6 Benefits of SaaS: Hyphen's Reliability During Times of Uncertainty

Whether times of uncertainty involve a destructive new virus, a serious weather event like a hurricane or flood, or any other challenges to travel and communication, times of uncertainty can be devastating in an industry like residential construction. Every building project involves people working in multiple locations, a large cast of stakeholders, multiple trades, and a need for close collaboration, which is all difficult to coordinate even in normal times. When routines are disrupted and employees cannot go to their usual work locations or communicate face-to-face, what then?

SaaS technology designed specifically for contractors and suppliers in the residential home industry can help keep lines of communication open and accurate information flowing, no matter where people are.

SaaS and the Home Building Industry

The SaaS model, or Software-as-a-Service, refers to subscription-based software solutions that can be delivered to users anywhere via the cloud. Instead of installing software on your own computers, a centralized third-party software vendor takes care of providing the service and all maintenance, including updates, backup, and security.

SaaS Plus ERP — Hyphen’s Advantage

Builders, contractors and suppliers often use several programs to run their businesses: estimating, document management, scheduling, accounting, human resources, CAD/BIM, materials tracking, etc. Even if each piece of software is cloud-based, they don’t always integrate or communicate with each other. Because of this, coordinating the various pieces of information in each takes some troublesome juggling.

Hyphen Solutions delivers another type of software. It uses a common platform to integrate all the systems. Its goal is to provide full concept-to-completion functionality and allow access to all team members through a single platform or single solution. This type of software is known as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP ecosystems. Hyphen’s solutions for the home building industry combine the benefits of SaaS and ERP.

6 Top Benefits of Hyphen SaaS + ERP in Times of Uncertainty

  1. Ease of collaboration, real-time communication

Hyphen’s ERP connects departments together on a common platform, enabling everyone from your accountant to your foreman to your client to work together with real-time communication capabilities, for accurate, up-to-the-minute information. You don’t have to worry about your team overlooking a change, for example, even if work routines are altered.

  1. Accessibility from any location

One of the biggest liabilities of licensed software is that you can only load it onto a specified number of devices. With a cloud-based software solution, service is accessible from anywhere at any time — from the office, home, or field or elsewhere.

  1. Compatibility with most devices

You don’t have to be concerned about whether your contractors, staff or clients have PCs, tablets or smartphones. As long as they connect to the Internet, Hyphen software works on them. For increased productivity, BuildPro users can work in offline mode when connectivity is not available.

  1. Remote viewing

Working on a non-SaaS platform, the only way to check on the status of a project or work order is to physically go in and look. This can be time-consuming and in emergency situations, it may become difficult or even impossible. By working on a SaaS platform, you can have real-time access into every job and contract, from anywhere at any time.

  1. Limitless data storage

Today’s BIM models, CAD drawings and multimedia presentations are huge files; and without the cloud, they can be difficult to pass along or store on some devices. They just take up too much room. So, while traditionally sending a file to a staff member at home might be impossible, one of the benefits of SaaS is having enough cloud storage to keep all important documents available to every authorized user.

  1. Business continuation

A cloud-based ERP that connects all your stakeholders to all the information they need, no matter where they are, can help prevent a prolonged shutdown of your business in an emergency situation. Even if you can’t continue all your operations, keeping up with the tasks you can still manage could allow you to be up and running faster than a competitor who stops cold. If you can continue bidding, processing orders, scheduling, strategizing future projects, analyzing past performance, communicating with your customers and paying your vendors, staff, field personnel and contractors, you will have a significant head start on getting back to normal.

Hyphen offers all of these benefits in software services designed specifically for builders — our BuildPro solutions, and our popular BRIX ERP solution — and for residential construction suppliers — our SupplyPro solution and our comprehensive SupplyProGM ERP solution.

Contact our experts to start using an integrated, cloud-based business solution today to help keep your company running smoothly, no matter what.