Make the Most of Your Technology!

Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht with you Digging Deeper series. Today, we're continuing on our theme
around the labor shortage and the need to increase productivity, due to the fact that we just simply can't get the number
of people that we want or supposedly need to get the job done. So, we still have to get the job done.

So, today's theme is going to be around technology. I'm one of the old guys. I'm not the best with technology. But what
you see out there among our clients is you see a lot of opportunities for adoption and adaptation to new and better
technologies. The two that come to mind very quickly, Procore, and along with Procore certainly comes other good project
management solutions. But Procore certainly seems to be the hottest one out there now.

Now, it's a very expensive solution for many of you. And it's hard to justify if you look at it from a budgetary standpoint
and a cost standpoint. But the fact that a matter is a good project management software makes everybody more efficient.
And certainly, if you have an organization with maybe 10 project managers and assistant project managers or PEs or
whatever, out of every 10 people, I guarantee you, good use of Procore can save you one or two. It and others like it are
very effective softwares, and you can utilize them to get along with fewer people, get more accomplished with fewer
people.

Of course, it's not as easy as all that, but I'll come to that in a second. Another one that comes to mind among our masons
is Tradesmen Software. Everybody that's become a good user of Tradesman Software has easily doubled the capacity to
produce estimates as the ones that are using some of the other softwares that have been out there or just doing it on a
spreadsheet. It's just simply more effective and has more benefits along the way as well.

So, the first point here is to get the right software, and then the second point of it is to get it trained and utilized. All right?
Again, a lot of us are just not technology savvy and it's not easy for us. They say those two softwares that I mentioned
already are pretty intuitive for the people using them. Well, I don't know what intuitive means for them, but if you're a
non-technology person, nothing's intuitive when you get into these things. But I'm sure they are intuitive in their own
right. But they still need training. People go and they get something, and they got a question needs answering, and they
get stifled. They get stumped, and that prevents their progress.

So, you got to make sure that you have really good training. Insist on the training. It'll save you a lot more time than people
struggling through it over time. But get them trained. Get the softwares that you have in your company fully utilized and
get your folks so they can get the most out of them. There could be as much as 10 to 25% of your company productivity
that lies in that one simple technology solution of getting your people to understand what they have, be trained in its use,
and be getting the most out of each software you have.

Another thing that comes to mind in technology is databases. For estimating, for example, get your assemblies built. Get
a database of your past work, particularly for those of you who are doing a lot of budgeting. Don't be recreating the wheel
every time you do an estimate, all right? Getting a good database, getting some good assemblies built, these are going to
save you time over a long period of time. And again, it takes time to put these together, but it's time that will be well
rewarded on the backside.

We talked last week about use of Zoom and Team to save time and enhance communication. That's a very effective
technology tool. Also, though, for it to be at its most useful, make sure your office and even if it's your job site trailer are
outfitted for good technology. You got the camera, you got the microphone, you've got a good computer there so that,
when you do a Zoom call or a Teams call, that you can hear people, you can see people, that they're effective. When you
see an office that's fully outfitted and you see what they can do with this technology, it truly is amazing.

Finally, look for those efficiencies out on the job site. There's a lot out there for scanning technology. What lasers can do
now is amazing, whether it's for layout or seeing through a wall to seeing what's in the wall. I'm an old guy, so we think
back to things like the adding machine, the computer, the internet. We used to do the things with slide rules, and we used
to draw with our T square, I think it was called and my pencil and all of that. And we had the triangles and all those things
that we drew with. And that's where I learned drafting. Well, we've come a long way. We've got the tools. We've got BIM.
We've got the tools out there. Get them in place and use them.

And by the way, I keep reading more and more about eco skeletons, robotics, laser printing. Some of these technologies
are just on the forefront, but they really can be savings for labor. And now even if it doesn't save you money over labor, it
still can save you people, people time. And since we have a shortage of labor, these pieces of equipment, machines,
robotics can save time. And that's really the key to solving the labor shortage. It's not going away. So, make technology
your friend, and I think you'll have one of the answers for solving your labor shortage.

Again, Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper. Thanks for tuning in.