Sweet success
Despite opening offices worldwide, construction software supplier CCS Candy’s general manager, Ian Hauptfleisch, explains why the Middle East is still significant.
Despite opening offices worldwide, construction software supplier CCS Candy’s general manager, Ian Hauptfleisch, explains why the Middle East is still significant.
Boasting 10 offices and distribution networks in the UK, South Africa, Portugal, India, Australia and New Zealand, Construction Computer Software provider, CCS Candy is well represented across the globe; providing project control solutions at a time of economic uncertainty.
“The recent global economic crisis highlighted the consequences of laxity of control systems in boom times,” says Ian Hauptfleisch, Gulf general manager.
“It is precisely at these financially uncertain times that CCS can aid a company’s decision making processes, keeping tendering, procurement and numerous construction project variables under tight control and enabling better decisions, with better information, produced at the right time,” he adds.
Hauptfleisch confirms that as technology trends progress they could encompass the likes of BIM, 4D, 5D and even “6D”; which could add significant value to accurate and streamlined costs and the execution of projects. “It’s plain to us, and the industry, that full use of these control systems brings massive improvements in productivity and profitability, so part of our forward customer interaction is to assist our clients in the region to realise the full benefits to their company through the proper use of our products, without buying add-on products,” Hauptfleisch explains.
However, he stresses the success of technological advances is still hinged on the fundamentals of proper resource based and analytical estimates and a critical path precedence network.
Regional reach
With more than 10,000 users, CCS software is considered a construction industry standard and the company recently set up its first office in India, securing prominent clients including Larson and Toubro, one of the largest construction company in India.
It is precisely at these financially uncertain times that CCS can aid a company’s decision making processes”
However, it is the desert cities that the construction technology suppliers’ management team now have their eye on. The long term plan is to make a mark on the larger developing markets such as the Middle East’s Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan, as well as North Africa, where construction activity is rife and where
CCS staff believes immense potential lies. CCS’s faith in the Middle Eastern region has
even prompted their establishment of a distribution office in Bahrain to assist the existing Dubai office with installations outside the UAE.
Looking back
In 1978, the company birthed Candy Estimation and project control; integrated and highly-scalable modules for estimating, planning, forecasting, cash flow, on-site valuations and earned value management.
With the construction industry’s project based activity tracking and cost information demands in mind, CCS customised and designed BuildSmart — a web-based ERP, construction-orientated accounting and costing business solution.
By the mid 1990s, British and South African construction companies were using Candy Estimation in the Middle East for the first time.
“In terms of individual client use both Candy and BuildSmart are extremely versatile and powerful systems and we often find that organisations under utilise the software.”
[facts]
Combined, CCS Candy and Buildsmart include modules relating to:
- Estimating
- Planning
- Valuations
- Forecasting
- Cash flow
- Procurement
- Accounting
- Wages
- Plant, yard and stock management
- Document control
[/facts]
CCS software was used during the growth spurt in the Middle East from the mid to late nineties when early projects such as the Burj Al Arab and Dubai International Airport impacted the construction industry and first put the UAE on the map.
“Over the years, the Middle East construction industry has become more and more competitive – with more and more construction opportunities, more and more contractors have descended on the region,” Hauptfleisch recalls.
As economically uncertain as the current time is CCS has stepped in with what they consider to be a solution.
“CCS comes into its own in this competitive environment, providing the contractor with a facility to implement, record, manage and gain competitive advantage, while maintaining sound construction and business practices.”
