Enterprise cloud software provider Acumatica unveiled a new suite of services Monday designed to help construction companies see and update financials and other data from the field in real-time.
Acumatica Construction Edition is designed to manage documents, track compliance, financials and more across an entire construction project with architects, foremen and everyone involved able to see changes in one place as those changes unfold.
Acumatica CEO Jon Roskill said contractors spend too much time on the phone with financial officers, trying to sort out change orders and other data. Perhaps a client wants to move a fireplace, open up a room by removing a wall or install a different kind of window. With Acumatica’s solution, construction teams can see how those changes affect the project from their iPads or other devices, he said.
“The key thing is it’s moving it all into the cloud. This gets them mobile (and) working more hours on real business problems,” said Roskill, a former Microsoft executive. “Most contractors are in their Ford F-150s. We want these guys out on the road.”
There are other digital solutions out there for construction crews, Roskill said, but he said they’re “cumbersome” and “out-of-date.” This “is really a change for a stodgy, old industry stuck in the 90s,” he said, referring to existing construction technology products.
Competitors Acumatica will face in the construction space include CMiC, Turner, Sage Timberline and Sage Master Builder.
Executives at Acumatica, which typically serves small- and mid-size customers, say they expect plenty of growth in the construction sector. They cited a U.S. Commerce Department report that said construction spending rose 0.8 percent to an all-time high of $1.257 trillion in November.
Acumatica specializes in a growing segment of the software-as-a-service market: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which links important business information across a holistic software solution. The 10-year-old company also offers manufacturing, customer management, commerce and other solutions. Roskill said Acumatica has more than 3,000 customers.
Acumatica calls itself the fastest-growing ERP company, with 100 percent revenue growth in 2015 and 93 percent in 2016. The company faces tough competition from the likes of Oracle, Microsoft, SAP and others.
All of the Acumatica services are built on an open platform, which means the company can “take on additional vertical flavors very easily,” Roskill said. “That’s why construction is a relatively easy thing for us to go and attack.”
In addition, the company said Open API 2.0 standards make it possible for customers to use third-party tools with the service, including SmartSheet, for visual scheduling and Microsoft Office 365 for general productivity. Customers can also use Adobe and DocuSign technologies to sign off on project changes digitally from a job site — and those changes become visible to anyone working on the project.
“That is pretty life-changing for these guys,” Roskill said.
Acumatica, which employed more than 200 people as of last September, announced $13.3 million in venture funding in 2014, bringing its total funding to about $30 million.
