Constellation FAST

Constellation FAST is designed for home builders with 300-10,000 homes built per year.

For homebuilders with hundreds to thousands of annual home starts you need up-to-date information of your company FAST. Using Constellation FAST you have instant access to irregularities in all segments of your operation from accounting to scheduling.

Constellation FAST’s management by exception design means you’ll be able to improve efficiencies in all aspects of your business. When preset parameters are exceeded you are notified so you can direct your attention to specific areas to take corrective action.

In addition, an online homeowner portal helps you increase sales and margins per home and improve customer satisfaction to help grow your business.

FAST Checks

Simplify the payment process with secure, cost-effective payment processing provided by FASTChecks, a Microsoft Windows-based laser check software that makes its easy to control check printing while also streamlining payment processing. You also have the option of purchasing: additional signature activation security with signature cards and a magnetic card reader; automated electronic Check Reconciliation, as well as Positive Pay file protection, a reference file used by your bank to ensure that only authorized checks are cashed.

Additional Features Include:

• Built-in style editor
• Check type definition setup
• MICR line definition configuration
• Encrypted signatures
• Spooler encryption technology
• Fraud-deterrent security fonts for account profiles
• Operator designated accounts
• Import multiple batch/check files
• Import account code up to 25 characters
• Complete listing of checks from batches
• Import and preview multiple check batches
• Zoom feature for better visibility
• Define signatures and account groups
• Multi-level signature limit options
• Bind signatures and groups to accounts
• Define up to 5 printer sets
• Bind users to bank accounts
• Re-print check copies with or without checks

FAST Insight

FAST Insight, a web-based analysis tool, allows you to monitor and contrast, in real time, how your build program is performing relative to your organization’s benchmarks.

Most important, you can assess individual and business partner performance, using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and a series of industry-first performance indexes that allow you to pull, at a moment’s notice, the most critical reports and make swift corrections immediately.

Put simply, with FASTInsight, you know what is costing you time and money – and what is saving you time and money.

Additional Features Include:

• Review current sales and revenues metrics
• View productivity and financial status in a single snapshot view
• Analyze historical job costs and financial summary information
• Review vendor performance and comparisons reports
• Track and analyze variance details
• Surf the General Ledger
• Render reports seamlessly into Microsoft^® Excel or Adobe® Acrobat® and other formats
• Review colorful metrics and analysis charts of your business data
• Use KPIs to:
  • Drill through the general ledger and move laterally through your GL transaction histories
  • Analyze financial summary information and variance details in real time, and variance details at a moment’s notice
  • Generate performance index reports that isolate productivity issues

Data Palette

Working with a powerful, integrated FAST dashboard, executives and manager can generate, at any time, a snapshot of productivity and financial status.

An advanced data palette provides powerful, wide-ranging data parameters for online reporting.

Rich Data Portability & Report Distribution

All reports within FAST Insight seamlessly render in many formats, including Microsoft® Excel or Adobe® Acrobat. Microsoft® SQL Reporting Services provides time and email distribution options to deliver key business data to decision makers when they need it most.

After logging on to FAST Insight, executives and management can easily spot a red flag and drill instantly into job detail reports to isolate the issue and resolve it. This time capsule approach to business intelligence ensures that management-by-exception, the key philosophy behind the FAST Builder Management System, is working at all levels within your organization.

Advanced Technology Bed

FAST Insight infrastructure is written in ASP.NET 1.1 (the latest version) using C#. Data is portrayed utilizing Microsoft SQL Reporting Services and SQL 2000 Analysis Services Cubes.

FAST Job Costing

FAST Job Costing provides you with comprehensive real-time reporting fully integrated with accounting, estimating, scheduling, purchasing, sales and warranty. This complete integration saves you both time and money by eliminating duplicate entry and inefficient manual entries.

• Real Time reporting means no longer waiting for accounting postings or closings to see vital information.
• Real Time reporting means you can now find and track variances and performance of your trade and field personnel.
• Real Time reporting allows you to maintain your profit margins by quickly identifying and correcting vendor performance issues.
• Real Time reporting means you understand who and what is costing you time and money today… not after the job closes!

Maintain and improve your profit margin with FAST Job Costing by making corrective actions now when corrective measures can still be taken to prevent margin erosion.

FAST Product Management

Eliminate or reduce the amount of re-input required for house design and option information with FAST Product Management.

Store bht bill of materials, plan or global options and sechedule information when you design a house. Building materials can be itemized per plan, or assembly method as well as option-by-option. Data can be reused in the form of on pre-set template to standardize all plans takeoffs.

• Reuse construction data job after job with no data intervention for sales options other than buyers custom requests.
• Buyers and builders can customize each house plan for local or regional market needs.
• Unique data storage concepts provide an unparalleled ability to capture option scheduling

FAST Production and Project Management

FAST Production and Project Management helps improve and maintain profit margins by improving management of vendor costs. What if analysis ensures your product mix is optimized for your companies margin goals.

