Both WhatsApp and Excel are popular in the construction industry. But while powerful and useful, both applications are so full of limitations. And if you are relying on them to manage all your complex construction projects, you are putting your construction business and your team at pointless risk.
Transitioning to a new and better system is quite a challenge. This blog will share with you why you should not opt for these two applications and why you must choose software solutions for construction management improvement.
1. WhatsApp is not tailored for construction
Tools like Excel and WhatsApp may be great for other occasions, but they cannot offer you the site visibility that you are right after. And more analytically:
· They do not provide a shareable, onsite “live” view of your project.
· The data shared with these apps lack the connection to the master plan. This can be harder for you and your team to see where things are transparent and what tasks are slowly progressing, what is coming next, and who is accountable for what.
· Information is being dispersed on various platforms that hinder the reporting process.
It becomes clear that using the wrong tools has a huge impact on your overall planning. You and your team will have no accurate and real-time insights into the projects. There will be no clarity also on who is accountable for what leading to dysfunctional and slow decision-making.
2. There is not a single source of truth
Project managers spend almost 40% of their time creating endless reports and chasing updates. Are you in the same situation too? Things should not be like that. There is no reason for your project team to get trapped during a meeting that takes longer than usual. This will only create more misunderstanding and mistrust between the different teams, fueling the culture of blame across your organization. As a project manager, that is the last thing you ever want to happen, right?
This is why the next time you begin thinking about any of your plans, you have to take a moment and see whether you can spend less time on your tasks by building a single source of truth. No matter how great tools Excel and WhatsApp are, there is no way they can help you with that.
3. Standardization is impossible
85% of the process is just the same thing. So, standardizing the way you collaborate, design, and eventually build is a great option. And most importantly, it can take a lot of pressure off your shoulders, helping you to prevent mistakes even before they appear and flag crucial problems during the early phase. Let us take an example, your inventory, it makes good sense to standardize it, especially its process or workflow.
In order for you to achieve this, what you need is a construction inventory management tool that can help you manage a large amount of inventory data so that you can determine the development pattern of your projects and place together an effective plan of action.
This is a very sensitive process that tools like WhatsApp and Excel are not able to support. The main reason is the concrete absence of a single source of truth where inventory information can be easily linked to particular tasks.
4. Your construction projects are vulnerable to claims
Documentation is always the key in construction. As a project leader, you must be able to retrieve crucial information at any time so that you can effectively respond to claims in your projects. When you opt or resort to tools like Excel and WhatsApp, this can be tough.
On the contrary, by depending on a digital solution that is specifically designed for construction, you can keep your construction projects protected against claims. Huge thanks to the following advantages:
- Instant recovery of information without drowning in admin tasks.
- Full alignment between you and your team.
- Easy tracking of your construction tools, equipment, and materials.
- Seamless communication between all your members and other project stakeholders.
- · Task ownership and increased accountability.
5. No connection to the plans
Regardless of the type and size of your construction projects, one single thing is sure – all of your tools must be connected to the plans in real-time, making sure that no information is being lost or delivered late.
WhatsApp may be a great tool for delivering your info in real-time. However, there is one serious issue with this one – the data you share via WhatsApp or Excel is connected neither to the 4-6-week schedule nor to the master plan.
This small but critical detail can make it impossible both for you as the project manager and your team to assess the updates the moment you receive it. This is something that only an app that is designed for construction can offer to you.
6. It is hard to automate Excel
Even after all these years, Excel is still hard to automate. From a project management viewpoint, you need automation daily. You want task assignment emails to fly across automatically and timesheets to further update daily with manual triggers. All of these will require you to write custom scripts and bring in a developer to achieve the results that a lot of project management applications offer by default.
Excel is not suitable for your overall project management.
Ditch WhatsApp and Excel and Begin Using Pro Crew Schedule
We already cited above some of the reasons why WhatsApp and Excel are not useful enough as a tool. Shifting to sophisticated construction software like Pro Crew Schedule is worth the shot! And if you are considering migrating soon enough, here is how your overall project experience will change using this amazing project management system.
- Easier Data Management for Big Teams: Managing project data like team files, multiple calendars, and task statuses for more than 30 people is quite complex. Cloud-based scheduling software can help you organize your data and team based on classifications and priorities. You can build many layers of abstractions using this tool so that project data gets jumbled up.
- Data Sharing: Sharing data in your project team or keeping everybody on the same page is the single most crucial aspect of every construction project. Modern construction tech tools offer several active ways of sharing data so that any form of conflict can be avoided.
- Task scheduling: Your projects will most likely succeed when they are completed on time and are understood comprehensively. This is what the construction automation system strives to achieve. As a project manager, you can assign as many tasks as you can. Attaching files and making updates are made easier using this tool.
- Balance resource management: As a seasoned project manager, you must know that you have to be an effective management strategy to deliver the project successfully. This is to keep your teams in good shape without overlooking them. Project management tools like Pro Crew Schedule have the best features to determine spot-on resource bottlenecks and many insights.
- Budgeting: Overseeing the schedule, scope, and budget of projects is a major priority of any construction company. However, budgeting often requires the most attention. When it comes to budgeting, a thorough assessment of all project plans and process is necessary. Good thing that project management tools like Pro Crew Schedule can minimize costs and maximize profits through better budget management.
- Convenience: It is no secret that a project manager like you does things a bit differently when it comes to managing your projects. However, it is a game-changer when you can do things on your own in the most efficient and faster way. With construction software in place, you can seamlessly automate every aspect of your project. You no longer have to do things manually.
- Organization: One of the significant benefits of the Pro Crew Schedule is the capacity to effectively and rapidly organize processes across your company. From storing data and making it accessible to tracking budgets, expenses, resources, and contracts, and having a more seamless organizational system means your team can access everything they need without hassle and hindrances.
- Easy adaptation and integration: One of the most apparent pain points surrounding the adoption of all software solutions is how fast they can be integrated and adapted into the company’s existing processes and workflows. The faster it can be incorporated, the quicker it can be used to increase efficiency across your company. Considering the complexity of your sector, project management tools are designed to make it easier as possible for every user to integrate and adopt it into their processes.
- Time Management: This all boils down to whether your projects can be delivered on time or not. In many cases, they cannot. Poor planning is one biggest factor. A scheduling software tool is nothing if not time efficient. Real-time updates reduce the time it takes to deliver information to your teams and make decisions by a high margin. This makes it possible to have a much more accurate and realistic plan of the entire process.
With every benefit cited above, it only shows how Pro Crew Schedule makes your overall construction management much easier, more connected, and seamless.
If you want to try and explore this firsthand, get started with a 30-day trial for FREE!
