It will happen in the future but as of today there isn’t a “Computer” or “Process” that is negotiating your contract with you, approving your Schedule-of-Values (SOV), approving your progress billing or ensuring that it works through the customer’s system until payment is made.
These are all things that are done by people and it is the relationships with those people that will accelerate the process.
The best example of this is a contractor doing a bunch of work for telecommunications companies; many who went bankrupt around 2001-2002.
- The Project Manager and their management at the contractor all built deep relationships with Inspectors, Construction Managers and even their Accounts Payable teams for construction.
- This resulted in some early warning signals to the contractor’s team about “Major Problems” coming.
- Progress billing and payment processes that normally took 6-8 weeks got accelerated to days because of these relationships.
Remember that relationships at all levels matter.
Remember that multiple relationships from your company to the same person and company create even more strength.
