Blog Posts
Portal Admin
Partner, CTO
Licensed residential general contractor, Business Process Expert, Software Development. Over 35 years of business and construction experience.
The Development of Our Online Construction Scheduling Portal
Our Real Estate investment company was founded in 2013 with a focus on buying and flipping houses. In building our business, we quickly learned about the challenges of the construction industry, particularly when it comes to managing subcontractors. We found that:
- It's hard to find good subcontractors.
- Great subcontractors are even harder to find because they are always busy.
- Subcontractors want everything to be ready for them when they arrive on the job site.
- Things often go wrong in construction, and it's important to resolve issues quickly.
- Most subcontractors lack business experience and struggle with tasks like invoicing and balancing checkbooks.
We knew that if we wanted to grow our business and be as profitable as possible, we needed to take care of our best subcontractors. This meant keeping them busy, being responsive to issues, and paying them quickly. To achieve this, we needed a strong commitment to world-class project management and great business processes. We needed help, so we developed the DirectMyConstruction.com portal.
The main focus of the portal was to establish a strong customer relationship management tool that would ensure nothing gets lost in the process, from leads to follow-ups to change orders to billing. Losing anything along this trail meant lost revenue. The other focus was to make it easier for our subcontractors to work with us than their other customers, so that our jobs become a priority to them when we needed them in a pinch. They knew they would have everything they needed, the job would be ready for them, and they would get paid quickly.
With these simple attributes in mind, the Direct My Construction portal evolved over the next decade and became a critical part of our success as our businesses changed over time. It was just this year that we decided to make this system available to other companies to use.
The Direct My Construction portal is a comprehensive online platform that streamlines the construction management process, from project bidding to final billing. It provides a centralized location for all project information, including contracts, schedules, budgets, and change orders. The portal helps manage subcontractors, ensuring they have everything they need to complete their work on time and to the highest quality standards. The portal also facilitates communication between all parties involved in the project, reducing errors and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
The Direct My Construction portal has revolutionized the way we manage our construction projects and has helped us become more efficient and profitable. We are excited to share this system with other companies and help them achieve the same level of success that we have.
May 10, 2023
Short History of What Led to the Development of This Online Portal
Last updated 14 months ago
Direct My Construction
Direct My Construction’s primary objective is to offer comprehensive back-office services to construction and trade companies. Our goal is to shoulder these responsibilities, allowing owners to concentrate their efforts on their business and personal lives. Our guiding principle is simple: "Reclaim your nights and weekends!"
Below is an overview of the services we plan to offer. While these are yet to be finalized, they all hold significant value for small businesses. As a construction company, you will benefit from any number of the following services.
Virtual Project Management (VPM)
A dedicated VPM will be assigned to your company to manage a state-of-the-art Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process.
This process begins with a Lead and guides it throughout the construction process until project completion. Your company will have complete access to this data via the included Online Project Management Portal. Functions of your VPM include:
- Managing leads in a central "In Box", ensuring nothing is lost or overlooked.
- Qualifying leads, vetting them, obtaining initial information to initiate the estimating process, and scheduling initial consultations between the estimator and the customer.
- Collaborating with the estimator to refine estimates, attain customer approval, create contracts, and post deposits.
- Working with the construction company to develop a detailed project plan, including an overall schedule, resource allocation, individual schedules, material identification, and customer selection tracking.
- Coordinating materials order processing in accordance with the project plan schedule.
- Facilitating project management, adjusting to the company's desired level of participation.
- Managing change orders as needed.
- Remaining engaged and managing dependencies until the project receives customer signoff and final accounting is complete.
- Managing day to day operations of your Portal
Internal Accounting Process Support
Your VPM will also aid in the management of your company's internal accounting processes. Responsibilities include:
- Ensuring that contracts are signed and approved.
- Ensuring all project expenses are tracked and allocated to the project.
- Working with accounting teams to reconcile all financials to the project.
- Ensuring vendors and subcontractors get paid according to their terms and conditions.
- Tracking and monitoring Certificates of Insurance (COIs) and W9s.
- Ensuring worker hours are tracked and accounted for daily.
- Adding real value to the financial tracking and reporting for your company.
Digital Presence and Back-Office Services
Managing, designing, and coordinating your company's digital footprint to your desired extent, including domain name management, web hosting, email hosting, and social media updates. This could provide significant savings over your current plans and programs.
- Web site host design, construction, hosting, and management.
- Domain name mangement for a web address that means something to your customers.
- Email and related services backed by Google®
- Link you Portal to your web site, to all of your social media and lead generation sites like FastBook®, Houzz®, Instagram®, and YouTube®
- This could provide significant savings over your current plans and programs.
- complete hosting and maintenance of QuickBooks Desktop® or QuickBooks Online®
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone system.
- SMS (text messaging) integration with your portal.
- Electronic interfacing with B2B Customers.
- Electronic materials management with Home Depot®.
May 26, 2023
Overview of the services we plan to offer. While these are yet to be finalized, they all hold significant value for small businesses. As a construction company, you will benefit from any number of the following services.
Last updated 18 months ago