Production and Accounting Software for Home Builders

Markham, ON, July 7, 2010 – Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, the largest and most trusted software provider of home building software has been named to the Constructech 50 in 2010. 

With Constellation customers counting for more than half of the largest builders in North America, Constellation is well-known for stability, dedication to technology and the highest standards of customer support.  Not only is Constellation the best choice for builders in the USA, but the top builders in Canada have consistently chosen Constellation products to run their business and transition through changes like the Harmonized Sales Tax, Tarion Warranty Regulations, Goods and Services Tax, and numerous payroll changes.  Throughout the home building recession, Constellation continued to invest in the industry, technology, and services for home builders of all sizes. As the leader in home building software, Constellation is ideally positioned to provide mission-critical software solutions that home builders can trust now and in many years to come.

 “We are happy to be recognized by Constructech magazine again in 2010. Throughout the downturn, we continued to invest in our products and services to ensure that Constellation was the best choice for home builders of all sizes”, says Dexter Salna, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.

Constellation’s software solutions are designed to help builders increase productivity and utilize fewer resources to run their businesses successfully.  With comprehensive solutions for home builder websites, online marketing, new home sales, customer relationship management (CRM), accounting, purchasing, estimating, scheduling, warranty, homeowner portals, land development, and vendor portals, many builders choose Constellation as their trusted technology partner. With a single technology partner, you can count on software upgrades that work, a single support contact for all products, industry expertise, and responsibility for the entire system. In contrast with multi-vendor situations and disparate technologies, Constellation customers know that their systems will be supported and enhanced long-term, that their technology partner is financially strong, and that their technology investment is secure. 

About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

As the largest home building software company in the industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has helped more than 2,400 builders manage their information technology costs with integrated software solutions to run their business from dirt to warranty. From planning to homeowner services, we have land development software, new home sales and marketing software, production, purchasing, scheduling, accounting, warranty, electronic homeowner manuals, vendor portal solutions, and web site solutions designed exclusively for the home building industry. Constellation’s product suite includes BuildSoft, Builder 360, Constellation CRM (CFT), Constellation Web Solutions, FAST, NEWSTAR, Sales1440, and BuildTopia.

Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is a division of Constellation Software Inc. (“CSI”) and is a publicly traded company.

Media Inquiries

Cathy Kotsopoulos
ckotsopoulos@constellationhb.com
(888) 723-2222

Markham, ON, June 25, 2010 –Constellation HomeBuilder Systems (“CHS”) has acquired the assets of BuildTopia of Rockville, Maryland, a web-based construction management software solution for residential home builders.  This acquisition is another example of Constellation’s dedication to the home building industry and its long term approach to providing mission critical technology solutions and services for home builders of all sizes.

“We continue to invest in new products and services and maintain our long-term commitment to the home building industry”, says Dexter Salna, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.  As the largest software company dedicated to the homebuilding industry, Constellation continues to provide excellent support and services to help our customers successfully run their business now and in the future.  We welcome the customers and employees of BuildTopia to the Constellation family.

Constellation’s suite of homebuilding solutions include Software as a Service (SaaS) and hosting alternatives, in addition to solutions that builders can install on their own hardware.  In many cases, builders are choosing SaaS and hosting alternatives to get started quickly and avoid the upfront costs associated with purchasing hardware.  In addition to our fully integrated sales, production, accounting, and warranty solutions, Constellation also provides quick-start home builder websites with built-in best practices for online marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and security.

About BuildTopia
BuildTopia delivers comprehensive web-based construction project management software solutions for residential home builders delivered as a SaaS solution.  BuildTopia streamlines and integrates all core construction business processes in one powerful yet easy to use solution to increase production efficiency, reduce errors, maximize each sale, and provide excellent customer service. Builders, developers, and trade partners of every size rely upon BuildTopia to dramatically improve the effectiveness, efficiency and profitability of their businesses.

About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

As the largest home building software company in the industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has helped more than 2,400 builders manage their information technology costs with integrated software solutions to run their business from dirt to warranty. From planning to homeowner services, we have land development software, new home sales and marketing software, production, purchasing, scheduling, accounting, warranty, electronic homeowner manuals, vendor portal solutions, and web site solutions designed exclusively for the home building industry. Constellation’s product suite includes BuildSoft, Builder 360, Constellation CRM (CFT), Constellation Web Solutions, FAST, NEWSTAR, and Sales1440.

Media Inquiries
Cathy Kotsopoulos
ckotsopoulos@constellationhb.com
(888) 723-2222

Today is the first of our 5 day virtual customer conference at Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.  We just wrapped up 8 simultaneous product update sessions for each of our major customer bases.  These sessions covered recent enhancements and updates to our award winning software for homebuilders and included a summary of the next generation of homebuilding software.

If  you haven’t registered yet, please register now.  We have guest speakers and industry consultants joining us in sessions for the remainder of the week.  We also have some free training sessions to cover specific topics in each product and help you get the most out of your software investment.

Enjoy the sessions. Learn from the experts. Let us know what you think.

When your website is hooked up to your sales system in real-time, you can start to analyze data in powerful ways.  Without this real-time integration, you won’t know exactly when the lead came in… it would most likely show up as 50 leads every Monday morning, some of them may have expressed interest almost a week ago. (if they submitted their contact information right after you did the import)

Having said that, here is some aggregate analysis for lead distribution by Day of Week and Time of Day.  If you look at the charts and imagine how this fits in your prospective home buyer’s day, you should be able to decide when you want your sales staff available to answer questions by e-mail or phone and schedule appointments for your sales agents.

Lead Distribution – Day of Week

1. husband/wife procrastination factor “can you look up that house we saw last weekend?” it looks like it takes a couple of days for the husband/wife to get around to it.