Cost conscious home builders like you find the FAS production system provides you with proof budgets for house plans, plan options, market standard and buyer options prior to construction. This allows you to verify itemized takeoffs or lump sum bids to insure the best vendor costs.

With FAST production you setup retail price books globally, regionally or subdivision-by-subdivision based on your business needs. Then reuse the database records without having to manipulate or alter data on a job-by-job basis. This means easy comparison of different vendor costs.

Home builders now have the flexibility to manage information based on your businesses internal practices. No need to change your business model to fit the software.

FAST Scheduling and PocketFAST

FAST Scheduling helps you formulate a best practices approach to building production homes based on customer choices, regional or municipal requirements and needs-specific to individual house plan types.

FAST Scheduling uses pre-designed templates to improve efficiencies in your scheduling process.

PocketFAST

Reduce cycle times and costs with PocketFAST, a handheld mobile system that allows superintendents to effect schedule changes, confirmations, vendor reassignments, and purchase order approvals or cancellations.

• Eliminates hours of telephone calls with Trade Partners and back office
• Automate field payment approval for purchase orders and variance purchase orders
• Makes it quick and easy to maintain schedules with current data in the palm of your hand
• Requires fewer back-office processing responsibilities
• Synchronize data any time throughout the day in one swift step
• View job schedule, purchase order, variance purchase order, vendor contact, and customer option and selection information on the handheld computer
• Reschedule activity start and complete dates and reassign vendors
• Enter payment approvals

FASTBuild Program

Production

All the tools required, in one database, to efficiently create and maintain purchase-order-driven build and development programs that not only account for what has been done, but also provide the tools and insight required to improve how work is done.

• Generates precise purchase orders with base and options budgets for jobs
• Calculates job schedules
• Creates POs automatically from estimates
• Controls costs with variance purchase orders
• Allows customized estimating

Accounting

Intelligently synchronizes your entire organization, cultivates financial strength and broadens operational insight, while improving the entire build program from Land to Customer Service.

• Accounting fully integrated with financial statement writer
• Allows generation of accounts payable checks and payroll checks
• Manage bank loans and draws
• Custom financial statements at company, division, community or project level
• Helps control accounts payable processing

Warranty

Track requests for product repair and service work orders, set up appointments for repairs or maintenance, and analyze warranty expenses.

• Service order management
• Historical tracking of product defects
• Customer notifications history
• Cost analysis
• Vendor delinquency reporting

FASTeMessaging

Emailing and sending electronic facsimile reports can be as easy as sending reports to printers. All you need is FASTeMessaging, a high-powered network fax management and partner messaging solution.

Implement a digital fax message center, an efficient alternative for managing inbound fax routing, consolidating multiple fax documents, archiving fax transmissions. Route faxes directly to a recipient’s Inbox, saving time as well as printer and paper resources, and allowing permanent electronic storage.

Additional Features Include:

• Fax documents to any location from within any Microsoft® Office application, using the same print driver and rendering software as your network printer, and ensuring that your fax retains pagination and formatting
• Monitor fax status, view sent and received faxes, or preview a fax prior to sending using an online web-based management tool.
• Enjoy flexibility and scalability with multiple configuration options
• Send faxes directly from the desktop
• Customize fax cover pages
• Increase efficiency with centralized fax routing
• Store fax output as individual RTF (rich text format) files on your fax server
• Minimize cost by using least-cost routing options for your enterprise
• Retain continuous operation through fail-over to ensure disaster recovery
• Obtain scalability to expand as your business and volume grow

FASTLand

FASTLand provides the distinct benchmark functionality builders need to easily reconcile, on one integrated platform, land development, production development, and custom development environments.

Additional Features Include:

• Establish initial and modified budgets, and lock budgets
• Project management for land development, land acquisition and light commercial, condominiums, town homes, and apartment projects
• Billing control to identify invoice payment amounts
• Cost analysis reporting at multiple levels
• Build and Land program integrated to one General Ledger

FASTSales

Empower your sales force and maximize your profitability with FASTSales, a state-of-the-art customer resource management (CRM) tool designed to manage marketing and sales processes 24/7 via any Internet connection.

FASTSales allows sales agents to track sales and closing costs; view and select available lots, plans and options; manage customer follow-up; and print contracts, addendums, letters, and sales agreements.

Additional Features Include:

• Track user-defined prospect demographics
• Select lots, plans and options online
• Enter custom option requests
• Manage prospect/contact follow-up with date/time-stamped notes and automate groups with tickler files for multiple users
• Implement follow-up processes with To-Do lists to maximize customer communication
• Automate workflow with pre-defined task lists and communications triggers
• Establish customized follow-up task lists
• Print custom contracts, addendums, letters, and reports built in Microsoft® Word
• Perform mail or email merges with electronic file attachments
• Link custom reports, including Business Objects® Crystal Reports or Microsoft® Word documents into FASTSales for all users
• Administer sales and closing processes
• Create contract document packages, based on mortgage, loan, and subdivision requirements
• Create a custom task list schedule to monitor lot stages of construction