Construction Management Software Strengthens Project Management

By Sheldon Needle

Things are hopping in the construction software industry. Mid market vendors (who address the $5M -100M market) are working hard to add and enhance project management features to their products. Why? Because it’s what contractors need to run their operations more efficiently. Adopting “best practices” can improve paper work flow and provide better access to information to control jobs.

But the overall benefit of a robust project management solution is a lot more than just managing paper. It’s also about monitoring data on a real-time basis. In computer parlance, real-time is about information being available at the time it is created. In past times paper time sheets were completed in the field to capture job labor. This is still the case for many contractors. These time sheets are sent to the office where the information is either keyed into the job costing ledger or into the payroll system, where the information sits until the payroll is run. With newer technology you can use a PC, a tablet PC, terminal services or a web-based system to capture the data from field offices where it can be immediately sent to the server computer and posted to job cost. The data is now available for more timely progress billing, up to date cost to complete reporting and accurate budget analysis. Bonding agents, who often push for more complete and up to date information systems, also appreciate this kind of capability!

Let’s take it a step further with project management that involves contracts and documents such as change orders, RFI’s and submittals. This paperwork can be created and tracked via a collaborative online project management system. Since these documents require approvals, project managers can route them to the staff for handling, note making, approvals, and so on. Project managers can also have the documents appear in the “to do” queue for staff where they can be seen, annotated, or forwarded to other parties as necessary.

A construction project management software system can also be used to scan in documents such as changes, purchase orders, and vendor invoices and attach them to any associated transaction. The document is stored and becomes part of the transaction record for reference purposes if any questions come up. For example, let’s say an invoice is received with a price that does not match the original PO. You will be able to access the original PO, attach it to the vendor invoice transaction, and have supervisors view it before approval. Furthermore if the document involves a change to the budget (e.g. a change order or pending change order) the project management system can be used, at the option of the user, to update the budget as soon as it is created.

Another current technology is the ability to monitor job schedules through Gantt charts with critical path information. This technology also allows users to write notes about the schedule with a live link to job cost for transactions that affect job costs and forward them to project managers for action. This capability was previously only available in very high end, expensive, solutions.

Other useful applications that can be found in some midmarket products include tracking small tools usage and costing; work order creation from the field; and invoicing and payment collection. All these new areas can lead to a vastly more productive operation with a reduction of paperwork and more timely information for managing jobs.

* A conversation with President John Meibers of ComputerEase was very helpful in preparing this article.

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