Causeway Technologies has recently undertaken a full review of its software products and services. Is the resulting restructuring for their own good, the good of their customers or both?
 
Causeway Technologies is a leading supplier of collaborative, commercial and supply chain solutions to the global construction industry. Their solutions encompass enterprise and desktop applications, supported by e-trading and data services. They are listed on the NQBS:OTC market in the USA and have offices in both the UK and USA.

What prompts a company like Causeway to initiate a restructuring of its products and services? Same as any other company really. Firstly, their own rapid growth has meant more people and more products to manage. Secondly, the marketplace they serve is also changing, all be it slowly.

In my recent experience, many a company restructure has ultimately been driven by internal growth, merger or acquisition creating a need to clarify internal reporting structures and more importantly protect individual management fiefdoms and fragile egos. It is both refreshing and fortunate therefore that Causeway can clearly link their own restructure to an evolving marketplace and a need to better reflect the functionality of their products and services to their end users.

Lets look at that changing marketplace. Causeway knows that the construction industry is moving away from the more traditional adversarial forms of contract and is recognising a radical overhaul in the methods of procuring construction services. A more open and collaborative business process is emerging that means accessing information which traditionally has not been readily available, which in turn has created a need for improved methods of management, communication, performance measuring and audit.

No wonder Causeway's own by-line is "software for a hard business." They are after all meeting the needs of enterprises, projects and trading partnerships with products that support collaboration, document and knowledge management, estimating and tendering, purchase management, project and financial accounting and maintenance management - all in an industry that it has to be said is still relatively uncomfortable with a belief, let alone a reliance, on technology to help increase efficiency and profits throughout the construction process.

But it is the closer alignment of Causeway's products and solutions with customer needs and influence groups within that entire construction process that is the key to this restructure.

They now operate within three key business functions: Collaboration, Commercial and Supply Chain. Within each of these functions is a structured management of products that support one or more of the four key stages of a construction project life-cycle, from inception feasibility, through design and specification, then on to construction and finally, operations maintenance (see above diagram.)

Whilst sales and product management are highly focused within these three 'vertical' units, other functions such as software development and professional/ customer services are allowed to work 'horizontally' across the units, with greater scope and economy of scale presumably leading to better quality development, support and meeting of client expectations.

The clever bit comes when there is a mixture of the two structures. Clearly defined products from the three vertical units can be combined to build total horizontal sector solutions. For example, Causeway Highways Maintenance Management solution combines selected Causeway Financials modules (purchase management, project accounting and maintenance management) from the Commercial team, Tradex, the trading document exchange service, from the Supply Chain team and project collaboration from the Collaboration team. That's meeting customer needs.

And then there's Causeway's Marketing. As a simple journalist, I figure if I can appreciate Causeway's new structure, then anyone can, including all those existing and potential customers who might just have been somewhat muddled pre-restructure. But Marketing will have to make sure of it.

Causeway's marketing function will also work horizontally, spanning the three business units so messages will be more sympathetic to individual product positioning and differentiation, as well as tying them in to a consistent corporate identity. And here again we can point to changes in the marketplace and not just within Causeway that have made this not just an exercise in company restructuring but also in rebranding.

In a world of rapid change and increasing new media forms, the importance of building a name or Brand into a coherent interlocking whole is even more important. The best definition of a Brand I have come across was by Paul Feldwick: 'a Brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer.' What is really amusing is that this indefinable, immeasurable collection of perceptions is worth millions, maybe even billions.

Causeway serves in excess of 6,400 construction customers including clients, consultants, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and manufacturers ranging from small family run businesses to multi billion international operations. Creating a clear brand architecture to help structure a brand's position both now and for the future should help management in the task of building that brand and ensuring that everyone within the organisation is working to a common and understood goal.

This to me is what Causeway has decided to do.