Category: Published Articles

This article was written by Michael Boren, CTO of Beck Technology, and published April 2018 on Construction Today.

Time and time again, companies start their relationships with new clients by lying, or at least that is how it can feel. Once that first meeting is over and a company is selected for the job, the real work starts and the wizard behind the curtain is revealed. Too often, project owners realize that all of that sexy tech talk and those amazing videos that won them over were a flashy diversion from reality.

Companies don’t do this to be malicious. They don’t intend to portray themselves as fake, or attempt to deceive a potential client. They need to win that job and are doing everything they can to get it. As far as they are concerned, they are simply putting their best foot forward in an effort to meet the expectations set by the project owner.

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This article was written by Michael Boren, CTO of Beck Technology, and published February 2018 on Construction Today.

Problem solving is one of my favorite activities. Recently, I’ve gotten into creating custom cabinetry as a weekend hobby. Sketching designs, calculating the amount of material needed, and making sure all the tools are nearby is a regular occurrence around my house. However, I’m a hobbyist at this art form. Often, I ask other people on how to best approach a specific nook or cranny detail.

When I first started out, my projects were pretty basic but as I learned from others and shared ideas about designs and tactics, my weekend hobby has turned out some great work. I’ve come to realize when people are really passionate about something they are willing to help others regardless of whose name is on the final product. Why do we collaborate on hobbies but not in our professions? Competition is fierce within the AEC industry, so it’s easy to make the people who work for your competitor into the bad guys. Maybe you think their approach isn’t as good as yours, or they’d steal your clients or trade secrets in a heartbeat. But if we spend our entire careers keeping ideas bottled up and kept for ourselves then who are we benefiting? We would both be missing out on a chance to make our industry better for each of us, both of our companies, and the communities we serve. Read more

This article was written by Michael Boren, CTO of Beck Technology, and published November 2017 on Construction Today.

In a lot of ways, business relationships are like your personal relationships. Whether you’re evaluating business partners, hiring new team members or trying to win work, both parties are looking for that special spark. When the chemistry is right, great things can happen. But without it, you eventually find that the passion and caring just aren’t there, and a breakup is inevitable.

It’s easy to overlook a potential business partner’s negative qualities when that person has something that you need, whether it’s a supply of steel beams, skilled labor or your next big project. But think about it: How many times have you had a bad feeling about someone, then later wish you’d listened to that quiet voice that was telling you something was off all along?

During the “getting to know you” phase of the relationship, these kinds of perceptions matter. You can’t control whether a potential business partner lives up to their own marketing hype, but you can control the way your own company and people are perceived. Although there’s no AEC matchmaking website to help you find honest, dependable people to work with, when you define your own core values and then truly live up to them, you’ll earn a reputation that will help good business partners find you.

Matchmaking Rule #1: Know Yourself

Your construction business’s success depends on finding and choosing to work with people who share your core values and are committed to helping you succeed. In dating and in business, fruitful relationships start with knowing who you really are and living authentically.

Some companies never take the time to define their core values, and that’s like going into the dating world with no idea of who you are and what you really want. People who don’t understand their own values end up in a lot of dead-end relationships, and tend to be taken advantage of along the way. Read more

This article ran in the August 15, 2017 edition of the Dallas Business Journal and is authored by Shawn Shinneman, DBJ staff writer.

When it comes to adopting the latest technologies, construction companies haven’t exactly been ahead of the curve.

But persistence has paid off for Dallas-based Beck Technology, a spin-off of the long-running construction and architecture company The Beck Group. Current Chief Technology Officer Michael Boren has seen the company through its various stages – from a secret Beck division built to give the company a competitive advantage to its own company, with a suite of construction software products and boasting 100-percent growth over the last three years. Beck Technology started selling products commercially in 2006.

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