Casual observers could be forgiven for thinking that the construction industry is not doing too badly. The London Olympics, the Government’s housing scheme and infrastructure development such as CrossRail have had huge news coverage and paint a fairly rosy picture of the industry.

However, dig a little deeper and you find that the London Olympics is facing a shortage of over 180,000 skilled construction and building workers, let alone the spiralling costs and deadline extensions. The Government’s housing targets look likely to be missed and industry bodies are making worrying noises about a decreasing number of graduates coming through the system.

Furthermore, the construction industry is always vulnerable to take the initial impact from an economic downturn. Looking back at the dips during the 80s and 90s this certainly rings true. The recent credit crunch has therefore put even greater pressure on an industry which has been dealing with pressures on capacity.

Evidence of the effects of the crunch is now being covered on an almost daily basis in the media. One of Britain’s biggest building firms, Persimmon Homes, based in York, recently confirmed that it was to stop certain construction projects. The effect of the economy on new house sales was given as the reason for this decision. Just over the Pennines, Liverpool Football Club has postponed its new stadium project as owner Tom Hicks stated that the current economic situation was "the most difficult... I've seen in the last 20 years.”

The issue for the construction industry is that past experience has shown us that it usually suffers first in a slump. This inevitably dominos onto other sectors. Business investment could well be the next domino to fall which would have substantial repercussions on construction forecasts. In such uncertain times it is absolutely vital that firms plan for the long term so they are as prepared as possible to weather the storm.

With choppy waters ahead, all companies have to look at their available resources to make sure that they can be flexible and adaptable to keep their head above water. This means that firms will have to run a tight ship and manage their resources incredibly efficiently.

In a recent white paper conducted by the MCA (the Management Consultancies Association) it was reported that over 66 per cent of companies surveyed felt that resource management was the most important or second most important process in the company. However 55 per cent of businesses were only able to plan their resources for three months at a time- and the presence of a dedicated resource planning IT system was worryingly absent.

The importance of having a resource planning system can not be understated. It can provide substantial savings on infrastructure overheads, as well as improving management efficiencies dramatically - essentially it enables a company to align its processes better so that it operates more efficiently.

Admittedly, it can sometimes be a fairly daunting task for staff - but it will make the overall running of the business much easier if you need to restructure or plan for increases, or decreases in capacity and demand.

In order to get the benefits as quickly as possible you need to keep things simple, yes this is an IT system that will change the processes of your business, but it must not stop people from talking. Project managers will see the benefit of having a comprehensive capacity report for current and future projects so that they have a better foundation from which to make important decisions.

Project managers can maximise the resources they have at their disposal, reducing the risk of project overruns and lost time due to poor staffing deployment. Planning and organising the resources available means any project can meet the agreed targets successfully.

Every business must look to the future - there is conflicting opinions on the scale of the impact of the crunch, but in such uncertain times no one can afford to gamble. What is vital for businesses to consider is that the investment sector is vulnerable and this could dramatically change the landscape. With a planning system in place a firm is in a much better position to navigate the forthcoming peaks and troughs successfully.