Every Friday, we select a few articles from the week that we think are worth your time as a construction financial manager (CFM). We look for compelling articles not only about financial topics, but about business, technology, and life, that challenges you to think about your role as a CFM in different ways. We’d love to hear from you about how we’re doing, and to have you join our community by subscribing to receive this weekly post by email. Follow #CFMReview.
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Caterpillar Jumps In Front With Data Analytics Investment
“We want to empower our customers with the insight necessary to shift from a reactive ‘repair after failure’ mode to a proactive ‘repair before failure’ stance.” That was Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman at a press conference last week. But it may as well have been me, Scott Wolfe, CEO of zlien.
One of our chief goals at zlien is to help construction industry participants battle payment issues from the beginning of a project–to prevent payment issues in order to avoid entering recovery mode. Our customers achieve this in a number of ways, among them being detailed analytics. Users can test and analyze a number of tactics to see which lead to the best collections results: the contract dollar amount at which to begin sending notices, when to send preliminary notices, whom to send notices of intent to, etc.
Caterpillar announced at the press conference that they would be investing in a Chicago-based data analytics company Uptake. Michal Lev-Ram writes at Fortune that “Caterpillar and Uptake will co-develop ‘predictive diagnostics’ tools.”
Cat’s investment clarifies a growing trend. As Tudor Van Hampton at ENR.com put it, “A new digital age is on the horizon that will allow equipment users to get out in front of their projects and more accurately forecast costs, failures and operational inefficiencies before problems occur.”
Read more at Fortune and ENR.com
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Do I have to Sign a Lien Waiver to Get Paid?
This one comes from zlien’s Chief Legal Officer Nate Budde on zlien’s Construction Payment Blog. It’s a question we get a lot at zlien, and Nate breaks it down into two parts:
1. Regardless of legality, you should never sign an unconditional lien waiver prior to receiving payment. First, because your ability to recover money becomes significantly more difficult after you sign the waiver. Second, because the fact that you’re being asked to do so is a signal that your customer is in financial distress, doesn’t understand lien waivers, or is attempting to bully you.
2. Many (but not all) states prohibit waiving lien rights before payment is made. Nonetheless, it is always advisable to sign a conditional waiver before receiving payment.
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