Shifting Perspectives and Forming the Right Partnerships

1. Perception: Changing How We View Technology
Let’s be honest, we often view software and tech as mere instruments, akin to a faster ground-rod driver or a company vehicle. Useful, sure, but not vital. Yet when it comes to critical operational software for labor and material management, accounting and estimating? That perspective needs an overhaul. These aren’t just tools, they’re genuine partners in your business’ success. Or at least they should be.

Software vendors typically aren’t out to get us. We often hold back, as if we’re guarding trade secrets. In reality, vendors focus on specific niches of our operations. All day every day, they dive deeper and deeper into one particular aspect of our business. And they’re doing this across the industry. We should leverage that specialization.

Trust me, the bad vendors will out themselves. You’ll spot them when they can’t deliver on promises, or solely rely on promises rather than value, talk versus act and can’t communicate with you on specifics of their niche.

The good ones? They’re eager to address issues and innovate within their domain. They can speak about the details within their lane, why the details are important and can make recommendations based on successes from across the industry. They’ll be the ones willing to tell you “no” or suggest a new perspective. That’s a stark contrast versus the yes-men who let you stumble down a path that isn’t valuable to your business.

Think about it: Every SaaS company lives and dies by customer retention and word of mouth referrals. Very much like we contractors do with our key relationships. In my experience with our PM software, I still shoot the breeze with my sales rep and the tech team is just a text away. It’s not a one-way street; we optimize our operations and they get valuable user feedback to refine their products. Now that’s a partnership that built for mutual success. Look for groups that have a passion for what they do – not a quota you’ll help fill this quarter.

2. Assembling the Right Decision-Making Team:
The second major concern involves having the right decision-making team in place when evaluating a platform. The CFO or controller leads the decision making from a money-saving perspective, as they should. But they might overlook the operational benefits and only consider the monthly costs. This is a mistake.

Align the team with the stakeholders and operational users of the solution. Accounting software? Bring in the CFO and controllers. If it’s labor or project management software, ops leadership should vet the software or technology. Involve the CEO for long-term strategic alignment and reinforced buy-in with the team to drive adoption down the road. The return on investment (ROI) should be evident from business outcomes and an operational standpoint. At times, ROI can come from an individual’s time-saved. Other instances may be apparent at a company level or for high level organizational visibility, insurance and evolution.

Keep in mind that technology groups are a potential partner to your business. Ask them who’s typically involved in their processes (evaluations, implementations, support) for their initiatives and at what step these people are typically brought into the conversations. Once that’s done, the package can be taken to the CFO for funding, adding a financial perspective to the equation.

I’m not saying to follow the vendor blindly.

But, consider this perspective: When we tell vendors, We’re gonna do this my way, what we’re really saying is, You’ve done this hundreds or thousands of times. You’ve seen where groups struggle or succeed. And this is all you do every day. But I’m going to assume that my first or second time doing this will be better.

It almost sounds like a general contractor telling a specialty contractor, I know this is kind of your thing, but you should do it this way.