With today’s shift to the modern scene, construction technology has completely changed how people manage and build construction projects. Many project management tools for construction help your project become more profitable and productive – workers can be more efficient on the job site, inventory is always kept at the proper levels, and costs are kept within budget. In an industry where you need to manage a million moving parts at any given time and rely on internal operations to keep it moving, construction management is about continuous learning on how to perfect and optimize your processes.
As the construction industry changes, construction managers need to avoid the traditional way of managing things and use software to understand better and complete projects. Construction technology can help improve your internal processes, increase efficiency and productivity, and better coordinate teams. No matter the construction job’s size, scope, or complexity, using the right system can make it easier.
Defining Construction Project Management Software
Construction software is a powerful tool that can help speed up the whole building process. It can help you quickly manage every part of your construction project, such as getting quotes and bids, figuring out the project’s scope, keeping track of business expenses, assigning and planning tasks, making purchase orders, paying bills, and keeping track of invoices. Utilizing the construction software’s powerful features can completely change how you handle your projects, guaranteeing success and customer satisfaction every time.
The Different Types of Construction Software
With many construction software in the market, it can be broken down into subcategories depending on the specific features and solutions they offer to help you solve particular problems. They might be all-in-one solutions with different functions for different subcategories or just for one or two categories.
Data Analytics Software
An analytics software aims to give construction managers insights from past projects – it can present data in a way that can help provide valuable insights on how to save time and stay up to date on current projects. One good example is that you can look at the data to make a more accurate estimate for a new project based on actual material or labor costs from past projects.
Document Management Software
As stated earlier, the construction industry has a lot of moving parts – and with this, you need to keep track of many documents, such as plans, approvals, or even financial statements. Companies can upload, edit, and work together on construction drawing plans or documentation with the help of this tool. This makes it easier for your stakeholders – site owners, contractors, subcontractors, or other trade partners during the preconstruction stage.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution helps you manage your day-to-day operations. For the construction industry, it can bring information systems from different parts of a building project together in one place. This software allows you to communicate and collaborate with your team by accessing the same information at any time. This is true for everything from invoicing and accounting to document management and communication.
Estimating or Job Costing Software
As the name states, estimating software allows you to manage building and construction projects’ estimating and proposal processes. Most of the time, these solutions can be tailored to fit trades such as plumbing, HVAC, or electrical. You must provide accurate estimates to ensure the project is within your budget.
Project Management Software
As the name suggests, project management solutions are made to manage a construction project’s lifecycle. These tools are more diverse – they can manage workflows, punch lists, task assignments, inventory, resources, and even scheduling to ensure that the project is still on track.
Risk and Safety Management Software
It is not a secret that construction projects are prone to risks and hazards. These types of software are meant to help construction managers reduce risks on the job site by giving them information gathered during site walkthroughs or production reports to ensure everyone is safe and following specific compliance rules. It can help promote a safety culture from within the workplace.
Top Benefits of Using Construction Software
Should you buy an integrated construction management system, or are construction software solutions a waste of money? Investing in software may seem like a big step for your organization. Still, the benefits outweigh the costs when you can utilize them properly.
Nowadays, most construction companies use software to organize, plan and estimate how much a project will cost. It can help with communication, making decisions, managing budgets, scheduling jobs, and controlling costs. In this section, let us look at the top ten benefits of using construction software for your organization.
Convenient and Easy-to-Use
Construction software keeps everyone on the team in touch, whether they are in the office, on the site, or in the field. It lets you connect with your teammates with just a few simple clicks. Project managers may run their projects differently, but software can help them be more efficient. The daily manual tasks that a project manager must do, like calling or emailing contractors, reviewing project timelines, and coordinating employees’ work, can be automated with software.
Efficient Communication and Collaboration
Construction companies cannot afford gaps in how they share information, and poor communication means that organizations can lose significant time, money, and effort. A construction manager’s main responsibility is to ensure everyone on the job site can talk to each other and work together well. Keeping track of projects as they grow and change may take work. Still, it is even harder for companies with team members on different sites to keep everyone updated. Construction software allows you to have a central point of communication no matter where they work or what device they use – and on a real-time basis.
Boost Profitability
When you provide accurate estimates, whether it be materials or labor, using past data can help your business grow quickly and effectively. Any construction company’s top priority is to keep an eye on a project’s scope, schedule, and budget. Still, the budget often needs the most attention – it can cause significant time or cost impact when you go over it. So, when it comes to budgeting, it’s important to carefully check all project plans for risks, make accurate estimates, and tell stakeholders and clients the goals.
Accurate Job Costing
When you break down job costs, you can easily compare actual costs to budgeted costs while a project is still going on, not just after it is done. With this valuable information, you can immediately spot any red flags that need to be taken care of. A project manager’s essential tasks are monitoring costs and predicting how a project will turn out.
Organized Task Management
A complete picture of all tasks and activities can make or break your construction company’s success. Construction software can automate many things, like ensuring a work order is written correctly and closing out tasks that are done – allowing you to focus more on the critical parts of project management. From storing information and making it easy to find to keeping track of expenses, contracts, and budgets, you can easily organize your system in a way that makes it easy for every team member in the company to get what they need when they need it.
Meticulous Project Tracking
Project managers who are well-informed and good at their jobs help make sure that projects make money. A good mix of planning, controlling, and monitoring helps everything run smoothly and without surprises. A construction planning management system that lets you keep an eye on projects can cut costs and time by tracking processes, deadlines, and budgets by setting up rules and expectations.
Inventory and Equipment Management
Whether you are at the office or the site, project managers need to get information about inventory and equipment. Construction software helps keep track of all the tools and resources used on a project and ensures they are used correctly at the right time. On a more detailed level, you can manage, track, and organize the day-to-day distribution of tools and equipment, staff, and materials and track how they are being used in real-time.
Document Management
As stated, construction companies deal with a lot of necessary paperwork, so it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of pressure to store and handle that paperwork safely. Document management gives companies a safe place to store all critical information, easily accessible with just a few simple clicks. Gone are the days when the paper was stuffed into filing cabinets or looked for documents like a needle in a haystack.
Daily Reports
With information and metrics at your fingertips, it is easy to use construction software to make reports about progress, costs, billing, return on investment, and more. It lets you share information regularly with stakeholders and teams and see how your key performance indicators (KPIs) area.
Customization
At its core, construction management software can quickly adapt to change. Each company has unique processes, so it is vital to customize the software based on your needs. Most software offers after-sales support that helps you tailor-fit its features to your processes and requirements, helping you get it up and running faster and, in the end, helping your company grow faster.
