Viewpoint Construction Technology

AUGUST 8, 2012

This week, I’m pleased to welcome Danielle Rodabaugh, chief editor at SuretyBonds.com, a nationwide surety provider that works with construction professionals. Whether you're new to the construction industry or have been working in it for decades, you've probably realized that getting a surety bond can be confusing. To help make the process quicker and easier, this article will outline six steps that will make you more confident when purchasing this special type of risk mitigation insurance.

Insurance 209

Insurance Contractors Risk Industrial 209

The Constructor

AUGUST 7, 2012

Mon, 1 Oct 2012 About Jobs Connect Groups Forums Toolbar SMS Alerts RSS Feed Search The Constructor Subscribe by E-Mail to receive latest updates. Home News Videos Tips Building Building Bye Laws Building Materials Aggregates Cement Wood Building Tips Buildings Green Buildings Flooring Formwork/Shuttering Paints & Decoratives Skyscrappers Smart Materials Concrete Concrete Admixtures Concrete Cracks Crack Repair Concrete Durability Concrete Properties Concrete Types Fibre reinforced Fire Proo

Concrete 223

Concrete Foundation Maine Materials 223

Construction Marketing

AUGUST 8, 2012

Marketing to home improvement retailers includes considering retail merchandising and packaging. This is part two of a three-part blog series on marketing to home improvement retailers. Part one gave a retail snapshot and provided the results of a 2011 survey on retail marketing practices conducted by the Construction Marketing Association. This part covers home improvement retail merchandising and packaging and gives visual examples of both.

Retail 207

Retail Vermont Visualization Guidelines 207

Constructonomics

AUGUST 5, 2012

Finding a construction job may be getting easier–at least in some states. A June 2012 report by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) identified 20 states that are adding construction jobs. The map below (click to enlarge) shows the percentage of jobs lost/gained between May 2011 and May 2012. Source: AGC of America , from Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Construction 112

Construction AGC Engineering Industrial 112

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The Verdantix Green Quadrant: EHS Software 2023 is an independent third-party analysis of 23 EHS software vendors (including Intelex) that provides an in-depth look at the technical capabilities, application breadth, innovation focus, and momentum of key environmental, health, and safety management software market players. The guide is essential reading for EHS software benchmarking, especially for understanding unique vendor strengths and capabilities.

Software

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 8, 2012

south bay construction app screen shot. South Bay Construction , a San Francisco-area general contractor in Campbell, CA, has adapted an already-powerful local marketing idea to the Internet and mobile communications area by redesigning its cost reference guide as a smart-phone application. Partner Cameron Peach says the contractor has published its Cost Reference Guide for 20 years as a printed booklet, distributed through local business media and direct mail to architects, engineers developers

San Francisco 92

San Francisco Innovation Construction IDEA 92

Construction Marketing

AUGUST 7, 2012

Home improvement retailers are a specialized channel for many types of construction projects including building materials and supplies, fixtures, construction tools and equipment, and more. This is part one of a three-part blog series on marketing to home improvement retailers. Part one will provide a retail snapshot, including the results of a 2011 survey on retail marketing practices conducted by the Construction Marketing Association.

Retail 194

Retail News Bidding Materials 194

Building Information Management

AUGUST 6, 2012

Efficient life-cycle management of the built environment comes down to analyzing large data sets— big data—from several knowledge domains. 3D visualization software products currently promoted as BIM (Building Information Modeling) are not solutions for this task. Next generation cloud-computing and knowledge-based solutions will enable new levels of innovation, productivity, collaboration, transparency, competition, and growth.

Life Cycle 81

Life Cycle BIM Environment Management 81

Help Everybody Everyday

AUGUST 9, 2012

It can only be described as the proposal manager’s worst nightmare. You work for months on the largest design-build proposal you’ve ever done. It’s worth $5B, yes billion. The hard work is done. You’re in the client’s lobby when you suddenly get a call. “Pull the bid,” the voice on the other side commands. One of your teaming partners has decided, for whatever reason, to pull the bid.

New York City 70

New York City Risk Bidding New York 70

The Constructor

AUGUST 10, 2012

Mon, 1 Oct 2012 About Jobs Connect Groups Forums Toolbar SMS Alerts RSS Feed Search The Constructor Subscribe by E-Mail to receive latest updates. Home News Videos Tips Building Building Bye Laws Building Materials Aggregates Cement Wood Building Tips Buildings Green Buildings Flooring Formwork/Shuttering Paints & Decoratives Skyscrappers Smart Materials Concrete Concrete Admixtures Concrete Cracks Crack Repair Concrete Durability Concrete Properties Concrete Types Fibre reinforced Fire Proo

Concrete 183

Concrete Foundation Environment Materials 183

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As the use of Enterprise Resource Planning systems in the construction industry is critical to optimizing operations, it's critical that decision makers conduct a thorough software evaluation to find the one that best aligns to their needs.

