CMiC at a Glance

Welcome

Hello, and welcome. This is Super Structures General Contractors — a national general contractor headquartered in Powhatan, Virginia — here to help you and your clients build something that lasts. We're glad you're with us, and we look forward to connecting with you.

Here's one that matters more than its name lets on — CMiC at a Glance. If you remember one thing, make it this: CMiC is a single-database enterprise system for large general contractors, covering financials, project controls, human capital and payroll, and field operations in one platform, and its scale and implementation effort match the size of the firms that run it. Do this right and you'll know what the top of the market looks like and whether it belongs in your conversation at all.

A regional GC crossed $500 million in annual volume with Sage for accounting, Procore for the field, a separate HR system, and an integration team keeping them aligned. The leadership team concluded that the reconciliation work between systems had become a department. They moved to CMiC so that the project controls the PMs used and the financials the CFO reported from were the same records. The implementation took well over a year and was the largest internal project the company had run. They would do it again, and they would not have done it at $100 million.

A note before we start: this is a high-level overview, not the training you will need to run the product. Super Structures is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or paid by any company named in this course, we do not sell or support these products, and nothing here is legal, financial, or purchasing advice. This is for learning and education only. Features, editions, and pricing change often. Each lesson lists the vendor's own website, which is where to go for current details, demos, and training.

What it is

CMiC is a construction-specific enterprise resource planning platform built on a single database, so project, financial, and people data are one set of records rather than integrated copies. Major areas:

• Financials: general ledger, job costing, accounts payable and receivable, billing, forecasting, multi-company and multi-currency, and fixed assets.
• Project controls: budgets, commitments, change management, subcontract management, cost forecasting, and job status reporting across a portfolio.
• Human capital management: HR, payroll, benefits, and resource planning.
• Field: CMiC Field for RFIs, submittals, drawings, daily logs, punch lists, and site collaboration.
• Analytics and reporting across all of it, with role-based dashboards for executives, PMs, and accounting. Delivered as cloud or on-premise, with mobile apps.

Who it fits

Large general contractors and construction managers, including many on industry top-lists, and large specialty contractors with complex financial structures, multiple entities, and hundreds of users. It is not a fit for small or most mid-size contractors; the implementation effort and cost assume an enterprise with a dedicated systems team.

What it does well, and where it is thin

Strong: one database across finance, projects, and people; enterprise financial controls and audit trails; forecasting and project controls built for large portfolios; depth for multi-entity organizations; and a long track record with the largest contractors. Thin: implementations are long and demanding; the user experience is enterprise-grade rather than consumer-simple; the field tools compete with platforms subs already use; and many firms still run a separate field platform alongside it because their subs and owners are there.

How it is sold

Enterprise licensing, typically by modules and scale, with significant implementation and training services. Budget for the people and the time, not just the license, and expect the internal project team to be a real cost for a year or more.

How it connects

Because it aims to be the system, integrations are fewer by design, but it does connect to field platforms, scheduling tools, document systems, estimating, and HR and benefits providers through APIs and connectors. Many CMiC customers integrate with Procore or Autodesk Build for subcontractor and owner collaboration while keeping CMiC as the system of record for cost and commitments.

What it takes to run it

An enterprise-level implementation team, executive sponsorship, a dedicated system administrator group, standardized processes across the company before configuration starts, and a change-management program for every PM and accountant. Companies that treat it as an IT project rather than an operations project struggle.

Where to learn more

For current details, go straight to the source: cmicglobal.com. CMiC's site covers its financials, project controls, field, and human capital products and its implementation approach. Super Structures has no affiliation with CMiC and receives nothing from them; this lesson is for education only.

Going Deeper (Intermediate)

The single-database promise only pays off if the company standardizes its processes first. CMiC configures to how a firm works, and a firm with five regional ways of handling change orders will get five configurations and none of the benefit. The implementation is as much an operations project as a software project. Expect to document and align commitment approval, change order workflow, forecasting cadence, and cost code structure before the system is built.

Understand what single database actually buys you: the PM's forecast, the controller's WIP, and the CFO's statements are literally the same records, so there is nothing to reconcile and no timing difference between them. That is the whole case for the effort. If your company's pain is not reconciliation between systems, the case is weaker.

Advanced / Pro-Level

Pros use CMiC's forecasting so every PM's monthly projected cost at completion rolls directly into the company's WIP and the CFO's reporting, with no spreadsheets between them. They run resource planning across the portfolio so staffing decisions are made on data. They build role-based dashboards so an executive sees portfolio health, a PM sees job health, and accounting sees exceptions, all from the same data. And they keep the field collaboration where the subs are, integrating rather than forcing hundreds of small subs onto an enterprise system.

Practice Challenge

A $150 million GC's CFO proposes CMiC because the reconciliation between accounting and the PM platform takes two people. What should the leadership team examine before agreeing, and what is the alternative they should price? (Answer: whether the real problem is the integration setup and cost code mismatch rather than the systems themselves; the full cost including an 18-month implementation and the people to run it; whether the company's processes are standardized enough to configure; and whether a mid-market ERP with a strong PM integration, or simply fixing the existing integration with matched cost codes and a named owner, would solve the reconciliation at a fraction of the effort.)

In Practice

The $500 million GC that standardized processes first got one set of records. The one that configured regional habits got an expensive copy of its old problems.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Considering it at a size where the implementation would consume the company
• Configuring before processes are standardized
• Treating it as an IT project instead of an operations project
• Underestimating the people cost of implementation and administration
• Forcing subs and owners onto it instead of integrating with where they already work

Takeaway: CMiC is a single-database enterprise system for large general contractors, covering financials, project controls, human capital and payroll, and field operations in one platform, and its scale and implementation effort match the size of the firms that run it.

Educational content, for learning only. This is a vendor-neutral, high-level overview, not product training, support, or a recommendation. Super Structures General Contractors and Super Structures Learning are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or compensated by any company or product named here, and we receive no money from them. Product names are trademarks of their owners. Features, editions, integrations, and pricing change; verify current details on the vendor's own website before you buy.