Corecon Annoucements

Update January 2008

moza — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:31:00 GMT

Hi All!

Happy New Year! This is part 2 of the update for Fall 2007. The first part of Fall 2007 update was a major one with the introduction of Online File Management, new reports etc. This 2nd part of the update focusses more on performance improvements as well as some bug fixes and a few more reports. Below we list the update in details.

Performance improvements to the over all application, most noticable when opening, re-calculating estimates as well as on re-calculating projects. We also added 3 new reports to the solution, namely

1. Cost To Date Analysis by Resource Type for all Active Projects

2. Committed Cost Analysis by Resource Type for all Active Projects

3. Unbilled summary by Transaction Type for Active Cost Plus Projects

Some changes on reports,

1. Bill Log By Supplier now works for All Suppliers

2. PO Log By Supplier now works for All Suppliers

All other update were took care of minor bug fixes including copying 1 tier estimates using the estimate add wizard etc.

Hope everyone has a very productive and prosperous year ahead!

Corecon update...

moza — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:26:00 GMT

Hi All!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far. As always we at Corecon are striving to improve the product every day, we make usability changes as well as add requested features every once in a while. Lately, we have been focussing on the email and faxing capabilities from within Corecon 2007. We have made some significant improvements to the email and fax templates that are used by the customers for sending out Bid Invitations, Purchase Orders, Notices, etc.

In the current update that was a non-disruptive maintenance update which was caried out on Friday, August 17, 2007, we have changed the current Email and Fax templates for all the features within Corecon. The templates now have a fresh look and can have 3 different themes to choose from. All the templates have been revised to make them Fax friendly as well as HTML email ready. Some of the templates that have been revised include

Bid Invitation for Subcontractors and Suppliers - General
Bid Invitation for Subcontractors and Suppliers - Detailed
Bid Invitation for Subcontractors and Suppliers - Indivdual
Purchase Order
Work Order
Request for Information (RFI) Request
Request for Information (RFI) Response
Submittal Request
Submittal Submission for Approval
Submittal Package Submission for Approval
Journal (general Email / Fax)
Change Proposal Pricing Request for Subcontractors / Suppliers
Task Notification for Responsible Parties

In addition to the above changes some new functionality has been added on all types of invoices for % billing on items as well as retainage (hold backs).

We are also in the process of other updates and we will keep you informed of the progress. With the support and feedback of our customers we will keep on improving our product, adding more functionality, making it easier to use and help our customers grow their businesses.

Thank you!

Corecon update - Spring 2007

admin — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 03:55:00 GMT

Hello All!

Lets all spring forward with the new release of Corecon - 2007 Spring Release!

With this release we complete the 2nd phase of our update for first part of 2007. This update builds on the Home Page concept introduced with the Winter release and adds 6 more dashboards. We hope that these dashboards prove a valuable tool for our users out there to find pending items, recent changes as well as navigate between tasks. We have also added a few new reports providing better insight into data to do Work in Progress (WIP) analysis. Scheduling is one other area where some functionality has been added with respect to reports and task re-calculations.

Dashboards galore!

Dashboards - user's best friend, at least thats what we would like to think. With addition of new dashboards for Project Leads, Document Control, Quality Control, Contract Administration, Procurement, and Labor Timecards. The idea of these dashboards is to provide the user information about things requiring immediate attention, recent changes and links to perform related tasks. E.g. the Project Leads Dashboard provides the user a quick snapshot of what lead conversion in the current month as well as links to more detailed analyses, the Document control dashboard provides information on RFI responses received, due, submittals due etc. alongwith recently modified documents.

Procurement is one hot topic for a lot of contractors and the procurement dashboard is the one stop shop for all activities - from generating Purchase Orders to Subcontracts based on estimates or manually. Timecards dashboard provides links to various setup tasks as well as links to adding timecards, approving timecards and viewing reports.

All the above dashboards also have enhanced filtering and grouping capabilities. One can filter list in the grid, group things in "Outlook Group By" style for better viewing capabilities.

Reporting

Reporting is one area that has always been consistently improved, with addition of new reports as well as better export capabilities. In this update we bring forth some new reports both in the area of Budget Tracking as well as Scheduling.

