The success of any construction project depends on multiple factors, including budget and schedule, that impact project completion. In fact, most contractors often add a 10% margin of error to their budgets and schedules as a contingency.
As expected, not all aspects of a project go as planned; Various setbacks often affect your costs and deadlines. Manual design, estimating, bidding, and project management processes and tasks are largely responsible for such lapses.
Project managers are committed to changing this; they turned to technology to streamline processes, ensure efficiency and improve coordination on and off-site. They are also moving from design-bid-build to design-build, which helps them complete projects 102% faster.
This post will explore how project managers use technology to ensure construction is on budget and on time.
Connecting the project site to the office
Good communication and a continuous flow of information are essential to the success of any project. Note that 63% of projects fail due to poor communication. Your administrative and site teams must work fluidly to approve projects, review reports, and ensure an uninterrupted flow of updates.
Contractors have been relying on legacy pen-and-paper systems to manage projects for years. Unfortunately, these systems are prone to errors and confusion, and losing a vital document during a project is even easier.
In response, construction companies are adopting a digital culture to increase productivity and minimize administrative work. With apps and software solutions, project managers can now connect their project locations to the office for efficient collaboration and effective communication.
Given that 80% of all construction processes are always the same, digitalization helps eliminate repetition in your operations. It supports real-time field-to-office communications, and on-site teams can capture and analyze data instantly, eliminating the unreliability of paper records.
A digital tool that supports real-time updates provides a single source of truth so all teams are on the same page while enabling continuous monitoring and management. It optimizes efforts across your portfolios and provides access to updates with just a click of a button.
Getting value from data from past projects
The use of digital tools has allowed construction companies to collect a lot of data at the completion of each project. When analyzed, data provides actionable insights for data-driven decision making and sustainable business growth.
The growth of cloud computing, mobile applications, and integrated software platforms has allowed project managers to use new technologies to explore business data. For example, past data allows teams to identify security issues and high-risk patterns to avoid costly mistakes.
The technology allows project managers to aggregate all data sources, including regulatory submissions, designs, project management, financial, BIM and construction documentation. This provides a single source of truth to drive your build engine.
With a standard data environment, teams can access diverse data inputs to reduce risk, make faster decisions, and improve project performance. Additionally, it provides a clear view of the entire project, allowing teams to monitor each process and implement feedback.
Harnessing the power of digital tools
As noted previously, digitalization is vital to ensuring the efficiency of your projects. As many as 87% of construction executives believe digital transformation is essential to gaining competitive advantage. However, the process can only be effective if you invest in the right digital tool.
The right tool should provide a central platform for collaboration and communication, allowing teams to connect in real time and share updates anywhere. The solution must offer all the necessary features to obtain full control and oversight of the entire project.
For example, project managers use project management features such as scheduling to set priorities, assign tasks, and track project progress. They also use digital tools to centralize their Requests for Information (RFIs) to ensure a continuous flow of internal and external communications.
Most importantly, features like cost tracking, dashboards, and estimating are essential for delivering projects within budget. For example, the estimating feature allows managers to eliminate manual calculations and obtain adequate margins for each task using construction software.
Deliver projects within budget and on time
Delivering construction projects on time and within budget is a major challenge. Changes and setbacks that result in budget delays and adjustments are sometimes inevitable. As a result, most project managers focus on limiting typical schedule and cost overruns.
Digitalization helps reduce risks in project execution and management, allowing you to control your costs and improve delivery times. Paper-based or silo-based systems have traditionally reduced the flexibility and efficiency required to properly manage projects.
Digital tools, on the other hand, create formal, standardized processes and controls, improving cost reporting, incident tracking, tender fulfillment, and security management. With reports and dashboards, project managers get a single pane of glass to monitor the entire project.
