Transforming project management

So many construction managers start the year with goals they’re determined to achieve. Become more efficient in the office. Build better and more productively on site. Get fully on top of projects. Really know what’s going on. Hit financial targets.

As the weeks go by though and the messy reality of construction exerts its grip on project progress, many of those new year professional goals can seem challenging to achieve.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Technology can help deliver all those goals and transform the way you do business.

It does so by capturing and digitising all your project data on one easy-to-use construction platform. A platform that gives you real-time project insights, direct from site. A platform that connects everyone involved, empowers teams, and delivers actionable insights, helping you make informed and incisive decisions. A platform that can help you reduce re-work and cut project costs by up to 25%. That is according to a survey last year of construction business leaders in the UK and Ireland conducted by Procore for its How We Build Now report.

Too good to be true? The surveyed construction leaders confirmed that economic and industry volatility has caused them to significantly increase their investment in digital transformation over the past 12 months. So this is likely the year many of them will introduce a construction management platform into their business.

Data is key to transformative change

Data can be a construction team’s key asset. Knowing how to utilise it in actionable ways is the key to delivering work profitably.

Digitising a project’s data leads to fewer building mistakes, less rework and improved productivity and site safety. That’s because construction platforms bring data together in one place and let you analyse every aspect of your project, ensuring that the right person is in the right place at the right time, with the necessary information to complete the job as required.

When managers really know what’s going on across all projects, at any precise moment, they gain control of the bottom line in a way that’s just not possible if data is siloed, unconnected and unshared. ‘Project lag’ becomes a thing of the past – the full and true picture from the site is readily available.

Integrated data delivers control

As well as telling you what’s going on at any precise time, integrated data helps you identify trends and point out where you need to focus your attention. This transforms project efficiency. For example, open RFIs across projects, snags, inspections, variations and similar issues on a project can all be captured in one place through digital processes and reviewed by decision makers.

That level of total transparency allows everyone to see what’s happening in real time – either at project level or across a set of operations. Risks on projects can be quickly detected and managed proactively, rather than having to be sorted out later on down the line, with all the negative consequences that can have on timings and costs.

Captured data also allows teams to compare and review performances on previous projects and see how to avoid any pitfalls previously encountered. If problems on projects seem to occur at a certain stage every time, you’ve got the opportunity to try something different.

Data analysis across projects improve efficiency

Traditional paper-based processes and non-integrated software solutions mean there is no way to know how a project is progressing. They also increase significantly the likelihood of cost and time overruns due to poor coordination between the supply chain and the project manager.

Procore’s construction platform overcomes these issues by channelling all processes, documents and personnel into one integrated easily locatable place. Hours of searching for data, scanning paper files into the systems or completing admin tasks after hours become a thing of the past – all the most current documents and drawings are sitting in one easily reached location.

The platform is designed to be scalable across multiple projects. That allows a project manager to keep an eye on and manage more than one project at a time – from anywhere they are working from. Senior managers can also benefit from this pan-operation visibility, and track real-time performance.

Though not all platforms are made equal. As the industry continues to digitally transform, it is inevitable that certain departments will continue using their own software. So your construction management platform needs to have a strong ecosystem of API connectors in order to integrate data around estimating, tendering, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and BIM. Or allow visibility into planning, purchasing, inventory, sales and marketing.

Projects have a greater chance of success if workforces can draw on the most up-to-date technology in real time. They need to be able to monitor and analyse disparate data and make confident decisions on costs, timings and resources. For that, they need a construction platform that connects multiple strands of data in one place – a single source of truth – and which reports the true state of play.

Future-proof operations against volatile economies

With construction teams under ever greater pressure to deliver on time and to budget, while still maintaining the highest safety and quality levels, business leaders and their teams need all the help they can get.

Moving from using point solutions to an end-to-end construction platform that tracks on-site performance and helps make data-informed decisions is the best way of providing that help.

As the construction industry develops, with modern methods of construction increasingly coming to the fore, the ability to digitalise and leverage data becomes of paramount importance.

Leveraging data doesn’t only help you now: it makes you more resilient next year, and in the years after that. The more you embrace technology and build up data and analytics capabilities the more you will be in a position to transform your business to embrace the future.

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