Clark Builders Group Honored with 13th Consecutive Constructech Vision Award

SANTA CLARA, Ca.—On Friday, Constructech magazine honored Clark Builders Group (CBG) with a 2013 Gold Vision Award at its annual awards ceremony. The Constructech Vision Awards herald companies that have stayed up to date on the latest technological trends and products and apply the advantages of these innovative technologies to their everyday businesses.

By implementing Google Apps, CBG improved employees' ability to collaborate while reducing downtime, support, energy, and hardware costs and increasing protection from security threats, natural disasters, and accidents.

"This year's competition brought forth companies that have shown great devotion to pushing their companies forward using modern technology," says Peggy Smedley, editorial director of Constructech magazine. "That is exactly what is so great about the Vision Awards. It brings to light the companies that have implemented innovation and have obtained notable success in the industry."

CBG's transition from a server-based, client-provided email system to cloud-based Google Apps provides employees access to their email, calendar, documents, and sites from anywhere in the world on any device with internet access. Because all that is required to use and keep Google Apps up to date is an internet browser, CBG's IT department no longer has to download and deploy patches or worry about the security risks of delayed update. Instead, everything is managed through Google servers, which means CBG is reducing energy usage by 80 percent and its IT department saves on average 20 hours per week.

In addition, Google Apps allows the sharing and editing of many types of files, including documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, in real time. This means that all team members working on a project can access the latest version of the document and make edits simultaneously across separate offices.

"This type of software allows our employees to access their email and documents from anywhere, enabling them to stay connected to projects they're working on and the people they're working with, even when they aren't in the same location," said Justin Thomas, information technology analyst at CBG. "In particular, we're extremely honored to earn a Constructech award for a program that improves productivity, accessibility, security, and employees' ability to collaborate, all while reducing energy and personnel costs."

Constructech hosted the Vision Awards competition for the first time in 2000, and has since honored numerous innovative companies in the construction and technology industries. Each year winners must demonstrate not only how the newly adopted technology diminished a company challenge, but must also outline the specific benefits of the adopted technology.

This year marks CBG's 13th consecutive win, proving once again that CBG is a sophisticated competitor in its marketplace and is committed to leveraging the best of current technologies.

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