Why building tech that works matters in House Building.

We see so much time training, so much time onboarding and so much time setting up custom systems, we ignore the real impacts of this time and additional costs to house building.

40 days and an extra ￡10K per annum (before we even count the cost of time spent in a classroom) is what we have estimated at PlotTech to be the real impact of poorly executed technology apps and systems within construction.

Let's look it in real terms, in 2024 I can open a joint bank account up in a matter of minutes with zero input from a supporting human, yet for snagging a 2 bedroom home and running the admin system I need a quarterly "refresher" training session? Something does not add up here.

And no, the problem is not with those who use the technology, it's with those who build it.

we DO NOT need a mandatory classroom based system any more, if you do - you are building the wrong thing.

For too long this experience of demo, set up configuration, onboarding, roll out and final training has been a feature of many ConTech systems up and down the country, for years they have operated to spend more time and charge more money from House Builders who haven't asked questions and just assumed it is the norm.

I can assure you this is not and should not be the norm.

Now, before this article ends in a fist fight, let me slide in a caveat, that of course guidance and support is always required, wherever you are and whatever product, but we DO NOT need a mandatory classroom based system any more, if you do - you are building the wrong thing.

Typically in all aspects of our lives, technology has saved us time and energy, performing tasks for us that would otherwise have taken a manual pen and paper approach many more hours to complete. The value therefore in many proposition is just that; "save time in capturing your snags", "collaborate across your team with our seamless system", "reduce the cost of rework by being more accurate first time". In truth, there are many great systems out there that do that (none more so than PlotTech ??), but can we really say that the value is truly delivered if our users have to slog it out for the first few months just to get up to speed?

In every great and successful product you would typically find a great user experience (UX) at the very core. Why? because the front line between the business and those that we want to consume our services, yet many believe that it starts and stops with the tech product that we build. That could not be further from the truth. Value must be delivered from the moment the enquiry comes in to the moment you have to let the user go as they seek to find the next big thing.

House Builders face more challenges today than they ever have, high cost in materials, rising health & safety concerns, mental health challenges, increasing skills gap, limited availability of people just to name a few. Yet time and again technology have failed to mis targeting these problems and truly support in delivering real efficiencies and building products that people want to use. The result is the constant rolling eyes ?? that we see time and again when "yet another app" is brought to the table for people to only sign up to and later bin for their old trusty pen and paper.

More than anything technology is about breeding trust. Trust that the prospective user has in you to deliver good quality product but also the trust that you as the tech builder have in them to just give the tools required to get the job done, first time.

If we fail in this, we fail, period.

#construction #housebuilding #newhomes #onsite