The Technology Changing Construction

In the construction world, your customers expect continuous project updates — even if you are tied up on a jobsite. If you do not have access to the latest project reports and data, you won’t have the ability to answer their questions in a timely fashion, which might set the stage for ongoing customer and job battle. Technological advancements in the construction and building industries have made it possible to communicate, collaborate, and manage projects from anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

 

Check out these 3 top construction technology trends which are taking off in 2017.

1. Cloud-Based Technology

Construction workers and project workers are amazed at how the cloud can resolve common productivity roadblocks and allow them to create best practice benchmarking practices for projects. Popular construction solutions like Sage Service Operations and Sage Construction Project Center supply contractors with simple, cloud-based access to programs, work orders, and a huge array of project documents at the office or on the move.

Today’s Construction businesses are picking the cloud to:

Reduce capital expenditures — sometimes you know you need better technology, but it’s tough to use capital for purchasing software, in addition to the databases, servers, and workstations to run it. Having a cloud model that leverages pay-as-you-go subscription prices, allows you to conserve the money you’d normally spend on IT infrastructure and up-front software buy.

Cut down on IT headaches — you understand patterns and bidding, but you may not know computer maintenance and IT troubleshooting. With the cloud, you do not need to. Cloud sellers usually handle all of the server maintenance, software upgrades, and IT hassles for you so that you can concentrate on your business.

 

The Cloud isn’t all nothing

As you explore new technology alternatives, it is important to not forget that you do not need to use the cloud to get everything.

To save costs while maximizing productivity and management, many building firms choose a “hybrid cloud” model, where peripheral applications such as field-service, mobile job management and record management functions are transferred to the cloud, while crucial back-office functions like accounting stay on-premises. This strategy can help you test the waters as you discover what the cloud offers.

Did you know? The term “cloud computing” may seem like its celestial origins, but you can trace the word back to old technical diagrams from decades past which often featured a cloud picture to signify the net. Another commonly used picture for the web was the planet, so it’s pure chance that we do not talk about the ease of “world computing” instead of cloud.

 

2. Mobile Technology

Unless you’re hosting your yearly holiday party, it is unlikely that your construction company could possibly have all your employees in the workplace at exactly the exact same time. Mobile technology makes it possible to keep your employees up to date even if they are away from the office.

Construction contractors use cellular technology on the job since it helps them:

Make every jobsite into a workplace — if your employees can clock in and out of the area, send and access project upgrades remotely, handle change orders, initiate purchases, and take materials to the jobsite, your organization will save time and boost productivity effortlessly. On the other hand, it also enables you, the employer to initiate fleet GPS tracking and monitor productivity from afar.

 

Implement new applications within hours — building software may form the backbone of your company. But cellular software apps like file collaboration, service dispatch, and analytics dashboards can provide additional convenience for things that are not necessarily mission critical. That also typically suggests that these add-on mobile programs can be installed in a couple of hours so that you can get right to work.

Both cloud and mobile technology work hand-in-hand. Cloud moves the technology and data to the World Wide Web, mobile permits you to access all of it.

 

3. Collaboration Technology

Successful construction jobs require team communication, so why are we still using one-on-one email and telephone calls for planning, scheduling, and sharing files?

If you’re using the World Wide Web to supply cloud-based apps and you are using mobile devices to get those programs from jobsites, it is only natural you will also need to give your employees technology that can help you bring everybody together.

At its core, collaboration technology provides a single centralized place for most construction-related files, procedures, and communications, any small business advisors would suggest this when a employee base is so remote. In short, everybody involved with the project has access to the identical up-to-date information — such as drawings, programs, job information, and reports — and can provide their own real time input and upgrades as they work. Collaboration technology will get everybody on the same page such as vendors, partners, subcontractors, and customers.

Collaboration technology may take many forms and touch many distinct components of your construction company. Take the bidding procedure for example. Building and handling bidder lists isn’t a simple job and neither is monitoring the number of back-and-forth communications during the procedure.

But you can make things easier and a lot more efficient for everybody by providing estimators, bid coordinators, subcontractors, and material suppliers online access to a centralized bid collaboration hub such as Sage Bid Management.

 

Building a Strong Foundation

By leveraging the perfect technology in your construction business, you will have the capability to bid faster, collaborate better, respond to the clients faster, and ensure everyone on your staff has access to the very up-to-date job at any time in the workplace, at the jobsite, and everywhere in between.