In a Construction Technology Report survey, construction industry professionals made it clear that they use–and do not want to give up using–spreadsheets. Likewise, when I asked a new client if she used Microsoft Excel, she answered, “Extensively.” I can understand the original appeal: spreadsheets are easy-to-use and flexible, allow you to list things in an organized manner, and can perform complex or otherwise tedious calculations quickly.
We’re Paying Attention!
Because Spitfire is a Microsoft ISV Partner, I have to renew my SQL Server certification from time to time. This month was one of those times, and you know what, I learned something in the process.
I learned that the test still covers topics that almost no one pays any attention to these days. I had started to think that it was only because I am an old timer that I still thought about things like “physical volumes” and “distribution of IO” and “types of indexes” and (gasp) “index fragmentation.” These days, when you are deploying SQL in a virtual environment with SAN-based storage, all these low level details just seem quaint. Performance and throughput are good enough, so these details fall off the radar. But for sure, all of that is still relevant, just thankfully less critical.
TweetLessons from Reality TV
Reality TV comes in all sizes and shapes, from cramming a bunch a young “adults” into a house or on an island and seeing what happens when assigned “challenges” to helping a business get back on track. Everyone has a favorite and mine is Bar Rescue.
I’ll admit that I know nothing about running a bar, and the initial draw for me was the expert’s name: Jon Taffer. Like most shows of this type, each episode follows the same pattern: evaluate, plan, train, execute.
TweetTest Driving Spitfire
I have the opportunity to speak to many people who are evaluating construction project management systems. Many want to explore the software they’re evaluating. Generally, this means starting with a short demonstration of the prospective system.
A System that Tames the Construction Billing Cycle
Back in 2014, Adam Bluemner with Find Accounting Software wrote an article entitled “How to Tame the Construction Billing Cycle with Software.” I read the article with interest because I wanted to see how our Spitfire Project Management System (which includes functionality for construction billing as well as for general project management) fares when compared to Adam’s recommendations.