Industrial

Construction Marketing

AUGUST 9, 2012

This is the final entry in a three-part blog series on marketing to home improvement retailers. Part one gave an overview of the retail home improvement category and shared the results of a survey on retail marketing practices. Part two covered home improvement retail merchandising and packaging. This part will discuss retail line reviews. Retailers continually evaluate their vendors and merchandising mix with point-of-sale (POS) data, margin analysis, and supplier performance (fill-rate 95%+, i

Retail 182

Retail Equity Inventory Products 182

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 10, 2012

Garry Myers , senior estimator/planner with Clark Construction Company and his approximately 120 colleagues at the Lansing, MI-based general contractor, have had more than their share of challenges in the past few years — and decades. Confusion with the much larger Clark Construction Group LLC (based in Bethesda, MD) is probably the least important issue, though Myers jokes about how a publisher proudly presented him with an award, recognizing technological and planning achievements pur

Contractors 69

Contractors Michigan BIM Bidding 69

Help Everybody Everyday

AUGUST 6, 2012

InDesign and Excel Data Merge from Ted Orr on Vimeo. In a thread over at the Proposal Development and Writing Secrets group on Linkedin , Ted Orr from Steven Schaefer Associates posted this really interesting video explaining how you can merge data from an Microsoft Excel file into a proposal formatted with Adobe Indesign. If you use these programs, you’re going to get a kick out of this.

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The Constructor

AUGUST 8, 2012

Mon, 1 Oct 2012 About Jobs Connect Groups Forums Toolbar SMS Alerts RSS Feed Search The Constructor Subscribe by E-Mail to receive latest updates. Home News Videos Tips Building Building Bye Laws Building Materials Aggregates Cement Wood Building Tips Buildings Green Buildings Flooring Formwork/Shuttering Paints & Decoratives Skyscrappers Smart Materials Concrete Concrete Admixtures Concrete Cracks Crack Repair Concrete Durability Concrete Properties Concrete Types Fibre reinforced Fire Proo

Concrete 123

Concrete Foundation Design Materials 123

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Choosing the right procurement software is a crucial step in ensuring third-party risk management, process governance, and bidding efficiency. With so many procurement solutions to choose from, it can be overwhelming without a frame of reference and a solid starting point. This free buyer’s guide will cover: Benefits of Procurement Software –– Why do you need it?

Procurement

ENR Construction

AUGUST 8, 2012

subscribe. contact us. advertise. industry jobs. events. FAQ. | ENR Subscriber Login ». -->. -->. ENR subscriber login » -->. SUBSCRIBE TODAY & receive immediate web access. Search our site: Infrastructure. Transportation. Environment. Power & Industrial. Water & Dams. Rebuilding Japan. Gulf Oil Spill. -->. Bldgs. Building Types. Construction Methods.

New Jersey 70

New Jersey Contract Infrastructure Transportation 70

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 5, 2012

harvard business review end of solution sales. This Harvard Business Review article: The End of Solution Sales , is stirring up a pot of controversy in the sales training/leadership space. Essentially, the authors argue that the consultative, needs-focused “solution selling” model of the 1980s and 90s is now more of an irritant than an effective approach to convincing business-to-business clients to purchase from us.

Architecture 66

Architecture Engineering Consulting Resource 66

Help Everybody Everyday

AUGUST 10, 2012

The A/E/C marketing community is a very close-knit and supportive community. That’s what the last few days have taught me. Thursday’s post on bid pulling really struck a chord with many people. I got a ton of email from people who had something to say about this topic. Everyone who contacted me really felt for the team that put this proposal together.

Bidding 58

Bidding Accounting Estimating Procurement 58

Contractor Bookkeeping

AUGUST 7, 2012

Contractors Have Asked What Paperwork - They should bring to us in order to get their construction bookkeeping brought current and the simple answer is all of it! You Don't Have To - Organize for us because we have a system from having owned and operated several construction companies in the past, we are not pansy construction bookkeepers that need to be pampered and are easily offended; quite the opposite.

US 54

US Construction Mobility Organization 54

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Anything that is built on a poor foundation will soon crumble from the ground up. This is literally the case in the construction stage of projects and it applies just the same during the pre-construction stage. This free eBook is your ultimate guide to scaling your business with customizable software as early as during the bidding stage.

Contractors

ENR Construction

AUGUST 6, 2012

subscribe. contact us. advertise. industry jobs. events. FAQ. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. & receive immediate web access $82 a year (includes full web access)-->. Search our site: Infrastructure. Transportation. Environment. Power & Industrial. Water & Dams. Rebuilding Japan. Gulf Oil Spill. Bldgs. Building Types. Construction Methods. Design. Sustainability.

FAQ 67

FAQ News Construction Education 67

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 9, 2012

A statcounter.com report. Several services are emerging to tap the massive data available about web and social media traffic and visitors. The ability to “drill down” to your site visitors may be important, in both macro senses (knowing generally who is visiting your site) and in the more pragmatically important lead-development approaches.

