Construction doesn’t feel like a digital industry. You’re in dusty, dirty, hazardous environments where hard hats come standard. Twenty years ago, there was no computer that could safely join you on the job.
Today everything has changed, and nearly all of your workers are packing a computer in their pocket. Smartphones have become an industry standard, and that means everyone is connected. It’s time you put all of that computing power to use to improve your workflow, employee efficiencies, inventory management and even your project billing.
Construction business management products allow your operations to keep everyone connected, generate checklists for your workflows and keep everything organized. Inject visibility into your operations at every level. Staying on budget and never running out of inventory are two incredible benefits business management software delivers starting shortly after implementation.
But of all the reasons to use construction business management software, none may be as important as getting rid of manual processes that are prone to errors. They can cripple any construction business, and they often do. Let’s start with the benefit of digital backups as the first of many reasons to use construction business management software.
Reasons to Use Construction Business Management Software
Pen and paper are construction staples for everything from contracts and inventory management to accounting and final invoices. These processes are susceptible to human errors, lost pages, slow filing and retrieval and even information loss when a pen breaks, coffee spills or the wind picks up at your site.
You can protect your business by making daily operations simpler and more profitable when you adopt construction business management software. Digital copies of documents allow you to quickly search and find what you need, plus you can save multiple versions so you’re protected when things change or projects slow.
Remove the typical hassles of having construction managers call in for approvals on materials or provide status updates by using construction business management products that allow everyone to make updates as needed. You can also keep important documents and permits on site but provide your entire operation with a copy when needed. Project building, work orders and other important papers can be just a click away with a cloud-based platform.
Construction Business Management Solutions
Each job has specific crew and service foreman requirements. Reasons to use construction business management software include the ability to create reports and schedules so that your teams are always ready.
Paper schedules posted in the main office require everyone to check in daily or weekly. Managers who need to make a change have to call all parties involved, moving down the list until they’ve located a substitute. This has to be checked against master lists, and leaders need to run changes up through their management, who may or may not be immediately available.
On the other hand, construction business management solutions can automate much of that by creating rules for replacements and giving everyone access to all of the information for each job site. Whenever you need to make a substitution, just update the calendar and click to deliver a note to impacted parties. Save time and improve your operations by making the scheduling process simpler.
Construction business management solutions even let you create individual calendars. You can pick a meeting time whenever everyone is free based on their general availability as well as recent job site trends. Centralized calendars also allow your HR teams to record individual and personal days so they’re easy for everyone to see and create events that can be sent to the appropriate people.
Sort all of your work based on building location, type of work, next-step requirements and more to optimize your schedule and crews in the most logical way.
Mobile Construction Business Management Products
A chief reason for you to use construction business management software is that it gives you access no matter where you are. Old paper systems can’t be updated from the field and require you to call in information or return to a master document to make changes.
Mobile applications have changed all of that, allowing everyone to stay on the samepage. Connect your project management platforms to all of your team leads to give them the power they need. Order materials as soon as they’re needed, request document changes when errors are discovered or immediately call for engineers or electricians if you’re ahead of schedule.
Mobile apps can also ensure that project contacts, invoices, purchase orders, work history and job site checklists are in the hands of everyone. Maintain your safety and productivity records by giving each worker the power the need.
Cloud-Based Construction Project Management Software
A big benefit of field service software comes from the fact that cloud systems can update everyone and every installation all at once. Data you enter gets sent out immediately. Your accountants, schedulers and production teams all are working from the latest, most accurate information so your operations run smoothly and efficiently.
In general, construction project management software tends to be a simpler experience because you can combine multiple operations and modules into a single dashboard. Each job can get its own location where your documents, warranties, inventories, costs and invoices are all located. You save time every day simply by having less searching to do.
When you come up against a complex project, you can roll in subcontractors and third-parties into that same location. Create a historical reference for each project, track changes in costs and time estimates and review everything on a single timeline when the job is done. Uniform access is one of the top benefits of field service software.
A cloud-based system gives everyone on your team access to that single location where they can understand your project. For management, this also delivers an easy way to review the success of a project and determine how successful your bid was.
Dataforma has created a platform that’s specifically designed to work with multiple teams. Our solution is custom-tailored to larger departments with reports and analysis for:
– Executive management
– Office support staff
– Project managers
– Sales
– Service
– Subcontractors
– HR and accounting
Your business depends on making the most of each project, and cloud platforms make valuation analysis quick and accurate.
Use Field Service Software to Automate Your Progress
Every construction task contains a specific list of steps. A good foreman knows these by heart and ensures that their team completes each one before moving forward. When you’re dealing with large sites or complex elements, this best practice can become time-consuming.
A reason to use field service software is that your foreman can monitor each step and verify that it has been completed from a central location. A cloud workflow will give your foreman the ability to approve, reject or flag each step. Workers who complete projects can post test results or even photos to a centralized job file to help management verify proper steps are being followed.
