The industry’s old-school ways mean contractors waste time and money mailing revisions to blueprints, tracking paper receipts and invoices, or traveling long distances to do on-site inspections of small changes.
95% of construction and engineering professionals think tech/innovation will significantly change their business2.
As construction professionals shoulder even more pressure to boost razor-thin profit margins, leaders are beginning to embrace the digital revolution. Fifty-five percent of construction and engineering professionals said their industry is ripe for disruption in a 2017 global survey conducted by KPMG; 95% think technology/innovation will significantly change their business; and 74% believe such a change will happen in less than five years2.
Digital disruption doesn’t have to be a burden. Here are three ways to harness digital tools to your advantage.
Manage Projects From Anywhere
Hard drives and technology are more visible than ever on the job site. Crews are now using tablets, for example, to review and inspect plans instead of old-fashioned paper blueprints. Some new applications help managers inspect remote sites by providing digital photos.
In addition, project management software can save time and increase transparency by ensuring that updates, revisions and plan changes are shared in real time, cutting down on errors and delays.
Manage Jobs Better On-Site
Increasingly, on-site job leaders are using tech to monitor and improve operations in real-time.
New mobile platforms allow foremen to update blueprints immediately on-site, instead of having to make the trip back to the office. Workers can annotate and track punch lists from the construction zone, letting them work nimbly in the field when inevitable changes on-site arise.
New mobile platforms allow foremen to update blueprints immediately on-site, instead of having to make the trip back to the office.
Being able to adjust or change plans in real-time reduces or eliminates the time-delay that can be a killer on projects. Some digital tools allow foremen to immediately retrieve and compare data on actual project hours, budgeted hours, and remaining hours, which helps keep projects on or close to budget.
Harry, a VP of Operations at a midsize construction firm, said the way that work gets done is definitely changing. “There's not too many contractors that don't have somebody that’s schooled in software,” he said. “Most of them have gotten smart enough to know that that helps.”
Track Expenses, Everywhere, Digitally
Having centralized expense control enables the home office to get a birds-eye view of all the project expenses — even those out-of-state.
Owners of mid-size construction firms say that it helps control expenses when their out-of-state workers are aware that their spending is being reviewed regularly.
Jake, the owner and operations manager for a construction firm that does about $25 million in annual sales on projects in multiple states, said, “We want our guys that are out of state to be aware that we're reviewing what they’re spending.”
Turning to the latest digital solutions helps construction leaders quickly and easily tabulate expenses and other various needs for projects. Additionally, by avoiding paper, expenses don’t fall through the cracks and pile up without your knowledge.
Custom business Credit Card programs allow firms to digitize their invoices, track expenditures and automate payments through online dashboards.
“We know ahead of time what our costs are going to be,” said Robert, president of a mid-sized construction firm. “We break up those costs, allowing our field personnel to make purchases for specific projects, up to a certain amount.”
Custom business Credit Card programs allow firms to digitize their invoices, track expenditures and automate payments through online dashboards.
“When we were looking around, I asked a couple of friends what they were doing as far as controlling their expenses and what they thought was the best way to go,” Robert said. “Most of them are using a combination of corporate cards and online financial management tools to manage their cash flow.”
Related Stories
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Cleveland, Ohio
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. The Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was dedicated on the Fourth of July, 1894, to honor the memory of the more than 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans of the Civil War.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Oct 12, 2010
From ‘Plain Box’ to Community Asset
The Mid-Ohio Foodbank helps provide 55,000 meals a day to the hungry. Who would guess that it was once a nondescript mattress factory?
