Details, Details, Details

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Well-known business consultant Greg Hayne discusses why it’s imperative to ask highly specific questions when choosing a new software. 

In RoofersCoffeeShop RLW brought to you by Jobba Trade Technologies, highly successful business consultant Greg Hayne joins Heidi J. Ellsworth to discuss the reimagining of service and maintenance programs due to the widespread adoption of technology in roofing companies. Greg also goes through his top ten questions contractors should ask software providers before implementing one into their business.  

If you are preparing to buy your first software, Greg recommends purchasing only one to start, despite the many options and myriad of services these technologies can provide. Keep in mind that as your company grows you will undoubtedly implement more software to increase business efficiency. This means you’ll need to either stick to software that plays well with others or learn how to build application programming interfaces (APIs). 

"This is what the APIs [are made for],” said Greg. "APIs are designed to get this to talk to that, and APIs are not difficult to build, if both sides of the coin are willing to cooperate. If one side wants to do it, and the other side doesn't, well, that is a problem. But in general, it's a straightforward computer programmer exercise. They just need to know how the file structure is and [how] to map this to this.” 

For contractors who have purchased generic CRM software, in most cases you can perform the mapping yourself. If you’re still searching for the right software and are looking for an option that easily integrates with others, Greg recommends looking for a one-stop shop software company that offers many kinds of software applications. 

"[There are companies that] got something for projects. They've got something for estimating. They got something for HR. They got something for this, they got something for that. That's common.” 

A few questions that will assist your search in the right software include: 

• Can the data migrate easily? 

• Can you, the contractor, migrate the data out easily? 

• Can the software do roof inspections? 

• What software do you integrate with?  

Don’t be satisfied with a simple answer, either. Ask for the details and use highly specific questions to ensure you know what will happen if you implement a certain software into your business.  

“You've got to be knowledgeable, and you've got to educate yourself to understand what it is that you can expect,” said Greg. “Will it do this? How will it do that? Show me. How will it do that? Show me. And get comfortable with that. And if you're standing at the tradeshow booth while they're doing this, and the person that's going to use it isn't there, don't buy it yet. You want the people who are going to be using it to ask questions too.” 

Read, Listen or Watch the entire webinar on-demand to learn how to successfully incorporate software into your business.