What’s the True Value of Technology for Your Construction Business?

By Piers Dormeyer
Vice President of Construction Sales at EagleView®

Recent advancements in construction technology have provided contractors with some powerful tools to grow and transform their businesses. When I speak to people inside and outside of the roofing industry, we marvel at how a trade that has resisted change for decades is becoming more and more modernized.

This technology revolution is already changing the way we sell to home and building owners; how we measure, estimate and bid projects; and how we manage our companies. And, in most cases, these forward technologies, like aerial imaging, can be used in both residential and commercial roof quoting!

That said, change happens in bite-sized pieces. For contractors who are looking to incorporate new technology into their workflows, the myriad of options can be overwhelming. I’m going to take a stab at simplifying things a bit.

Technology provides tools — that’s it, that’s all. It’s not magic. The aerial roof report, customer relationship management (CRM) system or weather app on your smartphone all have one thing in common: they provide users with a means of getting information faster or more efficiently than they could without those tools.

In short, all the forms of tech that we see popping up in our space save time, which is money, which is return on investment. When deciding on whether a solution is right for your business, this is the only thing to be concerned about.

The first step is to understand the costs in your current process. Take measuring a roof as an example — arguably the most important step in a roofing job. Measurements must be completed in a timely manner with special attention to accuracy. If it takes you too long, you lose. If your measurements are off, you lose.

Audit your process and see if you can put numbers to the following questions:

• How far away do you have to drive to measure the average roof job?
• How long does it take to set up equipment and have your contractor measure out the actual roof?
• How many times have your roof measurements been inaccurate?
• How often do you have to order supplemental asphalt roofing shingles and materials?
• How many roofing jobs have you lost because your bid was too high?

The higher those numbers, the more inefficiencies you might have on roofing jobs. Compare these numbers and the costs associated with them to the cost of using a service like EagleView roof measurement reports, and you have your return on investment.

I spend a ton of time talking to roofing contractors about their businesses and help walk them through the various areas where technology can make a big impact. At trade shows and other industry events, I demonstrate new tools designed to help contractors’ businesses grow. It’s a rewarding experience when I come back a year later to a business that has tripled in size as a result.

Unfortunately, all too often, a roofing contractor – especially the guy paying the bills – doesn’t value his own time. Driving to a roof, returning to distribution to pick up extra materials and performing other time-consuming activities may never get figured in. They’re just part of the job.

Once you start to put a number to this, you start to see efficiencies that you couldn’t capture before. Whether your goal is to grow your business, to save time spent measuring or to become more profitable, technology offers great tools to help you reach your objectives.

Note: Eagleview Technologies and IKO have partnered to provide IKO’s Shield Pro and Shield Pro Plus members special rates for Eagleview services. Eagleview is an independent company and not an agent or representative of IKO. IKO makes no representations or warranties with respect to Eagleview’s services.

Piers Dormeyer is Vice President, Sales at EagleView. He is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He actively supports both the National Roofing Contractors Association and the Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress in the United States and the National Federation of Roofing Contractors in the United Kingdom.