Technology at the Forefront

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A Message from Christian Burger
In our last newsletter I suggested that construction company management was newly emphasizing IT issues after a few years of relative calm. Now I can confidently say that the market for construction IT systems and services is running at full steam - and Burger Consulting Group has seen a commensurate increase in requests for assistance. No doubt this is due to the relatively strong construction market in 2005 and what looks to be a favorable one in 2006.

To meet this demand, BCG has expanded client services and operational capabilities with the addition of three new professionals. Doug Nichols, a long-time financial executive in the industry, joined Burger Consulting in May of 2005, and has worked with many of our clients since coming aboard. Lauri Reeves started this fall and brings considerable experience in office administration and project coordination. (See inside for more on Doug and Lauri.) Our most recent addition, too late for inclusion in this edition, is John Patridge, a former senior consultant with Profitool and Allegiant. John brings years of experience as an IT and systems specialist in the construction industry. Expect more on John in our next issue.

At Burger Consulting Group, clients are paramount. We’re growing in response to market conditions and client needs, and when the right professionals with the right skills become available, we will continue to add to our IT consulting capabilities. One clear area of growth in our business is implementation project management and support. In a trend we first saw develop several years ago, BCG’s clients are increasingly interested in our acting as implementation project managers after software selection. Recently, we played an important role at several major general contractors during the implementation phase - one for a client for whom we were not involved in the selection, and the other for a company that had tried to “go it alone” but decided the workload, complexities, and risk were just too great. This aspect of our business is definitely becoming more important; both Doug Nichols and Sharon Minnick have been working with clients in this capacity.  John Patridge’s experience will be highly leveraged in this area as well.

I am particularly pleased with this new responsibility as I see it as being a part of BCG’s delivering a complete solution for companies - and not just helping them buy the right tools. We continue to perform software selection work and thoroughly enjoy it, but it is through implementation work that we bring to bear all our experience and knowledge of industry best practices.

We’re working hard for our clients as always, we’re further developing services you need, and we’re busy presenting on IT tools, capabilities, and opportunities at industry events. In conjunction with CFMA, we recently presented on “IT Trends and Management” at the AICPA Indianapolis, at the Tri-State CFMA chapter presentation in Council Bluffs, and at the Central Tennessee chapter of CFMA. For more detail on upcoming presentations, and for updates on articles published by BCG professionals, please see our sidebar, “Our Professionals Present” inside.