Home-run! Four Bases to Cover Before Buying a Construction Project Management Solution
Let's talk about 4 main reasons owners are rapidly migrating to construction project management software for their Capital Improvement Programs' needs.
In this definitive guide to document management, we’ll cover four key reasons owners are rapidly migrating to a construction project management software for their Capital Improvement Programs' (CIPs) needs:
1. Identify Your Executives’ Needs & Expectations
Executives are looking for real-time visibility into areas of potential risk and project performance, including cost controls, schedule, and quality.
STRATEGIC ACTION:
Seek first to understand. Gather with organizational decisionmakers and executives and identify their main objectives for the program, including areas they want to see an improvement. Quantify improvements such as the percentage improvement in project cost overruns, project quality, or meeting schedule milestones. Knowing what your stakeholders need to make the best possible decisions is the first step to winning their support for a change.
2. Define Enterprise-wide Benefits
Many project managers still spend an inordinate amount of time preparing, reviewing and editing disconnected spreadsheets, change order requests, and invoices, in order to move a project forward; and even more time putting together schedule and cost reports. These manual processes cost time and money that can have a significant impact on overall project performance.
STRATEGIC ACTION:
Count the manual hours. Evaluate the needs and goals of those charged with moving projects from concept to completion and document the potential time and efficiency problem areas. Are there too many disconnected systems? Document your manual versus automated processes, the time it takes to complete these, and how much it potentially costs the organization. Is there room for improvement?
3. Cross-Enterprise Standardization
Many large organizations with multiple facilities in various locations struggle with standardization and consistency in documentation and processes. Too often, individual entities act autonomously with different ways of reporting, inconsistent nomenclature (e.g., door versus entry) and varying perspectives about risks and costs.
STRATEGIC ACTION:
Reduce Rogue Project Management. When evaluating your organization’s processes, focus on impacts to the business such as the ability to streamline change orders, make informed data-driven decisions and provide accurate forecasts. A structured process is vital to executive buy-in along with the opportunity for simplified data management and reports.
4. Managing expectations
Executives are often optimistic individuals. They expect project management solutions or any technology deployment to be quick and easy—over the course of a week, maybe two—and they expect the system to be operational out of the gate. It’s simply not possible. A large-scale enterprise-wide adoption takes time, particularly when it comes to changing legacy methods across multiple offices, different geographic regions, training employees who must learn new processes, techniques and technologies, and even integrating your new PMIS with existing systems, such as an ERP.
STRATEGIC ACTION:
Develop a plan for implementation! Outline all potential users, integrations, locations, job sites, and top requirements that matter most to the organization. Remember to include quantifiable business metrics that translate to cost savings, and efficiency, as these metrics will resonate the most with your executive team.
Closing Thoughts
WHY IT COSTS YOU MORE TO DO NOTHING
Exceeding budget and schedule or experiencing quality deficiencies may cost owner organizations millions of dollars over the budgeted cost of a project. The inefficiencies may already exist in your organization and doing nothing will ensure they continue to make a negative impact. It is time to shine a spotlight on those problems and help your executive team get behind a well-planned change for improvement.
Construction Project Management Solutions are uniquely designed to help keep your projects on schedule, within budget and give you the visibility and control to ensure a quality project is delivered—a result that every owner can get behind.