Whether you’re in Engineering & Construction, Trades, Landscaping or working in the field, this message may be for you.

Let’s be honest, Job Costing has been around since the early 1900’s but it was “invented” as a means to establish cost accounting for manufacturers. While there is no doubt that this practice is a valuable one for Construction and Trades, here’s the Problem:


Is Job Costing still relevant in the context of how we Work in our day to day, in a world that has shifted to putting the Customer at the centre of our businesses?

Looking at this practically, and a little differently. I don't know a lot of people that say “I’m going to Job”. We don’t open our schedules to see when or where we Job. We don’t Job effectively or Job efficiently. When was the last time you said sorry to the family for being a bit late while you Jobbed on a proposal? Ever wonder which Crew or team you will be Jobbing with today?

Let’s just call it what it is - Work.

Importantly, we can agree that who we work with, where we work, when we work, how we work efficiently, and why we work is all related to our Customers. In order to Find, Win, Keep, and Grow relationships with Customers, the most effective businesses take pride in the Quality and Value of their Work.

Recently, however, this industry has been inundated with software providers that centralize their capabilities and reporting around a Job. But, aren't they simply perpetuating a potentially outdated approach to Cost Management and Operational Excellence by attempting to put “Job” at the centre of our business? Isn't it time to think about this in a way that puts our Customers at the Center of our business?

So, how do we that? We can do this in at least 4 specific ways:

1. Improve Resource Utilization
2. Increase Project Productivity
3. Accelerate Decision Making
4. Address Work Management with a Customer 360


For some clarity and insight on the notion of work, Anna Gravina (Director, Global Head of Engineering and Construction Digitalization at Salesforce at the time) wrote an article entitled See How Engineering & Construction Firms are Boosting Productivity where she says:

"So, you’ve won the work. Now it’s time to deliver — and see just how accurate your forecasting, pricing, and risk assessment was. It’s time to mobilize teams, manage resources, track project performance, and execute effectively.


With digitization, our teams have seen E&C businesses improve resource utilization by 20% to 30%"

For those who are responsible for the P & L related to the Work and/or tasks we perform, whether within Projects, at customer's locations (or routes), and with the right skilled or available resources (people, equipment, materials) she also notes that:


1. "When E&C businesses automate these kinds of tasks, Salesforce teams have seen them increase project productivity by 10% to 15%
2. and accelerate decision making and case resolution by 30% to 40%."


ReFraming the issue:

In most cases, this industry is less about needing software to schedule and track jobs within a manufacturing setting (ERP does this well though), and more about performing Service Excellence for Customers through the effective Distribution of Work.

Businesses like Erie Homes are Redefining Service Excellence in Residential & Commercial Services. However, they started from scratch. Instead of attempting to piece together a Frankenmonster technology stack, they took their time and waited for their transformation until they could create a digital thread on a platform across Marketing, Sales, Call Centre, Operations, Installations, Customer Care - Erie Homes recognized that their growth and success would depend on this notion of the Customer 360.


Address Work Management with a Customer 360

This Industry has begun to think a little differently about efficient Work Management while respecting the importance of Planning Resources at the Enterprise level - yes, that's ERP spelled backwards. A little different.

You might be crawling, walking, or running in your transformation journey, or planning to Renovate your existing platform, or Exploring advanced analytics, predictive maintenance, and AI-driven customer insights to continue driving operational excellence. Similar Companies are working with Salesforce to transition the approach from Job Management to a Customer Centric one that promotes a Foundation for Growth.


At Simpliigence, a Salesforce Customer 360 implementation and integration partner, we've seen first hand how companies within this industry can deploy and adopt Work Management as a practice. Their stories demonstrate the significant impact of technology on traditional industries and highlight the potential for further innovation and growth.

While there's still a lot of Work to do here, there's no doubt that the transformation is happening.