't want
to do it super frequently. So yeah, like you said, Jennifer,
if you're if you're not paying attention to the roadmap
(21:09):
or seeing what they have in store for the future,
then you could potentially end up with a solution that
you're going to have to replace in a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Absolutely, so tell for those that are interested in having
an evaluation of their tech stack being done. How can
people find you, Selena?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, you
could you could even shoot me an email at Spatel
at Strategiesgroup dot com. You can also check out the
Strategies Group website. Uh there's a calendar link on there.
You can book a meeting right with us, So lots
of options to reach out to us.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Awesome. Well, Selena has been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
I always enjoy talking to you and hopefully we can
have you back on the show soon and we'll think
of another topic. So with that again, thank you so
much and until the next show.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, thank you, Jennifer.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
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