'Must-Have' Technology Tools

When it comes to a contractor’s technology wish list, there are often two buckets: what one needs and what one wants. Constructor recently spoke with a few IT professionals who provided a rundown on the tools that contractors need both on the jobsite and in the back office, along with some emerging technologies to consider once the essentials are in place.

Rob McKinney, a consultant at JBKnowledge Inc. in Bryan, Texas, says that BIM is on the top of his list of "must-have" IT tools.

"Make the move to VDC — Virtual Design Construction!" McKinney says. "BIM software and workflows can help contractors pre-plan safety, explore design options and coordinate clash-detection meetings on systems and even visualize project schedules and sequencing."

Other IT tools that he recommends include tablets for field staff to view and mark up project plans; augmented reality or virtual reality tools such as the SmartReality app, which can be very useful for visualizing BIM and other project design elements; and laser scanners, a highly accurate tool for measuring current project field conditions.

Contractors who attended the AGC IT Forum Conference in August were particularly vocal about finding new ways to deliver stronger and more consistent WiFi to project sites, says McKinney, who opened the "affordable solutions" session with a short update on new mobile apps.

Additional products that contractors might want to have on their wish lists include Richo Theta S for 360 photos and videos; MS HoloLens, which enables field staff to work inside the Windows 10 environment while walking a project site; Apple iPhone 7+, which has two cameras and is water resistant; Apple Watch Two, which has built-in GPS for tracking; and the Daqri Smart Helmet, a personal protective equipment product that features a heads up display for real-time communication and collaboration.

Maury V. Plumlee, vice president, global marketing at Viewpoint in Portland, Oregon, says the top "must-have" IT tools for contractors revolve around the theme of the "right tool for the job."

"Contractors are looking for software tools that help field and office teams work better together," Plumlee says. "This starts with easy-to-use mobile field management software that fully integrates with back office accounting, project and document management, business analytics and forecasting tools."

Mobile field management software should be able to run on the device and operating system of choice, such as IOS or Android, and must support off-line capture when internet connections aren’t available at the jobsite, he says. Mobile field software should offer features for time and production tracking, materials management, site issues such as defects and inspections, RFIs, submittals and other communications. Field data should be forwarded to the accounting system with the proper review and approval workflows built in.

"Contractors are struggling to manage an ever-increasing amount of project content," Plumlee says. "To aid productivity and reduce risk, this content must be stored in a secure, searchable database so that documents, drawings, videos are easily shared and retrieved."

Modern content management solutions offer version control and "check-in/check-out" functionality, so that changes can be recorded and not overwritten, lost or deleted, he says. Such a system should also have configurable approval workflows and robust reporting capabilities.

Project management software should be fully integrated with a back office accounting solution to streamline entry and reporting, Plumlee says. The software should also track all project management functions, including budgets, contracts and other commitments, as well as change orders, forecasts, documents and communications. The tool should have the ability to combine actual costs with pending and forecasted costs to give the contractor the full monthly picture of their project portfolio health.

Business intelligence and analytics tools should have drillable dashboards that provide project, group or enterprise-level reporting. Project forecasting tools should be fully integrated with actual cost systems and offer flexible methodologies based on forecasted cost, revenue or hours at completion. Forecasts should be stored for comparison and trend analysis reporting.

"When conducting an ROI exercise to justify the investment in any new solution, contractors should ask the vendor to provide concrete ROI examples, which are based on real-world feedback from clients who are using the product," Plumlee says.

ROI questions that can help better understand the benefits of the tool: Which business processes and workflows can be improved by implementing the solution? How many hours can be saved, and in what areas, including entry, processing or reporting? What are the indirect benefits, including will the new solution help lower risk or increase visibility, both of which can have a positive effect on the contractor’s bottom-line?

It is important to fully account for the all the costs of implementing a solution, he says, including licensing and annual support fees; IT support costs; implementation and training; and the costs for the time to train and implement the staff on the new solution.

Christian Burger, president of Burger Consulting in Chicago, says that companies shouldn’t get all caught up in "nice to have" or advanced software, if they don’t have the core basic software deployed well, such as a good job cost management program with change order management and forecasting.

"Contractors can get all caught up in the hype and cool stuff that seems to be trendy, such as drones, wearables and augmented reality," Burger says. "While there’s nothing wrong with those things, contractors really need to focus on the fundamentals that can create tremendous value or mitigate risk."

