Causeway’s software solutions enable companies in the construction industry to embrace key business drivers with confidence.

The industry is continuously evolving and, as a result, modern construction organisations are frequently confronted with fresh challenges. From changes in legislation associated with compliance and health & safety, modern procurement initiatives such as target cost contracts, to the relentless pressure to improve performance and increase efficiency, companies in construction need to be flexible. Causeway believes that success is reliant on having the right tools for the job.

IT may not be the obvious answer to many, but it’s now becoming recognised as the key ingredient, and its innovative use has the potential to provide the answer.

We understand the challenges you face; we speak your language, understand your processes and, working together with you, we can provide innovative and reliable solutions that facilitate growth and continuous improvement in your business.

Bidding, procurement and sourcing within the construction industry are laden with pressures: to increase margin, to ensure compliance, to minimise risk. Causeway’s Supply Chain Management solutions provide companies in construction with the software and services to maximise their profit margins throughout the entire tendering process and beyond.

The construction industry is recognising that the problem of inaccurate vendor and supplier information is significantly contributing to the spiralling costs of the tendering and procurement process. In answer to these problems the Building Register delivers the most comprehensive, FREE-to-access database, listing over 350,000 construction industry vendors, including contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, searchable by town, county and trade categories.

Thousands of vendors have subscribed to become full Building Register members, disclosing comprehensive details regarding their financial probity, health & safety and insurances, plus additional valuable information.

The threat of financial penalties and damage to corporate reputation, through non-compliance and poor corporate governance, is creating arguably the strongest impetus behind the adoption of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technology within the construction industry. Causeway’s Enterprise Content Management solutions provide companies in the construction industry with the means to exercise complete control over information relating to projects, departments or entire organisations.

At the heart of all business operations lie the sourcing, procurement and administration of materials and service items. Handling high volumes of paper orders, invoices and despatch notes using traditional methods means numerous man-hours are spent re-keying, checking, and archiving these documents. Causeway customers using our e-trading solution Tradex are reporting a reduction in the cost of processing invoices of up to 63% in comparison with traditional methods with handling times and process efficiencies reduced by up to 50%.

With a notable shift in the construction industry away from adversarial contracts, a radical overhaul in the methods used to procure construction services is now taking place. In a drive to increase efficiency and reduce costs, target cost contracts, partnering, PFI and open book accounting have all now become commonplace with long term relationships being encouraged. The success of target cost, cost reimbursable and partnering contracts is reliant upon capturing actual cost data in a structured, auditable and flexible system, capable of embracing project and client specific activities with access available to both clients and contractors. Causeway Project Accounting does this and much more.

Earned Value Analysis techniques are also becoming increasingly popular and as a result are starting to be implemented on more and more construction projects in the UK.

In summary, working within the construction industry where margins are already tight, reputation, quality of service and customer satisfaction are all key issues that can give a competitive edge. It is therefore essential that your company delivers a consistently high level of service to your client.