Lead Distribution – Time of Day

1. Look for homes online around lunch time
2. During afternoon meetings, before leaving the office, they look for more homes
3. Driving home and eating dinner, so no looking for homes at this time
4. Look for more homes after dinner around 7pm.
5. From 8PM to 10PM, put the kids to bed
6. Kids are in bed, time to look for homes again.

Note: Although 8AM, doesn’t look like a prime time for leads, there is some opportunity on Monday mornings as you’ll see below.

Lead Distribution – Day of Week and Time of Day

1. Around noon on Sunday, they look for homes online
2. They might be driving around looking for homes in the neighbourhoods they like between 1 and 5pm on Sunday.
3. Around 6pm they look up the homes that they saw on their Sunday drive
4. At 8 AM on Monday, they get to work and look at more homes.
5. At 4 PM on Monday they look for more homes before leaving work
6. On Tuesday at lunch and towards the end of their workday, they look for more homes.
7. They look for more homes on Tuesday around 10 PM, then they forget about it until Friday as they prepare for their weekend.

We have a great virtual customer conference planned for May 10-14th.  This is our largest virtual customer conference ever with over 30 sessions, guest speakers, industry experts, Constellation staff and many opportunities for builders to learn from their peers.

We’ll cover many recent enhancements in our home building software solutions and offer product training sessions as well.  For a detailed agenda and registration information, please click on the link below.

Register Now

Constellation named for Trusted Products for BuildSoft Pro and Constellation CRM.

The full article can be found at the following location:

http://www.constructech.com/resources/press_release/press_release.aspx?release_id=110

This year’s IBS was the best year in the past four for Constellation HomeBuilder Systems and the thought was echoed by many builders in attendance. There is a realization that technology will play a much more important role in the builder’s future.

There was talk everywhere about leveraging social media in homebuilding. It is a strategy you should adopt NOW! See what I mean…

One thing I learned is the importance of “claiming your business” on Google. There is a way to enhance the listing of your business on Google including maps, pictures content and even reviews. It is part of the Local Business Center… Who Knew? Check out this link to learn about Claiming your Business.

The response to our new Groundbreaker website solution was phenomenal. If you know you need to update your website or think you may need to change see what Groundbreaker can do for you. Announced at the IBS show Groundbreaker had builder big and small talking and agreeing the unbelievable value it represents.

It was amazing to see the response to the newest product in the Constellation HomeBuilder Systems line of ERP solutions. HomeDev is a project management and job cost system developed for the small builder and remodeler. It uses Microsoft tools and works with QuickBooks. Many builders stated clearly “this is exactly what we have been waiting for”.

BuildSoft Pro was introduced at the IBS as well. Current BuildSoft users were stopped dead in their tracks when we showed them the new product and how it will help them better manage job costs and complete projects on time.

“Builder1440 Not Standing Still”

The full article can be found at the following location:

http://www.constructech.com/news/articles/article.aspx?article_id=8165

Markham, ON February 1, 2010 – Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, the largest provider of homebuilder accounting software, announces the release of BuildSoft Pro™ 32-Bit, specifically designed for home builders and remodelers to help manage their construction processes.

Since the acquisition of BuildSoft, Constellation has taken this opportunity to increase its investment in new technology and dedicated the necessary resources to re-engineer the product.  “We are continuing to invest in the product and maintain our long-term commitment to the home building industry”, says Dexter Salna, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems.  “The long-term stability of Constellation ensures that we will continue to enhance our products and bring new solutions forward to help builders compete in any type of market condition.”

The new BuildSoft Pro™ system has a more modern look and feel based on a solid footing with Microsoft Outlook functionality and opportunity for future enhancements.  The end result is a new product that encompasses all the best features trusted by thousands of BuildSoft users, plus many of our recent enhancements.  BuildSoft Pro™ is the next step up from standard spreadsheets, allowing homebuilders to manage everything from accounting to project management.  Specifically, homebuilders can use BuildSoft Pro’s™ residential construction and scheduling software as one integrated package for accounting, project management, estimating and job costing.  All four integrated components help builders improve efficiency.  For remodelers, BuildSoft Pro’s™ residential remodelling features offer the same benefits, to help complete projects on-time and on budget.

The community of 1,500 loyal BuildSoft customers, some of which have been using the software for 21 years, are excited that Constellation has made investments in new technology for BuildSoft.   With a new 32-bit platform, BuildSoft Pro™ will be the foundation to give builders security and stability in their software investments and will provide the comfort of knowing they will be supported now and in the years to come.

BuildSoft Pro™ was launched at the 2010 International Builders’ Show on January 19-22, 2010, and the response has been overwhelming with many BuildSoft customers signing up to take advantage of the low cost early adopter program.  Custom home builders, small volume production builders and remodelers stopped by the booth in large numbers to find out more about BuildSoft Pro™ and the long anticipated new release.

About Constellation HomeBuilder Systems

As the largest home building software company in the industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has helped more than 2,400 builders manage their information technology costs with integrated software solutions to run their business from dirt to warranty. From planning to homeowner services, we have land development software, new home sales and marketing software, production, purchasing, scheduling, accounting, warranty, electronic homeowner manuals, vendor portal solutions, and web site solutions designed exclusively for the home building industry.

Media Inquiries:
Cathy Kotsopoulos
ckotsopoulos@constellationhb.com
(888) 723-2222

“A Whole New Market”

Constellation Launches the HomeDev Production and Job Cost System for Home Builders and Remodelers at the 2010 International Builders’ Show.

The full article can be found at the following location:

http://www.constructech.com/news/articles/article.aspx?article_id=8161