Why You Need Connected, Accessible Project Data

So, let’s take a look at some of the key benefits you can realize when you connect all your project data through a set of digital tools—tools that enable you to build your best work every time. 

Start With a Winning Plan

When I’m out in the field, I often hear from contractors who run into a number of challenges that could be simplified if only they had access to a solution that helped them in their planning and scheduling activities. Specifically, project planners often tell me they’d like to create more realistic plans—plans that are actually achievable and more likely to succeed. In addition, they say they’d perform more advanced project scheduling if only it didn’t take so long. 

Think of the benefits of starting with a plan that builds from a knowledge library made up of your own connected data. When you couple that with team member feedback and consensus early in the planning stage, you end up with a truly intelligent schedule. 

Because stakeholders and crews are able to access connected data in real time and either buy in or not, there is more visibility into the budget, man-hours and materials needed. Using a digital planning tool that allows stakeholders to access project data minimizes the risk of delays and budget overruns because you’re collaborating up front and making decisions before the operation actually begins. 

Finally, an AI-assisted planning tool can include Short Interval Planning (SIP) capabilities that allow you to break down work—let’s say, over the next three weeks—into a look-ahead schedule. Never before has there been a seamless transition to field execution management solutions to allow the team to actually get the planned work done. 

As for the time element of project scheduling, you can reduce it by up to 40% while building an intelligent, knowledge-driven plan with a little help from today’s most advanced digital tools. Intuitive cloud-based solutions offer a user experience that reduces the training time and amount of specialized expertise required of typical enterprise scheduling options. And with innovative scheduling and planning software, you can decrease the amount of time spent gathering team member feedback by up to 75%, thus maximizing the accuracy of the schedule while minimizing the effort.

There’s Great Power in Feedback

With a sound plan in place, there is an opportunity to tackle another key area where contractors struggle on a daily basis—not having enough feedback from crews at the jobsite to know what’s really happening now on a project. Unless your data is connected, you won’t be able to receive the critical real-time visibility needed to make proactive decisions. Instead, you’re waiting a week or two for your cost reports and payroll to catch up to one another and reacting to old news that says you’re weeks behind on making budget. 

Let’s use the example of Joe Contractor, who has a budget of $100,000 for foundation concrete. Joe knows he must pour so much concrete per day using a certain crew size and it should take so many days to complete. When Joe is unable to communicate that information to the field in a timely manner, the foreman simply decides how fast his crew can go based on their experience, and they start working. A week later, payroll runs, a week after that the cost report is ready, and now Joe realizes he has spent the entire budget only to pour 70% of the concrete. 

Instead, harnessing, connecting and communicating data would have allowed for crew or productivity adjustments much sooner. With the initial plan for the operation sent from the estimating team into an integrated field execution management solution, the progress that’s been captured helps to fuel analytics. That connected data then allows for a proactive look at the operation. 

With connected scheduling and field execution management tools, you have the power to adjust there and now. Because stakeholders are getting real-time feedback, they know (as in Joe’s example above) that they didn’t pour enough concrete the first day and can adjust accordingly. 

Consider another scenario: As the crew wraps up their day and heads home for dinner, our buddy Joe the Contractor has no idea if they got done what was needed that day. What he does know is they have to get everything completed by next Friday. As Friday approaches with a lot of work left to do, Joe will likely just start throwing more people at it. 

However, with a digital scheduling, daily planning and time collecting tool that makes use of connected data, Joe is able to break down his work into effective daily chunks upfront. At the end of each day, he understands if his crews will have the work completed by next Friday, or if he is equipped to make the necessary immediate changes. This is all a result of access to connected data, providing the ability for real-time feedback.

Track Time & Don’t Forget the Quantities

While the Rolling Stones sang “Time Is On My Side,” contractors know it’s hardly ever that way, and it’s hardly the complete story on a project. We see many contractors begin by buying a timekeeping system as a point solution. This is often the quickest foray into starting a digital transformation and is definitely a step in the right direction.

However, the average off-the-shelf timekeeping system typically does not integrate quantity tracking. This means you’re lacking a critical piece for productivity metrics and you end up having to find yet another point solution. 

Time-tracking apps do just that—perform time-tracking, and will allow you only to enter hours worked today for a specific activity. For example, the app records that Charlie (who works for Joe Contractor) put in 8 hours of work. Also, Charlie’s 8 hours include an hourly rate and are tracked against a cost code in the budget (concrete foundations, in this example). The problem arises in understanding the math. Joe spent X amount of dollars pouring concrete foundations today, but how much was he actually supposed to spend? 

The answer? Well, that depends on Y—how many cubic yards Joe had in his budget for concrete. When the only information Charlie’s app requested was the number of hours he worked, you have no way of capturing Y. This is the moment Joe turns to the room and asks in disdain, “Okay, is anybody here tracking quantities?” 

There you see the deficiencies of a generic, off-the-shelf time-tracking tool—they don’t put time and quantities together. Sure, you could do both with traditional paper timecards, but a piece of paper won’t do the algebra for you to calculate the answer. The same is true for adding a second quantity-tracking point solution. What Joe needs is a solution that does all of that math for him. Simply enter in hours and the quantity for a cost code and see in real time if you made or lost money that day. 

Simply put, quantity remains the nucleus of construction. It’s how everything gets measured. Whether it’s a ton, a yard, a linear foot or an inch, all work gets done by installing units. Everything revolves around the quantity and integrating what you spent to install that quantity with labor, equipment and material costs. When data is disconnected, you’re unable to make this correlation and you’re missing a tremendous amount of insight. 

Joe’s struggle hits close to home for many of us, and my hope is you are now able to better understand the importance of connecting your project data and allowing real-time access to it through his example. 

With the proper set of digital construction tools, fully integrated to let all stakeholders share a single version of project truth, and accessible across all stages of the project life cycle, you can take advantage of that big data buzzing around the industry. Software solutions, such as InEight Schedule and InEight Build, have been created with exactly that in mind, helping Joe—and more importantly you—make accurate and timely decisions that drive project success.