The Builder1440 Blog

Constellation Software Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary Constellation HomeBuilder Systems, is proud to announce the acquisition of Builder1440, a leading software company focused on the residential homebuilding industry. This acquisition includes Sales1440, a trusted and proven web-based sales solution for hundreds of home builders, as well as the consulting and staffing solutions of G.1440.

“We know this industry, and after evaluating several firms, it was clear that Builder1440 was more than a simple sales system,” says Dexter Salna, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems. “Builder1440’s software suite is a great choice for homebuilders that can’t afford to risk putting their business in the hands of old technology, limited solutions, or small family businesses that might not be around to support them tomorrow.”

Builder1440 will continue to operate and grow out of its Baltimore offices, under the same management team and will continue to promote and enhance its existing product line. Constellation welcomes all Builder1440 customers and will provide world-class solutions and services as a long term technology partner in the homebuilding industry.

“Constellation recognizes Builder1440’s commitment to our clients,” says Matt McShane, Vice President of Builder1440. “Throughout the downturn, we’ve been aggressively expanding our solutions with one goal in mind: to help builders sell more homes. Constellation shares that goal, and we’re excited to be a part of the Constellation family.”

Larry Fiorino, Builder1440 CEO and Founder added that Builder1440 is planning to announce several key initiatives and new offerings at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, NV this January. “I can’t get into it yet, but we’re rolling out solutions that will completely change how builders sell homes,” said Fiorino.

With many of North America’s top 10 builders as clients, Builder1440’s cloud-based platform supports customers ranging from large national builders to smaller, regional builders, and everyone in between.

In addition to Builder1440, Constellation has acquired parent company G.1440, including Consulting Solutions and IT Staffing Services divisions that deliver End-to-End IT solutions. Specializing in custom software, web design, web marketing, and tech staffing, G.1440 will continue to be a leader in IT in the Baltimore/Washington region. G.1440 was founded in 1998 and was previously a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Builder1440 Marketing Director, Tim Kassouf explores how popular social media websites and tools like Facebook & Twitter can be used to help sell new homes.

This webinar looks at using social networking sites to connect with buyers and prospects as part of the sales and follow-up process, and also highlights some exciting concepts and case studies for marketing a builder or community through social media.

Stay up to date on all of Builder1440’s events & webinars at:
http://www.builder1440.com/builder1440/Content.do?pageID=12

During the fourth annual Technology Day conference in Chicago, Builder1440 was recognized by Constructech Magazine with a 2009 Vision award. The award was given specifically for the work that Builder1440 has done with Provident Homes, a client from the Pennsylvania area, and was the highest recognition in the category.

The annual Vision Awards serve to acknowledge companies providing and implementing industry-leading technology services that support the efforts of home builders. With the superior tools that Sales1440 & My1440Home provide to builders, it is no surprise that Builder1440 has gained recognition for its commitment to innovation.

Vice President Matt McShane said it best, “Our number one job is to help builders sell more homes and make more money – and we build innovative technology that makes this possible. We’re honored by the award, but it really is all about our builders.”

Builder1440’s client, Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. has been ranked in the InformationWeek 500 list!

The list ranks the nation’s business technology leaders, and Hovnanian was listed number 205 - the only home builder to break the top 250!  According to Chris Murphy of Information Week, the thread that runs through this years’ honored list is “relentless innovation.”

You can see where Hovnanian Enterprises on the list, but if you have time, you should also take a few minutes to read the full article on InformationWeek.

As the #1 Business Technology Home Builder, Hovnanian uses Builder1440’s Sales1440 CRM & Sales Automation software, as well as My1440Home - the award winning home buying portal created by Builder1440.

We’re proud to have them as a client, and thrilled to see their success, innovation, and dedication recognized!  Congratulations!

Builder1440 Improves Performance of Home Builder Sales Software by 90%

For Immediate Release

Baltimore, MD - Builder1440 is announcing significant performance improvements to Sales1440, the nation’s leading Sales & CRM software for the home building industry.

Since implementing improvements, Sales1440 is moving 25% more data every day, loading pages in half the time, and running long queries 40 - 80% faster.  Most notably, database performance has improved by 90%.

Builder1440 also used the advanced web security tools of sister division G.1440 to ensure that Sales1440 is free of vulnerabilities to web hacking threats like SQL Injection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS).  Web threats like these could threaten the security of user data, affect the application’s performance, or even infect its users’ computers, and in the face of these dangers, Builder1440 remains committed to web security.

According to Sean Wilhelm, Director of Application Development, “Throughout the remainder of 2009 we have planned initiatives that will deliver greater performance and scalability for our customers.” According to Wilhelm, these initiatives include usability enhancements and load balancing for additional performance improvements.

These performance improvements have far reaching implications throughout the home building industry, as hundreds of builders across the United States and Canada use Sales1440 to manage customer relationships and automate sales follow-up functions.

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About Builder1440
Builder1440, LLC is the leading provider of sales and marketing solutions for home builders. Skilled with a deep vertical knowledge of the home building industry and extensive technical expertise, our team designs and develops Internet-based software solutions that are currently in use by hundreds of builders across North America. Builder1440’s software and IT services increase profits and decrease costs throughout all stages of the home buyer life cycle.

Tricia O’Brien, Builder1440’s Director of Client Services demonstrates the enhancements to the latest version of Sales1440, the home building industry’s leading CRM & Sales Software.