Contractors may have core systems, such as ERP, estimating, or project management well chosen, but many just don’t have the time to implement them well or haven’t adequately trained their staff on the systems, or they don’t hold their staff accountable to using the systems, he says.

There is new job technology that has online forecasting, integrated change order management, budgeting and the ability to import job cost history, which are all very important, he says. For example, if a contractor is using accounting software that has change order management capability, when a change order gets approved, the software automatically updates the budget and the contract with the project owner – everything is integrated.

"That is superior to printing out change orders and then manually keying in the new costs into an accounting system," Burger says. "There is also the issue of pending change orders, and if a contractor doesn’t have an integrated accounting software system that includes pending change orders, the cost report could look poor if costs were incurred on work that has a pending change order for it but no one can tell since it is not on the report."

The need for BIM in today’s construction environment is "enormous," and all construction companies have to become BIM-savvy, he says.

"To some extent the importance is variable depending on the type of contractor they are, but BIM is too significant of a trend to ignore," Burger says. "They could start out with one license in one product, and then gradually add others so they can get caught up and ready to meet customer and contractor demands."

Once contractors have business systems in place, then BIM can follow for design and construction. BIM should become a lifelong endeavor that changes the way a contractor manages the building process, he says.

Other must-have software include online automated billing, so contractors don’t have to use a separate spreadsheet program; commitment management solutions, in which purchasing and subcontractor management ties with accounts payable; and a project management solution that incorporates RFIs, submittals, daily logs and meeting minutes, he says.

Heavy construction and highway contractors also need an equipment management solution that includes preventive maintenance scheduling, work order processing, and job charging, Burger says. For specialty contractors that perform service work, they should have an integrated service application within their accounting system. They need to be able to bill people for repairs and also account for the reduced inventory. The invoice needs to tie back to accounts receivable, the general ledger and inventory management, so having an integrated system that ties all of that together is pretty important.

General contractors should consider implementing a collaborative project management solution that also allows subcontractors, architects and engineers to communicate to sign in and do things, he says. Implementing an automated estimating solution is probably next in line in terms of priority must-have systems. "A lot of contractors estimate and budget work via spreadsheet, which is pretty inefficient and carries an element of risk," Burger says. "It’s so easy to make a mistake using spreadsheets, such as inadvertently changing a formula and getting a number wrong. Using an automated estimating program that includes digital takeoff would go along way to eliminating those errors and making them more visible when they do occur."

Contractors should also consider implementing, if they have not already, an automated field time capture solution, so workers in the field can submit timesheets for approval via a cloud application, eliminating all manual re-keying of timesheets, he says.

Contractors definitely need to evaluate the value of the technology, Burger says. "If they can’t make the case how a system is going to make customers and employees happier and more efficient, then they shouldn’t bother. There’s plenty of technology that sounds interesting, cool and fun, but often they are solutions in search of a problem, and I wouldn’t go after them."

"Every company needs to factor training into any new hardware or software purchase," McKinney says. "Our consulting group has seen several example of failed technology implementation due to the fact that employees have simply been handed a new device and not shown the features and how to use the device."

Plumlee also emphasizes the need for training. "It is critically important to define a clear training plan with specific milestones and deliverables in order to ensure a successful roll-out," he says. "This is an area that is often underestimated and under-resourced when the product is purchased."

After implementation, it is critical that contractors ensure that employees have access to effective user-guides and refresher training tools, which are better leveraged if they are online, he says.

Burger recommends that contractors deploy new IT solutions gradually or in stages, such as piloting new software with a single crew, department, or individual.

"For example, if they have 100 workers in the field, instead giving all of them new iPads, they should give iPads to five or 10 workers at a time," he says. "Get one crew trained in using them, and let them work out the kinks before going to the next crew, and gradually get everyone trained."

That also enables contractors to realize early on if they’ve made a bad decision with a particular technology, so they won’t have to spend a lot of money implementing that one and can start over, he says.

"Moreover, most companies couldn’t support deployment of 100 iPads all at once – the IT person’s phone would be ringing off the hook," Burger says. "Much better to deploy five at a time, so the IT person can support them, coach them and move them along."

Above all, implementation of any new technology must have the full support from upper management to make sure the company culture is ready for the change, McKinney says.