Viewpoint Collaborate Day 1 Highlights Construction Innovation, Partnership & Community
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While this year’s Viewpoint Collaborate may look different in its new, online format, Day One was as action-packed as ever. Viewpoint CEO Manolis Kotzabasakis and Trimble CEO Rob Painter kicked off the conference with keynotes that focused on innovation, partnership and community, all three of which can be found in abundance among Viewpoint and Trimble employees, customers and the construction industry as a whole in 2020.
Continuing Technology Innovation
The announcement that Viewpoint HR Management software is now available for Spectrum helped kick off the conference with enthusiasm. Part of the ViewpointOne construction management suite, HR Management for Spectrum lets construction professionals digitize and streamline the hiring and onboarding process, connecting the “people” part of a construction business with its operations. HR Management integrates directly with Spectrum’s payroll and human resources functions, creating a unified, digitized system of record that is easy to use.
The first day of Viewpoint Collaborate also demonstrated that Viewpoint will play an integral part in bringing Trimble’s Connected Construction vision to life – so much so that Trimble is growing the Viewpoint portfolio to include estimating and procurement, detailing and fabricating, and resource management as part of Trimble Connected Construction. This new, combined Trimble division will be led by Viewpoint’s own Manolis Kotzabasakis, all with the intent of making it easier for contractors to better manage projects, processes and people – and ultimately, business.
Keynote presentations and the packed session schedule also made it clear that together, Viewpoint and Trimble are forging the way when it comes to connecting the entire construction ecosystem – including owners, architects, engineers and contractors – through products that are closely integrated, connected and easy to use.
Some other Day One innovation highlights included:
- Enabling data-driven contractors to work smarter and gain deeper construction intelligence through Viewpoint Analytics, with virtual tours through the solution’s capabilities;
- Deep dives into the ViewpointOne suite of connected construction solutions and stories of why more and more users are making the switch;
- Significantly modernized and improved user experiences for ViewpointOne solutions; and
- How Viewpoint ePayments is helping contractors turn their AP processes from cost centers into profit centers
Technology Helping Contractors Emerge Stronger
In addition to announcements from Viewpoint, stories from the first day of Collaborate drove home the fact that Viewpoint customers have also forged new paths through innovation and ingenuity over the past six, tricky months. For example, Colorado HVAC contractor Rogers & Sons redeployed its team to make masks out of company t-shirts, so they always had extras on hand, and Minneapolis-based RJM Construction adapted its use of technology to deploy an innovative online form to help screen workers for COVID symptoms before admitting them to the jobsite.
While contractors pivoted to meet the health and safety needs of employees, they also adopted technology at astonishing speeds in order to maintain business operations. Customer usage of Viewpoint ERP forms has increased 64% since March, and hundreds have leaned into the cloud. Today, more than 40% of Viewpoints ERP customers are hosted in the cloud, a number that climbs higher every day.
As customers, partners and the Viewpoint and Trimble teams come together at Collaborate to discuss the impacts of the past six months and the vision for the future, it’s clear that there are no limits to what is possible using technology in construction. Viewpoint customer Haugland Group brought that concept to life this spring. Just a few short months ago, the New York-based contractor converted the Westchester County Center into a 121-bed facility to assist with urgent COVID-19-related healthcare needs in just 21 days! Working together, the construction industry can achieve remarkable things.
Day One also saw panel discussions on facilitating technology changes in the construction organization as well as diversity and inclusion. In the former, Viewpoint clients Adolfson & Peterson Construction and Great Basin Industrial shared the reasons why they modernized, the challenges they faced along the way, and tips for smooth technology transitions. In the latter, panelists from Dome Construction and Sellen Construction talked about the social and business benefits of strong diversity and inclusion programs and how they are always a work in progress as societies, norms and other factors evolve from each year to the next.
“I don’t know of any partner in the HR world that feels like their work is done in this area and it’s a calling to do more work,” said Sellen Construction’s Kate Harkess, senior vice president and director of HR.
Missed the conference or couldn’t make it to a specific session? With the exception of our guest keynote session by Chris Gardner, we should have all sessions available on demand shortly. Be sure to check back at the Collaborate 2020 site to see what you missed. And check out our full Collaborate Recap blog for more conference highlights.
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