Computer Guidance Accelerates ERP Delivery with IBM PowerVS

Computer Guidance Corporation (CGC) is a US-based provider of eCMS, a fully integrated ERP platform for the construction industry that supports hundreds of commercial contractors across North America. As demand for its construction accounting, job costing, payroll, and project management capabilities increased, CGC needed a more agile infrastructure approach that could support growth while maintaining the performance and reliability its customers expect.

Provisioning new customer environments requires hardware procurement and manual configuration, often taking weeks. At the same time, customers expected real-time access to operational data, mobile capabilities, and seamless collaboration between field and office teams. Without a more efficient deployment model, onboarding timelines could hinder growth and responsiveness.

Rather than replace its IBM i environment, CGC chose to extend it to the cloud, preserving the security, reliability, and performance of its core ERP platform while gaining greater operational flexibility.

Working with IBM Platinum Business Partner GlassHouse Systems, CGC migrated to IBM Power Virtual Server (IBM PowerVS^TM), a cloud-based platform that enables organizations to run IBM i workloads in a secure, scalable environment without rewriting applications. The migration allowed CGC to modernize its infrastructure while maintaining continuity for customers.

As part of the transition, CGC also addressed several common challenges associated with modernizing established ERP environments, including aligning legacy system dependencies with cloud-native infrastructure, reducing operational complexity, and ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing customer operations. GlassHouse Systems, a global PowerVS leader, played a key role in defining the underlying architecture and migration approach, emphasizing upfront design decisions regarding workload placement, resilience, and scalability. This focus on thoughtful architecture helped create a smoother migration path while supporting consistent performance and reliable execution as services expanded in the cloud.

Today, provisioning is automated, reducing deployment times from weeks to hours. Built-in backup, replication, and recovery capabilities strengthen availability and business resilience, while scalable infrastructure enables CGC to respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer demand.

By automating deployment and improving operational efficiency with IBM PowerVS, CGC can deliver services more quickly while aligning infrastructure costs with actual usage. The company can onboard customers faster, support more construction firms across North America, and scale efficiently as demand grows—strengthening its competitive position in the construction ERP market.

These improvements create tangible benefits for customers. Construction firms gain faster access to ERP capabilities, including job costing, materials management, payroll, human resources, and project management tools and more importantly to their invaluable data for smarter decision making, improved forecasting and greater analytics. Earlier visibility into project costs and performance, combined with reliable access to real-time data, helps customers make informed decisions, control costs, and keep projects on schedule.

With IBM Power Virtual Server, CGC can deliver scalable ERP services that evolve alongside customer needs, strengthening long-term relationships and supporting continued innovation in the construction industry.

“IBM PowerVS gives us flexibility and rapid provisioning we need to scale without disruption while preserving the strength of our IBM i platform. Combined with the expertise of GlassHouse Systems, we’ve modernized with confidence and enhanced the experience we deliver to our customers,” concluded Mike Bihlmeier.

For over 33 years, GlassHouse Systems (GHS) has been delivering transformative digital and security technologies that power the world’s most innovative companies. Our teams address the entire breadth of technology needs, from strategy and design to managing secure operations on-premises and in the cloud. To achieve this, we draw upon our deep in-house expertise and strategic partnerships and deliver creative technical deployments that help chart new strategies for our clients’ growing digital resiliency needs. For more information about our services, visit www.ghsystems.com.