I was poking around Google earlier today and I noticed the phrase “Construction Software” appear.  It got me wondering exactly what construction software is…

From doing some research, I found that part of the systems allow you to perform project management functions, but there also seems to be some industry specific solutions here also.

If anyone is involved in providing, buying or using construction software, I’d be interested in learning more about it.  Please leave a comment if you have any light to shed on the subject.

A very well written article over at ZDNet titled NAB pins turnaround on improved CRM gives great insight into the value of CRM to a business. What is especially interesting is the strategy of the National Australia Bank in light of it’s recent problems.

I really like the way that the article points out that focusing on cost cutting can really hurt your business in the long term. Whereas, focusing on customers and what you’re offering them is the best focus for your business. This focus not only improves customer satisfaction, but this in turn will always improve your bottom line in the long term. Note, “long term”, it can take a while for this direction to pay off, but eventually, it does.

Shenkel believes the changes will enable the bank’s customer relationship managers to more accurately predict when and how to offer new loans or investment packages to its existing customer base. More importantly perhaps, the CRM package is also designed to indicate when such an offer should be avoided.

This is a great example of the power of CRM and the advantages it can give your business. Information like this can mean improved efficiency for your sales and marketing teams. They would spend less time targeting customers who are unlikely to buy, which improves your conversion rate, which in turn, improves the bottom line!

Beautiful, isn’t it?

This article may be brief, but it does analyse the role of IT in the building industry. It makes mention of CRM uses in this industry, which I would see as the core type of IT technology for this type of business.

Traditionally the building industry has been a little slow in adapting new technology, “safe as houses” so they say. To make matters worse, there are complexities in the way that this type of business operates. Sales of course is an important part of the business, but there is also ongoing client and vendor relationships to manage, project work, legal compliance issues and on-site inspections.

Because of this complexity, IT and CRM in particular would help greatly for these businesses. The tradition of the industry and the workflow quirks unfortunately work against the possible advantages.

Musing over the CRM for churches situation a moment ago, I began to read over my original post on the topic. The description of the solution sounds like some kind of networking software. Not the type of networking that involves cabling, electricians and tech-geeks, but the type networking that involves people.

The real world needs of a church are more complex than just managing people relationships, but it would be an important aspect of the software. In this regard, I think you could use a networking focus and still have a software package that could be easily “translated” across different industries. Networking exists in any business, church or other non-profit organisation, so that would be a standard “module” or feature of the software. From there, you could design a few more standard modules, asset management, POS and accounting that all businesses would find useful.

Some business modules that would unnecessary for a church would be sales and similar functions. Churches would definitely use other common modules such as rostering, staff management and marketing.

Come to think of it, there are many shared functions between a business and a church. I think the main reason why most current CRM systems fall down for churches and other non-standard businesses is that most software focuses on sales (not to mention the company-contact relationships mentioned in the comments of my original article), where churches are focused on people (God being the first focus of course).

Can anyone suggest any people focused CRM packages that are currently available? Do you think that this focus could work for an interested software developer, while still leaving open opportunities to target the current market?

Well, my post regarding CRM for churches got such a response that I’ve decided to give it a dedicated category all to itself. I guess it’s not just me who has been asking for this type of product, which is great news.

I may even be able to be convinced to dust off one of my attempts at designing such a system. You’d probably have to be fairly convincing!