“[Buying technology systems is] difficult to measure because of the scope issues and assessing the benefits,” said Marjorie Goss, CFO and Treasurer of Cupertino Electric, San Jose, Calif.

“Dollars are not as important as a strategic fit – does it fit our workflows and processes,” said Scott Fairgrieve, CFO of Shimmick Construction, Oakland.

And Antonio Santos, controller, XL Construction, Milpitas, Calif., and Goss were not fans of cloud computing. At least not yet.

“We’re talking about intellectual property,” said Santos. “Could the company be a target of hackers? For now, we’re keeping our data under our roof.”

“I think cloud is better for smaller companies,” said Goss. “It’s a functionality issue along with ROI.”

But Fairgrieve believes differently. “It’s the wave of the future, the leading edge,” he said. “We haven’t moved on it yet, but we’re watching other companies.”