Regional Commercial Contractor

Replacing per-seat ERP licenses with custom Azure web apps. The ERP stays the system of record. The seats don't.

An embedded engineer in the contractor's own Azure tenant, replacing seat-licensed Vista and Trimble workflows app by app — cost-to-complete forecasting, change orders, approvals.

Problem

What they were up against.

Mid-market commercial construction runs on ERP suites priced per named user. Viewpoint Vista and Trimble xChange charge per-PM, per-superintendent, per-controller seat — every hire and every promoted PM drives recurring cost without proportional ROI. Most user-level functions are narrow: enter time, post a job-cost batch, review a forecast, approve a change order. Five years ago rebuilding those flows required a small SWE team. In 2026, with managed Azure surfaces, REST-accessible ERP backends, and AI-assisted code generation, a single embedded engineer can replace seat-bound workflows app-by-app while the ERP stays the system of record.

Approach

How I built it.

One embedded full-stack engineer working inside the contractor's own Azure tenant. The ERP stays — Viewpoint Vista is the system of record; Trimble xChange provides the official write API.
Custom apps replace specific seat-licensed workflows: cost-to-complete forecasting, change-order routing, project lookup, job-cost reporting, approvals. Each feature ships as a single PR.
Reads go through thousands of live Vista SQL views compiled into a queryable, drift-monitored knowledge base. A Vista schema-drift detector catches ERP upgrades before they break downstream code.
Writes go through Trimble's xChange REST API so every mutation lands through the vendor's own audited pipeline. No middleware platform, no low-code suite, no off-the-shelf "construction tech" SaaS.
Each app lands behind Entra ID with project-scope authorization enforced per route. Per-seat ERP cost falls each time another role's daily flow moves off the ERP surface.

Architecture

What's running, and why.

Frontend / app surface

Azure App Service: Node host serving a Vite + React 19 + TypeScript bundle behind Express.
Azure Static Web Apps: Functions runtime for lightweight HTTP endpoints alongside the main app.

Auth

Entra ID: Single sign-on with project-scope authorization enforced per route.

Data layer

Reads — Viewpoint Vista (SQL Server): Vista is the read system of record, untouched. Thousands of live SQL views are compiled into a documented, cross-referenced knowledge base — the read contract every app builds against.
Writes — Trimble xChange REST API: All mutations (projections, change orders, subcontract batches, AP/JC posts) go through the vendor's own audited pipeline.
Schema-drift detector: Watches Vista upgrades and flags view-shape changes before they break downstream code.

CI/CD and operations

Azure DevOps Pipelines: Single-PR-per-feature flow with build / lint / test gates before deploy.
Operational tooling: Diagnostic scripts plus an isolated scripts/dangerous/ directory for write-class operations that need explicit human gating.

Outcome

What shipped.

~$60K/yr

Vista seat cost already retired through PM workflow migration

6-figure

Addressable seat-cost ceiling at Vista list (~$250/user/month)

Multiple apps

Live in production: cost-to-complete forecasting, change-order management; more in pipeline

Thousands

Vista SQL views compiled into a drift-monitored read contract for every app

Tableau retiring

Tableau seats decommissioning as dashboards migrate to the new stack; license costs stack on top.

Pending

Workflow time savings (forecasting, approvals, batch posting) — not yet measured

Stack

TypeScript
Node.js
React 19
Vite
Express
SQL Server
Viewpoint Vista
Trimble xChange API
Azure App Service
Azure Static Web Apps
Azure Functions
Entra ID
Azure DevOps
Tableau

What this proves

The pattern that ports.

A regional GC, MEP, or specialty contractor in Northeast Florida doesn't need to wait for a "construction tech" platform. Per-seat ERP licensing for narrow daily workflows is a recurring six-figure-class line item, and BI seat costs stack on top. The pattern — one embedded engineer, the contractor's own Azure tenant, vendor-API writes, SQL-view reads, app-by-app replacement — ports directly to the next contractor. The ERP stays. The seats don't.

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