Hensel Phelps Construction Company

Best known for the construction, expansion and renovation of projects such as the Dell Pediatric Research Institute and the Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin, Hensel Phelps Construction Co., one of the industry's top builders, is also earning a reputation as a technology trendsetter.

After years of dealing with inflexible back office database management systems, Hensel Phelps has shifted to web-enabled, subscription-based technology. Lisa Pitts, Hensel Phelps, senior marketing coordinator for Hensel Phelps, says, "Much of our shift is sparked by the industry trend to alternative project delivery methods such as Construction Management at Risk and design/build. These methods require that we track projects with greater flexibility as compared to the hard bid delivery methods of the past."

 

In 2007, the firm replaced its 10-year-old database with Cosential, a resource management tool that enables engineers, architects and construction companies to manage projects from the first project lead through project commissioning. The tool includes functionality to manage documents, cost estimates, human resources and customer relationship management data through a central web-enabled information portal.

 

Pitts concludes, "The software-as-a-service model enables us to customize the product without the help of developers. We never have to worry about finding more IT dollars to support new features or functionality that emerge during the course of our business—those improvements are an integral part of our monthly fee. Now we have a project management tool that allows us to keep pace with our people, processes and industry trends."

 

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Graceworks

We recently implemented Cosential for Graceworks, a fast-growing company that provides innovative presentation, leadership and communication training and coaching services.  For the last 13 years Graceworks been using an in-house database to track contacts, projects, and tasks.  Their well-maintained contact database of previous clients, presentation attendees, and leads had grown to 15,000 contacts.  At the same time, their growing staff was now constantly traveling, as well as telecommuting from different locations, making access to the shared database challenging.  Carol Doscher, CEO of Graceworks, realized the time had come to switch their database to a shared system that would allow them to continue to grow.  She approached the transition with careful consideration, as their database is an essential aspect of the business. Carol recently had this to say about her experience:

"This is just a sampling of the amazing response from my staff. Not only am I delighted with the product, but I'm thrilled to be able to offer them simply a better way to work. It raises morale and clearly improves quality of life. Many of them work off-site, as you know, so Cosential's web-based approach is just perfect for us. This also sets us up beautifully as we expand and open other offices. Thank you so much for steering me in the right direction!"

 

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Cosential, Inc.

We use our own application to manage our business. We believe that to best understand how our customers need the applicatoin to work and to best understand how we can make a better product, we should "eat our own food!" Cosential not only works for the AEC industry, but also works effectively very well for any business in the software industry.