Site 54

Site Construction Organization Retail 54

Revit OpEd

AUGUST 7, 2012

Revit OpEd. Welcome to Steve Staffords Blog ~ Revit OpEd = OPinion EDitorial ~ My view of things Revit, both real and imagined. Tuesday, August 07, 2012. Importing AutoCAD File Fails. When you try to import AutoCAD data you might have seen this series of messages before? First we get a complaint about Elements lost during import. If it is a Civil3D file that might not be too surprising if they created AEC elements like contours or road elements.

AutoCAD 53

AutoCAD Revit Autodesk Architecture 53

Contractor Bookkeeping

AUGUST 10, 2012

If You Are A Contractor You Are My Hero! The rough and tumble world of construction company ownership is not for the weak or the timid. It is an arena where the price of admission is a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and long nights and lost sleep, with peaks of enthusiasm and depths of despair. It can feel like riding a roller coaster operated by a mad man trying to convince you to get off, get out and go do something more relaxing like teaching a pig to sing!

Construction 48

Construction Contractors Profitability Accounting 48

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Supply chain challenges and rising material costs are forcing specialty contractors to pay more for what they need to complete each job. Following a simple set of principles, this easy-to-follow guide can help you manage job costs, ease the pains of accounting, and run a more profitable businesses. If you are a Specialty Contractor or Self-performing GC, you do not want to miss out on this essential guide!

Contractors

ENR Construction

AUGUST 8, 2012

subscribe. contact us. advertise. industry jobs. events. FAQ. | ENR Subscriber Login ». -->. -->. ENR subscriber login » -->. SUBSCRIBE TODAY & receive immediate web access. Search our site: Infrastructure. Transportation. Environment. Power & Industrial. Water & Dams. Rebuilding Japan. Gulf Oil Spill. -->. Bldgs. Building Types. Construction Methods.

New York 63

New York Equipment Electrical FAQ 63

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 7, 2012

Recently, Marjanne Pearson and Nancy Egan collaborated on a ground-breaking article in the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) Marketer about “preactive strategy,” addressing a major problem that has arisen in some conventional sales and marketing practices, as reflected in a Harvard Business Review article about the “End of Solution Sales.” “As marketers, we understand the difference between reactive and proactive,” they wrote. “Bu

IDEA 54

IDEA San Francisco Construction Innovation 54

Revit OpEd

AUGUST 8, 2012

Revit OpEd. Welcome to Steve Staffords Blog ~ Revit OpEd = OPinion EDitorial ~ My view of things Revit, both real and imagined. Wednesday, August 08, 2012. Reference Planes Summary Post. Similar to the previous summary posts for Worksets and Shared Coordinates Ive grabbed a number of past posts that have Reference Planes in common. Ive put a link to each of them on the side bar.

Revit 53

Revit Autodesk Architecture Consulting 53

Contractor Bookkeeping

AUGUST 9, 2012

Warning This Article Is Tough On Bookkeepers Who Abuse Their Bosses! It Was Started At 03:00AM As I Reflected On Bad Bookkeepers Who. Destroy Construction Company Owners Lives! Proceed With Caution If You Dare! How Do Bad Bookkeepers Train Their Boss? Like An Organ Grinder Trains A Monkey! Not all in house construction bookkeepers are rotten. It seems to me the 80-20 rule applies here and only 80% of them are rotten.

Organization 48

Organization Contractors Accounting Profitability 48

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Research reveals 96% of respondents are very or fairly optimistic about their organization’s growth prospects for the next year. The InEight Global Capital Projects Outlook also finds over half see digital technology as the greatest growth opportunity. But these are only some of the findings. Don't be kept in the dark when it comes to the future. Read the report today!

Construction

ENR Construction

AUGUST 7, 2012

subscribe. contact us. advertise. industry jobs. events. FAQ. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. & receive immediate web access $82 a year (includes full web access)-->. Search our site: Infrastructure. Transportation. Environment. Power & Industrial. Water & Dams. Rebuilding Japan. Gulf Oil Spill. Bldgs. Building Types. Construction Methods. Design. Sustainability.

BIM 61

BIM FAQ News Education 61

Construction Marketing Ideas

AUGUST 6, 2012

From Cupertino Electric's Facebook page: "The marketing team visited Cupertino Electric's PG&E Year 2 Solar project in Huron, CA yesterday, where our team is busy installing almost 60,000 solar panels that will output 20MW of clean energy." I suppose we all, at times, wish we could wave a magic wand and discover the secret sauce to attracting as many of the “right” clients as we need, without any time delay, major expense, or hard work.

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Spirit Electrical Construction CA 54

Revit OpEd

AUGUST 6, 2012

Revit OpEd. Welcome to Steve Staffords Blog ~ Revit OpEd = OPinion EDitorial ~ My view of things Revit, both real and imagined. Monday, August 06, 2012. Quick Revit Launch Tip. Windows shortcut tip: If you have a shortcut to Revit on your taskbar you can press the Windows key and the number equivalent to the placement of the icon along the taskbar. For example if your Revit icon is the third such icon next to the Windows button pressing Windows + 3 will fire up Revit.

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Revit Autodesk Architecture Consulting 53