Tim Kassouf, Director of Marketing shows how Advanced Email Marketing services can empower your new home sales, and how Sales1440’s campaigns (coupled with experience in email marketing) can work with third party email marketing software like Blue Sky Factory or Constant Contact.

Sales1440 v6.7 ® has been rolled out to the SaaS (Software as a Service) Production Environment as of 7am, Tuesday July 7, 2009.

Upon release, for those clients that are self-hosted, please contact the Builder1440 Support Center to schedule the update to your environment. Our support center can be reached by calling 866.462.1440 or by logging on http://supportcenter.builder1440.com.

This release contains many technical upgrades usability enhancements requested by the users of Sales1440.  The highlights of Sales1440 v6.7 are listed below.

Please click the links to jump to additional information on each feature.

• Sales Maintenance Phase II
• Usability Features in Customer Tab
• Customer Contact List

We hope that you find these changes improve the usability of Sales1440 and we look forward to hearing your feedback.    If after reviewing the documentation you would like additional training, feel free to call our support center to schedule any training you or your organization may need.

Our support center can be reached by calling 866.462.1440 or by logging onto http://supportcenter.builder1440.com. Your login is your email address, and the password is 1440, if you haven’t already changed it through the support center.

The most up-to-date manuals can be retrieved from the Support Center under the Downloads section later this week.

Best Regards,

The Builder1440 Team

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Sales Maintenance Phase II

Phase II has been released and it includes:

• The ability to create your own view and to filter the views
• Adjustments and Incentives can now be modified, as they were read only prior
• Additional Export triggers

If you’re not sure how Sales Maintenance can help your team, please feel free to contact us at the support center for clarification and pricing.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Usability Features in Customer Tab

• In the customer nameplate there  is now a link to add a to do item directly for the selected customer.  This is extremely helpful to the sales people who need to add a quick call or appointment reminder that is not tied to a set follow up program.



• When searching for a customer, you can now use their First Name and Ranking as criteria to find
  them.
• After a list of customers has been retrieved, often times you want to get back to that specific list.  Now you can in version 6.7 as there is now a Back to Results button in the customer tab.  By clicking on this button, it will return you to that previously searched for list of customers.
• When looking at the list of retrieved customers, the ability to sort this list has been enhanced.  Community has been added as well as being able to sort this list by customer rank, first visit date, and last visit date.  To do this, just click on the column heading that you want to sort by.
• On the Information Card, to edit the information the button used to say Complete which was inconsistent.  That has been changed to Modify to be like all other pages in Sales1440.
• One piece of feedback that we’ve heard throughout the years is when you’re on a long page that you have to scroll down to click save, it was an inconvenience.  We listened and placed a save and cancel button on those pages so no matter where you are you can see a save and cancel button and no longer have to scroll.  Here is an example:


Click on the image for a larger version.

Customer Contact List

By popular demand, we have added the ability to export the customer ranking and traffic source via the Customer Contact list under the Campaigns.  To review, here is everything that you can gather out of Sales1440 for any external marketing/tracking that you want to do:

Click on the image for a larger version.

Green Builders, one of the nation’s leading builders and developers of green homes and communities switched from a competitor’s software to Sales1440 and its accompanying function-rich suite of products.

Builder1440, the renowned provider of CRM and sales software for the home building industry, is first to set a precedent for green software solutions available to home builders.

“After assessing and using other home building CRM applications, we found Sales1440’s sales process to be the easiest and most efficient,” says Sae Cho, Green Builders’ Systems and Purchasing Administrator. “Sales1440 has the upper-hand with document set-up because of the ability to tag information, quickly assign contract documents to communities and complete merges.”

In addition to saving resources, Builder1440’s software helps home builders keep costs down, especially during this slowed economy. Home builders can develop an entire sales contract and process change orders without printing a piece of paper, capture eleads from the Internet, and electronically enter in-person or telephone leads without using additional resources.

To read the complete press release or find out more about Builder1440’s technology solutions, visit http://www.builder1440.com.

Builder1440, the leading provider of CRM and sales software for the home building industry, has helped hundred of builders across the United States and Canada streamline their operations.

Developed to meet the needs of large production home builders, Sales1440 features unparrelled functionality and usability that is crucial to a builder’s success in today’s competitive market.

As a result, one quarter of the Top 25 home builders in the United States have implemented and currently use Sales1440.

In addition to software for production builders, Builder1440 recently released Sales1440 Stanard Edition for small and custom builders.  For more information on either product, visit www.Builder1440.com.

Posted from the October 2008 Issue of Constructeh

THE SMALL AND CUSTOM BUILDER
CRM (customer-relationship management) can become an essential part of the growth plan for small and custom homebuilding companies.

Builder1440, www.builder1440.com, Baltimore, MD., recently announced the availablibity of Sales1440-Standard Edition for small and custom builders. With this application, builders can manage contact functionality, perform marketing campaigns, and create follow-up reports. These are all options available to larger builders through Builder1440’s Sales1440-Enterprise Edition.

Among the other resources available to small builders are the ability to develop unique plans for consistent communication with clients and the ability to capture Web leads.

With this program, builders can also import CAP (closing action plan) template designs by Bob Schultz, the New Home Specialists. Builder1440 and Bob Schultz created the CAP Follow-Through System for Sales1440. With the feature, everyone involved in the sale can use templates, or scripts, for follow-through and appointment setting.

For more information contact Builder1440 at info@builder1440.com or visit www.Builder1440.com to see the article.