The construction and real estate (CRE) industry has always been a high-stakes game of managing razor-thin margins, complex projects, and unforeseen changes. But what if technology could do more than manage chaos? Following a series of major announcements at Sage Future in Atlanta from June 3-5, we sat down with Julie Adams, Sage’s SVP of construction and real estate, to understand how the company is moving beyond core accounting to build a new digital foundation for CRE professionals.
A Unified Platform
The core of Sage’s strategy, Adams explained, is about creating a unified platform. “It is around fulfilling the vision of that end-to-end suite for construction,” she said. The goal is to bring finance, payroll, pre-construction, and operations under one digital roof. “Our customers have that end-to-end footprint that they can get from Sage to simplify their IT infrastructure and backbone,” Adams noted, emphasizing that their open platform still allows firms to integrate specialized partner solutions, getting the best of both worlds.
For anyone who has seen profits dwindle due to on-site changes that don’t make it back to the finance department, Sage’s focus on connecting the field to the back office is also a game-changer. Adams pointed to change management as a prime example of where money is often lost.
Managing Change
“There are many things that happen right now where change management is a real source of revenue leakage,” she explained. “By providing technology that helps you connect what’s happening in the field with what finance is up to speed and understands; that’s the difference between a profitable project and one that isn’t.”
This real-time link ensures that every change order is captured, documented, and billed, directly impacting the bottom line.
Looking ahead, Sage is betting big on Artificial Intelligence, but in a way that enhances, rather than replaces, human expertise. Adams highlighted new AI-powered tools for Work-in-Process (WIP) management that provide predictive insights but still allow for human oversight. “That combination of system assistance and predictive capability together with human judgment is a potent tool,” she asserted.
Sage’s AI-powered bid management solution vividly illustrates this synergy. It can analyze historical data to recommend subcontractors and even predict their bids. Adams shared a powerful anecdote about a tool that could have saved a customer from selecting a low bid simply because the contractor forgot to include the drywall for an entire floor. “It’s not just about finding the lowest price; it’s about reducing risk,” she said.
Finally, from simplifying IT infrastructure to plugging revenue leaks and leveraging AI to win the right projects, Sage is building a comprehensive ecosystem to empower construction and real estate firms to build a more resilient and profitable future.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
The ground is shifting for ERP strategy in the CRE vertical. For professionals in this space, this means that the system manages financials and builds a connected, intelligent, and specialized digital ecosystem.
- AI’s value is in the concrete use case. Artificial intelligence is finally moving from a buzzword to a practical tool on the job site. The takeaway for ERP professionals is to focus on how AI solves tangible, industry-specific problems that directly impact risk and efficiency. Adams provided powerful examples beyond generic AI: Imagine an AI that analyzes a subcontractor’s bid, flags that it’s 30% lower than predicted, and prompts you to investigate, potentially uncovering a critical error like missing materials for an entire floor. Or an AI that makes a 200-page set of drawings instantly searchable on a mobile device in the field, ensuring crews are always working from the latest version. This is where AI becomes transformative—not just in the back office, but as an intelligent assistant that de-risks bidding, prevents costly rework, and enhances the “combination of system assistance and predictive capability together with human judgment,” as Adams noted.
- The real ROI is in connecting the field to finance in CRE. The most significant trend is the move away from siloed financial systems toward a fully integrated, end-to-end suite. For ERP professionals, the key use case to champion is the direct, real-time connection between on-site operations and back-office accounting. As Adams pointed out: “change management is a real source of revenue leakage.” When a project manager approves a change order in the field, the information must instantly flow into the financial system to adjust budgets, forecasts, and billing. An ERP that bridges this gap integrating everything from pre-construction and payroll to project operations, transforms from a simple accounting tool into a profit-protection engine. The new benchmark for a construction ERP is its ability to provide this seamless, single source of truth across the entire project lifecycle.
- Embrace the partner ecosystem. The construction industry is incredibly diverse, with vastly different needs for a general contractor, a civil engineering firm, or a specialty trade contractor. Adams emphasized, “There is no one solution provider that can do all of it and do all of it well.” This signals a critical market trend: hyper-specialization. For ERP professionals, the winning strategy is no longer to search for a single monolithic platform but to adopt a Core + Ecosystem approach. This involves selecting a firm, open-platform financial core like Sage Intacct and integrating it with best-in-class partner solutions tailored to specific needs. The future of ERP in construction lies in its ability to act as a central hub in a flexible, interconnected ecosystem.
