Builder - September 2008 - (Page 93) TECHTOOLS TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MODERN HOME BUILDER ■ EDITED BY STEVE ZURIER Green Jumpstart AEC Software offers a green template for its FastTrack 9 project management software. T SINGLE VIEW: New templates from AEC Software let builders integrate a production schedule in FastTrack 9 with a green guidelines checklist. Only One he new 6.2 version of sales software Builder 1440 has a feature that ensures that when sales leads come into its automated lead system, the system will not enter duplicate records. The new version also has a consolidated notes feature that lets builders view all notes for a customer regardless of where they are entered in the system. Visit www .builder1440.com for more information. M any builders would like to begin building green homes. The problem is that they don’t know how to get started. AEC Software helps solve that problem with a new series of templates— essentially checklists that outline the main categories builders can earn points on to achieve certification— based on the green guidelines issued by the NAHB’s National Green Building Program and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program. Bill Keech, AEC’s vice president of sales and business development, says the templates give builders a built-in structure for their green efforts. He says AEC developed the templates based on Keech’s own experiences in the home building industry and input from FastTrack users. Users can build a spreadsheet that tracks information such as the points available in a category and the points achieved. The benefit of working in FastTrack is that builders can build graphical timelines instead of working in a static spreadsheet. AEC users can download the templates for free. At press time, the NAHB templates were not available but were expected soon. For more information visit www.aecsoftware.com/lp/builder_examples.asp. Skip a Step Builder MT’s BPM tool automates dozens of standard business processes. H ome builders are BPM 18 months ago. While the starting to reap benefits company has had Builder MT’s from Builder MT’s Busi- purchasing system, Timberline ness Process Manage- accounting software, and Buildment (BPM) software, a er 1440’s sales software installed, tool the software vendor rolled it still would run reports in out two years ago that lets com- Microsoft Access and manually panies custom-build automated key the data into Timberline. workflow processes. One company report tracks Eastwood Homes, a mid- every stage of a project, from the sized builder based in Charlotte, number of units sold to the age of N.C., has written dozens of processes and BPM PRICING has even posted many of the applications on a $5k portal that employees BPM Professional can access over the $24k Web. BPM Enterprise Justin Myers, Eastwood’s vice president of sales, says the buildMicrosoft’s BizTalk Enterprise er got started with the homes and where each house is in the construction cycle. Each time the report was run, an administrator had to go into Access, run the report, print it out, make copies, and then physically distribute them to the company’s managers. Now, a process written in BPM runs reports automatically every Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. and e-mails them to the appropriate managers. Eastwood has also automated its builder reserve process, which a supervisor runs when a home is completed. At the end of construction, the application lets the project super look at all the open purchase orders and review the budget. The super then simply approves the open P.O.s and the information is $35k streamed into Timberline Accounts Payable for payment. B B Good Deal uilders looking to upgrade to construction-specific Master Builder from QuickBooks should check out a tempting offer from Sage Software. Sage, maker of Master Builder, is offering new lower pricing for its software, starting at $3,867, and, beginning in October, it will throw in the data conversion services for free to make the switch even easier. See www .sagesoftware.com for more information. DO YOU HAVE A TECH STORY? E-MAIL DENISE DERSIN AT: ddersin@hanleywood.com W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM sep t e m ber 2 0 08 B U I LD E R ■ 93 http://www.builder1440.com http://www.builder1440.com http://www.aecsoftware.com/lp/builder_examples.asp http://www.sagesoftware.com http://www.sagesoftware.com http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM
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