You can save time and money with a smart platform and even protect your business by building this digital process trail for auditing. Workflows create a single document you can send to customers if they have questions about your work policies. Ensure everything is up-to-code and special requirements are followed as the work is completed.
Construction business management products are also designed to follow rules and generate warnings when anything is skipped. Everyone involved with a project and its review can get notifications when any action is needed.
You get data on every step and have an automated pair of eyes to help you maintain worksite productivity, OSHA compliance and adherence to every element required for special projects. When the project is finished, construction business management solutions also deliver a full report so you can keep improving with each new, lucrative job.
Time and again, our customers tell us that automation is the most cost-saving benefit offield service software.
Benefits of Construction Management Software
A chief reason your competitors are turning to construction business management products is that they are reducing the time it takes to make bids, track jobs, bill clients and track overall costs for each job. You can have a better understanding of your business and which products are most profitable when you’re able to look at everything in a single location.
Learn the true cost of each job simply by employing construction project management software.
Managing your books is often the most difficult part of running a strong construction business. Many accounting professionals are masters of their craft, but their exposure to the construction industry itself is limited. Pairing their expertise with construction business management software can help your team determine which projects had been your most profitable, when you had the best on-the-job performance and even what tactics slow you down.
Construction business management solutions support this advanced learning by helping you organize each entity, operation or job into its own category so you can review them separately. Compare these elements across your accounts receivables and payables to generate a customized database for your team. Smart services like those offered by Dataforma will also give each unit or job a message board so all of your management teams are kept in the loop.
Other accounting benefits that business management software delivers include:
– A central place to review client accounts and cash receipts, with search optimized for speed and accuracy
– Ability to create and issue purchase orders specific to a job from any Internet-connected device
– Method to generate logistics reports that facilitate inventory management for each location or job
– Opportunity to track fixed assets and equipment with the ability to sort by inventory requirements, value and more
Manage Your Bids Through Field Service Software
Bid management has become a larger part of the accounting equation in recent years because construction business management software makes it easy to review costs in relation to expectations.
Using construction project management software, you can generate your bids and autofill common fields to create the most accurate bid possible. You can then compare this to costs after you finish a job to see how accurate you were. A single, smart construction business management product will give you guidance on what cost more or less than you expected.
You can also experience smoother operations when you have a platform that moves with you from bid through job acceptance. By picking a secure, cloud-based system you can update everything at once and share status information with your clients. Visibility will keep your teams on track and highlight potential savings areas.
A single platform that can move with you from making a bid on a project through its completion, with the ability to find where you were right and wrong, is one of the key reasons to use construction business management software.
Benefits of Proprietary Business Management Software
You now understand the business reasons to use construction business management software. Your next choice is what type of system to implement. Dataforma suggests you select a system built specifically for the construction industry, because that platform will meet and anticipate your needs.
The team at Software Advice takes that recommendation one step further and says you’ll be happier when you choose a paid, proprietary construction business management solution. According to their interviews with business owners and software teams, proprietary software gives you the benefit of strong support and vendor training, specific capabilities as soon as you fire up the software and consistent updates that are tested before release.
Their surveys found that 87% of companies who use a proprietary system would recommend it, compared to the 55% of people who would say the same for free or open-source platforms. People who used proprietary systems were happier in every element of the survey, including available features, usability, reliability, support and cost, with 69% of proprietary software users indicating they’re completely satisfied.
Another important element of proprietary software is that it lets you keep your staff working on products relevant to your business. Small companies often don’t have the strength to create and troubleshoot open-source options, while large companies are best able to use IT staff for customer projects.
If you’re adopting your first construction project management software platform, you’ll also want to take advantage of the training and support that vendors like Dataforma provide.
Discover Why So Many Are Choosing Dataforma
Professional construction companies and roofing contractors have been turning to Dataforma’s core, customer and mobile services to operate more efficiently. They’re saving money, gaining a better understanding of their workflow and easily reviewing projects to make their next bid more effective.
You can maximize your profitability and minimize subcontractor costs with a cloud-delivered solution designed to eliminate costs associated with multiple software purchases. We support a variety of devices and give everyone access so you can get your team on the same page without having to pay for each install.
A Web portal and smartphone apps give you around-the-clock support so that you and your management teams can react to job site problems as soon as they arise. Rules can even govern who gets emergency notifications for each job, team or location, reducing the time it takes to get the correct response deployed.
By offering a streamlined, unified platform that governs the most common construction needs, Dataforma gives you the only cloud tool you’ll need to achieve operational efficiency for management, crews and materials. It’s one of our favorite benefits construction management software can deliver to your organization. Additional benefits include:
– Data protection systems that secure your information in the event of natural or man made disasters
– Controlled user access and 128-bit data encryption
– IT support and multiple fail-safe points
– Apps for iPhones, Androids and other devices
– Special portals for building owners and outside consultants
– Hourly backup options with 24/7 monitoring and recovery
Contact us to take your first steps toward a more profitable, simpler project management with the Dataforma platform.
