Top Construction Benchmarking Best Practices (+ Free Self-Assessment!)

How do your processes and systems compare to your industry peers?

How does your company measure up to the industry average and best-in-class contractors? Amid all of the change and swirl of the business environment, you need objective, quantifiable information about your business processes.

So, do you know how your business processes compare to your peers?

Most contractors don’t.

If you’re not sure how your construction processes stack up to the average, benchmarking is a good way to understand peer comparison in a safe environment. Benchmarking creates common definitions of processes, and provides a consistent, neutral measure of effectiveness comparing companies like yours.

Peer comparison is a best practice for any business, because it saves a lot of money.

Introducing the Best Practices Assessment Tool: Construction Process Insights

The Construction Process Insights Assessment tool from Trimble Viewpoint reveals how your company measures up to the industry average and best-in-class contractors, plus recommendations for action steps based on your score.

The benchmarking tool, created by Trimble Viewpoint and the Burger Consulting Group, addresses a number of key construction management and processes. You can click through to answer questions about your billing, project management, estimating, data entry, and other construction workflows, and then see a visual chart of your company’s answers compared to your peers—of similar size and in similar industries.

Are Your Current Construction Workflows Working?

The Construction Process Insights Assessment looks at all construction business process:

• Procure to Pay
• Contract Billing & AR
• Job Cost a& Change Orders
• Payroll & HR, Time-keeping
• Financial Management
• Project Management
• Field Management & Safety
• Reporting & Analytics
• Service Management
• Quote to Cash
• Heavy Equipment

Within each area, there may be opportunity for improvement. This benchmarking assessment tool provides a holistic picture.

So, what can you benchmark? The assessment digs deep into how contractors’ processes may differ when it comes to different typical construction workflows, such as:

1. Do you process change order (CO) requests and pending COs in your project management solution, or within your job cost accounting system?
2. What is the level of adoption of your collaborative PM solution generally among your project team?
3. Does your company have a streamlined process for receiving tickets/packing slips to be collected from the field?

Take the quiz and compare your company to a best-in-class score and the industry average.

Why is Construction Process Benchmarking Important?

Dan Thomas, director of sales engineers at Trimble Viewpoint, has worked with Christian Burger for many years. “I hear a lot of people say, ‘We know we need to upgrade/modernize, but it is just too much right now,’" Thomas said. “But what is going to be the catalyst for change? Will it be after you’re removed from a bid list and the customer is looking for a better, more compliant vendor? After you discover that you can’t attract the best talent? As you said before, it’s death by a thousand cuts.”

“I’ve watched the industry evolve over time,” added Burger, who started his own construction firm 25 years ago in Chicago. “Contractors have always struggled with tech adoption and process change. In our industry, we haven’t managed to do that yet; we’re getting better.

“When you’re driving, you don’t have to get out of the car and check your fuel level, or read your map. It even solved finding a parking spot. Tech has transformed the act of driving. Why can't we apply that to construction? How are we performing, how are we doing, where are we going?”