Work In Progress (WIP) reporting has been available for Cost Plus jobs, but now one can run Earned Revenue and Current Profit Analyses on any job, with capabilities of drilling in to the job cost code level. These can be further exported to excel for more detailed reporting.

Scheduling reports by party responsible (Company and Employee) cross projects have also been added to better field reporting for field staff and partners handling mutiple projects.

Lets be on Schedule

Scheduling is one other area of Corecon which has received constant upgrades. Now we have enhanced importing tasks from excel to include relatioships as well. We have also added project task re-calculation functionality to ease the pain of manually modifying tasks after a task dates get changed. One can read about it further in the help section about how to setup that functionality.

Miscellaneous

Workers Compensation Codes can now be assigned a specific burden rate which will be tagged on to the timecards as additional burden cost.
Now in a Cost plus job one can choose to specify default markups that can be imported into an invoice. These markups can be % of a resource or a lumpsum markup.
Revenue budget can be specified for a Cost Plus job with GMP
A new Global markup for estimates allows users to specify a lumpsum markup
Project Schedule analysis based on project dates (estimated as well as task dates)

In Conclusion

Corecon has some new and exciting things planned for the product. We will also be initiating a new customer conference call every month to discuss future releases and also potential for beta testing. Keep a lookout for more information in the forums or the blogs.

Corecon update - Winter 2007

moza — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:47:00 GMT

Hello All!

We hope everyone is having a great new year so far. As always we have been at work behind the scenes trying to improve the product with some new updates and enhancements based on feedback and our experiences. For Corecon, Winter 2007 brings forth improvements to some old features, as well as some exciting new features.

Reporting

One of the major enhancements was on the reporting end. All the US and Canada Reports have been modified to reflect a more professional look and better accommodate export to Microsoft Excel. We have also added some new reports like "Bidder Invite with Details", "Multi Project Report by Classifications" based on customer feedback.

Major New Features

Home Page

Among new features, the one that stands out most is the new "Home Page" or "Home Page Dashboard", which shows alerts based on documents due, tasks due, documents responded etc. as well as financial summary for quick review. More information about the same can be found in the Help System.

Estimating

In estimating, now you can insert items (and not just append) in a particular spot and the program will move all the other items based on your preference (set globally). We have also added a new “Margin” type global markup which will automatically calculate the percentages based on the margin you specify.

Multi-delete option for cost database items like labor, equipment, crews, work items and work assemblies.

Prime Contract Setup (Procurement)

New option to copy procurement information (subcontracts and purchase orders) across prime contracts (lots) within a project. This feature will be useful for homebuilders that are building multiple homes in multi-lots and using similar models and same subcontractors.

Miscellaneous

Company and Contact information such as phone and fax numbers can be updated on the grid. Multiple companies can be assigned a type at a time.

New import functionality to import labor timecards from Microsoft Excel.

New views on RFIs and Submittals with information about documents responded within last 7 days.

In Conclusion

Changes to Corecon 2006

admin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:41:00 GMT

Hello all!

We just wanted to update you on what we have been working on during the past 3 months. We have launched a brand new corporate website, which now has a link to the Login page on the home page for a quick access. Corecon 2006 has been continually improved with additional reports and some new features which are highlighted below.

New Reports

We have added a few new reports to the Project Center which allow filtering by date. More drill through reporting by job cost codes has also been added on the Committed Cost and Cost to Date reports.

The reports are listed below

Rev. / Cost Analysis - this is a new style Revenue / Cost Analysis report
Rev. / Cost Analysis report by internal job cost code grouping (Division codes) - this is a new style Revenue / Cost Analysis report with Internal Job Cost Code Grouping (summing at Division Level)
Committed Cost Details (By Date) - Committed Cost Details by Transaction Type and Job Cost Code Report which allows date filtering
Cost To Date Details (By Date) - Cost to Date Details by Transaction Type and Job Cost Code Report which allows date filtering
Daily Log Manpower and Equipment reports by Company

Reports 3 & 4 allow for specific date filtering to facilitate better business intelligence capabilities for Invoicing customers. The cost to date report can also be used by Consturction Management (CM) firms or users doing Cost Plus billing (Time and Material) for total customer transparency.

