Integration Has Pivoted Into Homebuilding’s Survival Skill

From Silos To Seamless: The Urgency Of Interoperability

When President Trump announced his sweeping new tariff regime in early April, average effective U.S. tariffs surged tenfold overnight. The move jolted global supply chains, rattled equity markets, and introduced a new wave of deep uncertainty for American businesses.

For homebuilders, the timing couldn’t be worse. Already facing stubborn interest rates, stalled demand, unpredictable materials pricing, and a tenuous labor environment, operators are now caught in the ripple effects of what Harvard Business Review calls a "360-degree trade war" — one where uncertainty is the only certainty.

It’s no longer a nice-to-have for builders to unify their systems," says Michael Miller, Integration and Adoption Lead at Higharc. "They need real-time, accurate, centralized data to compete. Otherwise, they’re just guessing."

In a candid conversation with The Builder's Daily, Miller and Inga Hakobyan, a senior product leader at Higharc, outlined how disjointed systems create friction, reduce margins, and ultimately harm the builder and the buyer. Their message to operators was clear: There are practical steps builders can take today to reduce risk, boost agility, and put themselves on a path toward a fully integrated, AI-enabled homebuilding lifecycle.

The Pain of Disconnection

At most homebuilding firms, sales, purchasing, design, estimating, and field teams still operate in digital silos. The result? Manual re-entry of data, frequent mismatches in pricing and product information, and change-order chaos.

We observe that builders often have to update the same information in five or six places," Miller explains. "Your website might say one thing, your brochures another, and your contract system something else entirely. That kills buyer trust."

Hakobyan adds that the underlying issue is both technical and cultural.

Most of the legacy ERP systems in this industry weren’t built to talk to each other," she says. "And on top of that, every builder has customized their tools so much that even defining a 'wraparound porch' means something different from one system to the next."

This leads to costly internal friction and decision-making based on outdated or incomplete data. Worse, it limits builders' ability to adjust quickly in a fast-moving market.

The Higharc Model: Real-Time, Linked, and Open

Higharc has developed a linked-option system, where complex intersections of design choices — like pairing rear brick with an extended patio — are preconfigured once and then automatically reflected across pricing, material takeoffs, visualizations, and contract documents.

Traditionally, builders have to make the same change five different times," says Miller. "With us, they toggle a single switch. That change instantly flows to your construction documents, sales center visuals, estimates, and website."

This isn’t a theory. It’s already live, with dozens of builders using Higharc today. Miller emphasizes that Higharc isn’t here to rip and replace ERP or CRM systems. Instead, it’s built to sit alongside them and unlock the value of the data they already hold. That includes connecting to widely used legacy platforms like JD Edwards, MarkSystems, and BRIX.

Higharc manages product data — the detailed structural and design content that has historically lived in plan sets, PDF brochures, estimating spreadsheets, and hard-to-trace manual processes.

We know builders aren’t going to rip and replace their entire tech stack," says Hakobyan. "That’s why we built our system to be open. We’ll connect to your ERP, whatever it is. We normalize the data, keep it clean, and sync it forward."

When that happens, three streams of concurrently-occuring operational data can fuse into a single, binding, interoperable system.

Implementation: Crawl, Walk, Run

For builders intimidated by complete system overhaul, Miller advises starting small.

A full migration doesn’t happen overnight," he says. "We recommend launching with a new community or a small set of plans. Use that as your pilot. Once you see it working — the speed, the accuracy, the buyer satisfaction — you expand."

Even large regional builders are taking this modular approach, gradually phasing in integrated systems without disrupting their entire operations.

What makes a builder successful in implementation is their readiness," says Miller. "Builders who already understand their business rules and clearly understand how they want to go to market are miles ahead. The rest can get there, but it takes some prework."

What Builders Can Do Now

So, what are the first steps toward integration? Hakobyan and Miller offer a shortlist:

• Take control of your data. "That’s your intellectual property," Miller says. "Builders need access to their data on their terms."
• Clean up your option lists. "Junk data will slow you down," Hakobyan warns. "Be intentional. Cull what you no longer use."
• Codify your business rules. "Know how you go to market. Document it. That makes it easier to digitize."
• Ask your vendors for open APIs. "Closed systems slow everything down," Hakobyan adds. "Builders should demand openness."

These actions may not instantly transform you into a fully AI-powered, integrated future. But they will lower your switching costs, reduce friction, and build a foundation for resilience in an increasingly unstable operating environment.

The Endgame: Velocity

Integration isn’t just about technology. It’s about shortening timeframes, eliminating waste, and reducing risk—especially in a world where geopolitical shocks, trade volatility, and monetary policy throw curveballs weekly.

When every department works only to optimize their workflow, the whole system slows down," Miller says. "But when we optimize the process as a whole — even if it makes one team’s job a little harder — the time to market shrinks. And that’s how you win in this environment."

In other words, homebuilders need to become velocity organizations. Speed — not just in building but also in decision-making, iteration, and adaptation — is now the most critical competitive advantage.

The tariff shock of April 2025 may not be the last disruption the housing industry faces. But for builders willing to confront the friction in their systems, it may be the push they needed to move from silos to seamless finally.