How to know when you need real-time project management software

Staying up to date with what’s happening on your project at any moment is fundamental in construction. During the construction process, various problems may emerge. In such cases, immediate action is considered to be more than necessary. For that reason, the ability of communicating these hiccups in real-time is fundamental. A trustworthy project management software can help a lot toward that direction.

Despite the fact that the discussion around modernization in construction keeps getting more and more intense, there still are many who underestimate its true value. With that in mind, we decided to do you a favor and analyze below the different signs that should make you start looking for real-time project management software.

In a nutshell, here are the problems that a top-performing software can help you battle against:

Crippled Information Flow

Simply put, we are talking about fragmented communication. In every construction project, regardless of its size, unhindered flow of information is always key. In that sense, real-time project management software can break the communication barriers between the construction site and the office. This could contribute dramatically to the optimization of the project processes. The ability to share crucial information about your assigned tasks with the right people in real-time is priceless.

It can save you from a number of costly mistakes which will harm your project in the following ways:

• Increased need for repairs

First and foremost, the more the mistakes the more the repairs. An increased need for repairs means an increased amount of both money and working hours spent. This fact can hurt your project in so many levels, while at the same time it can demotivate your project team.

• Painful delays

A physical consequence of repair requests is, of course, project delays. It can be really tough to keep your project on time when there’s a strong need for restoring building structure mistakes.

• Poor construction quality

It doesn’t take much to realize that a project with many delays and repairs will most probably have some quality issues in the end. A troublesome construction process has always a higher possibility of resulting to a problematic outcome. This can be prevented with thorough planning and solid communication between the site and the office.

Bad Decision-Making

Decision-making can always be a pain during a construction project, as it normally is consisted of different agents who are responsible of making their own decisions based on their assigned duties. That being said, a need for a tool with the help of which you can keep track of anything that is taking place on site is fundamental. In that manner, you can be sure that you have a complete overview of what’s going on and be in position to make the best decision. A real-time project management software can tremendously help toward that direction.

In short, this is how a reliable digital tool could optimize the decision-making procedure of your construction project:

• Better data management

The more data you have around a project the merrier. Nonetheless, you have to know how to handle them properly. Otherwise, there is a big danger that you will get lost in the endless amounts of data without having any idea how to use them in order to help your project to move forward. Construction management software can provide great service with such issues, given the fact that it can organize the various data and make them accessible to the right people at the right moment.

Want to know more? Construction Project Management Processes

• Detailed decision record

Keeping an exhaustive record of the various project parameters is one of the keys to success. It can teach you a lot about the mistakes you want to avoid in the future phases of your project. Furthermore, it can help you acquire some valuable know-how for upcoming projects. In that way, you won’t have to start from scratch when you are about to begin a new project.

• Project accessibility

It’s no secret that, we live in an era where all professional activities are gradually transferred to the Cloud. Construction is no exception. The ability to share all the project information in real-time with the different construction agents could help in a number of ways. Transparency during the construction process and fast exchange of information and opinions could probably be considered as the most decisive. Easy access signifies higher efficiency and with that in mind construction management software can surely be the x-factor for every building project.

Legal Differences

Another reason why you want to use a real-time project management software is related to legal disputes. Especially in medium or large scale construction projects, it is a given that at some point there will be some disagreements. A detailed record of everything that has be done on and off-site will make you feel much safer for the project’s future. It’s your “number one” layer of protection in times where an objective observer is required.

If we assume that, all the signed contracts are covering in detail every single responsibility of the involved parties, here is how construction software can offer you the legal security that you are in need of, during a construction project:

• Online site diary

As we already mentioned before, the more information about a project the better. Construction software can function as your online site diary and allow you to monitor on a regular basis whether each member of the team is following everything that had been agreed in the contracts. It offers you also the ability to go back in earlier stages of the project and look for particular pieces of information that can be the solution to a costly dispute.

Read more here: Construction Disputes

• Tool for the Dispute Resolution Board

By now, it’s evident that construction software is a valuable tool when it comes to dispute resolution. That’s why, a real-time management software can be the best adviser for your Dispute Resolution Board. A Dispute Board is as a rule consisted of three members (one from each party and one member chosen by the appointed two). With the use of a detailed cloud-based project overview, they can gain priceless insight which can eventually allow them to reach to objective conclusions.

• Decrease update meetings  

For keeping a construction project under control, you have to be regularly updated by the various parties. When it comes to preventing disputes, these meetings have even greater importance. However, they can take a lot of valuable time which doesn’t really exist when someone is working on a construction site. That being the case, a project management software with real-time progress updates can allow you to limit the number of these meetings without losing track of the various tasks.

Budget Overrun

All the challenges analyzed above are leading to the last but certainly not least parameter of every kind of project: the budget! When you are working in a construction project, every little detail is part of a great picture. It’s a fragile chain of people and events and the cohesion of which is largely depended on the quality of communication. Budget overrun normally isn’t the reason for the failure of a project, but the symptom of ineffective communication, problematic data management and insufficient decision-making.

Due to this, it is clear that a well-functioning real-time construction software can be the game-changer for the following factors:

• Detects unnecessary delays

When you have a properly elaborated insight to your project’s progress, it’s easy to detect its pains and prevent or at least terminate painful delays both in terms of money and materials. On top of that, you can make sure that you won’t repeat the same mistake again in the near future. In other words, a valuable project management lesson that can help you evolve the way you work in construction.

• Points out the weak link of the chain

I know that this may sound a bit mean, but in every project regardless of the industry there will always be someone who holds the project behind. This can be for many reasons, from lack of experience to lack of will to help, but the result will be the same every time. Waste of indispensable financial resources due to incompetence. This problem can be easily addressed if you stay up to date with everything that’s happening both in the office and the construction site. Like that, you can eventually find out who is/are a problem for your project’s progress and let them go. Similarly, you can be generous with those who have the greatest contribution to your endeavor.

• Enhances the overall quality of the project  

The last remark is a bit more generic but deeply true. The higher the quality of the project the fewer the chances for budget overruns. A properly organized project will make it possible for you to avoid unnecessary spending and agonizing project delays and repairs. In a nutshell, a real-time project management online tool can save you from the fuss and allow you to keep your project in order.

Is Real-Time Project Management Software Necessary?

The answer is simple and it’s affirmative. Yes, the construction industry is still an industry which can’t let go from pen and paper but it’s changing. The digitization of our sector is getting more and more intense and it is expected that soon enough full cloud-based collaboration and hopefully integration will be a reality. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that construction software isn’t the future but already the present of the industry.

Especially, when we are talking for medium to large scale projects it’s totally absurd to believe that project management is a luxury. To the contrary, it’s a necessity that can lay the path for a more efficient construction process with fewer delays and wasted resources. The key behind this vital change is, of course, real-time information flow. The unhindered project accessibility in conjunction with powerful digital tools, like 5D BIM for instance, can bring a new era for construction.

Conclusion

The construction industry is in a growth phase and the biggest challenge for everyone in our field is to prepare the next day for his/her current and upcoming projects. Coming up with the right decisions at the right moment is much harder than it sounds. Construction projects can be chaotic. In that sense, well-established communication should be the basis on which the future of our industry can be established.