It’s been fascinating to watch the stock market soar over the past 6 months while the world has continued to be stuck in one of the worst economic declines in a century. Why is it that the stock market can be so out of step with reality when there is so much uncertainty out there? I can’t say I have a clear answer for that, but my theory is that investors are confident that the pandemic is short-lived and a rebound is imminent once vaccines are rolled-out over the upcoming months. It’s also likely a case of investors shopping for bargains as price dips are somewhat routine currently. The economics of construction projects (and the project management software to run them), is not unlike other market segments in that some industries have been hit hard by the pandemic, while others have flourished.

2020 was a year like no other. The entire world underwent a transformation where people, businesses and families were forced to adapt to a challenging new reality.  Despite it all, our 4castplus team rose to the challenge and continued to provide responsive and personal support to our valued customers, and continued building and growing 4castplus. Looking forward to 2021, a global sense of optimism is on the horizon as the anticipation of the end of lock-downs and a gradual return to normal promises to kickoff a strong economic recovery.  It is valuable for all of us to reflect on the year that past,, so we'll take a brief moment to share a look at some of our 2020 highlights.

It’s not uncommon for organizations to consider the idea of using their ERP as a one-stop-solution for all their technology needs – even when it comes to managing the many-layered complexities of cost management on major projects. It’s an appealing idea: everything in one place, under the tight control and scrutiny of the finance department. The challenge with this of course, is that the target users of an ERP are in the finance department, not those who are managing the day-to-day operations of a large construction project. 

 
Construction projects have many moving parts and a colossal amount of data to carefully manage in order to keep the project running to plan. Not only that, but there are numerous different types of users that need to work collaboratively in real-time. Such as: Project managers, project controls, engineers, field staff at the jobsite, subcontractors, project owners and others, that all need to work together, sharing data and workflows, to seamlessly bring a project to a successful conclusion.  

Did you know? More than 90% of organizations are using some level of cloud services for business applications and data storage. This is according to last year’s Intel Security cloud security research study, which also made the stunning assertion that, “in the next 15 months, over 80% of IT budgets will be committed to cloud solutions."