New Features / Improvements

Some other changes have been made under estimating and invoicing features. We have improved the performance of estimate calculations as well as opening up of prime invoices. We have added a new wizard under estimating to update multiple estimates after your local item database has been updated; in addition now you can specify global variables for each estimate. Both of the new features are highlighted below with specific usage scenarios. More information can be found in the help system. Other features added were under Document Control facilitating faster processing of submittals.

Estimate Update Wizard

If you use your Corecon 2006 local database to build up estimates and get an excel pricing sheet from your suppliers regularly which can be imported into your Corecon database.

Now if you have sample template estimates setup in Corecon and want the new pricing to be reflected on these estimates you can use the Estimate Update Wizard to update all your template estimates.

Estimate Global Variables

Another new feature introduced in Corecon 2006 estimating is the use of Global Estimate Variables, although each estimate item has 15 variables tied to it, all these variables are disconnected and cannot be used dynamically to calculate item quantities. Estimate global variables can be used to solve this issue. You can define an unlimited number of global estimate variables per estimate, use them in formulas across estimate items and when you change the quantities of any of these variables the quantity of each of the estimate items that uses these variables is changed based on the formula used. This facilitates the use of estimates as one whole assembly or each of the folders as an assembly dependent on certain global variables.

These global variables can be named as desired and used in the formulas for any estimate item. To facilitate quick manipulation of formulas for each item we have also added a new view for Formulas in addition to existing views of T/M/L/E/S/O/WBS.

Adding Multiple Submittals

A lot of time contractors need to send out drawings to multiple subs and this allows them to add mutliple documents / samples quickly and group them under one package.

Drawing Log to Submittal Package

Similar to scenario above a lot of drawings are sent to subs and this wizard automates the process of creating individual submittals for each drawing and allows creation of submittal packages from drawing packages. These submittal packages can also be sent out to the respondents via email or fax.

In Conclusion

As always we strive to provide the best for our customers and believe in continuous improvement of our product. We always welcome our customers' feedback for further improvement. Our hope is that with Corecon you can continually improve and grow your business and in turn satisfy your customers.

Corecon Success Stories!

admin — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:51:00 GMT

We at Corecon love to hear from customers about how using technology and Corecon products in particular has helped shape and grow their businesses. For this we are proposing a new section for customers who would like to share their success stories with us and their peers. This would be the customer success blog, where you can post your success stories and innovative ideas of using Corecon products.

In addition we would also like you - our customer to get recognition in the industry and industry awards are always one of the best sources. ConstrucTech hosts annual Vision Awards and we encourage our customers to submit their success story. For more information on the ConstrucTech Vision Awards visit http://www.specialtypub.com/constructech/vision/.

You can submit your stories to Corecon at information@corecon.com

http://corecon.com/CS/forums/thread/12.aspx

Corecon 2006 Fall Release

admin — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:51:00 GMT

Corecon 2006 - Fall Release

Corecon Technologies, Inc. is pleased to annouce the Fall Release of Corecon 2006. Please find below all the major additions to the product.

Corecon v2006 Application:

Many minor user interface changes and enhancements
Improved Estimating to PM Wizard
New Import Drawing Log From MS Excel Option
New Drawing Log Package to Submittal Package Wizard

Corecon v2006 Wireless Handheld Solution (New):

Free to all Corecon 2006 Users!

Features:

Companies
Contacts
Project Directory
Journals (Notes)
Checklist
Owner Equipment Items
Punchlist
Purchase Orders
Scheduling Tasks
Work Orders

Compatible Phone Operating Systems:

Palm
Blackberry
Windows CE
Windows Mobile 5.0

Corecon Recommends:

Sprint: Treo 700wx *
Verizon: Treo 700w

* The Treo 700wx has double the RAM of the Treo 700w.

Coreconlink For Simply Accounting (New):

For Canada market
Similar functionality to the CoreconLink For QuickBooks

Coreconlink For SAP Busines One (New):

For US market
For construction firms with $20-150 Million in revenue

Welcome to the Corecon Blogs

admin — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:01:00 GMT

Welcome to the Corecon Community Center!

Facilitating exchange of information between our company and our customers has always been our priority. In line with this we are pleased to annouce a new community center where users can communicate with each other and with us. This will serve as a forum for exchanging ideas, feedback and suggestions.

Everyone is welcome to participate through the forums. We will also be selecting few users to contribute based on their experiences through blogs and forums.