Today’s project managers have a wide variety of construction technology solutions at their disposal to help collect and assess critical information from the field.
If your construction company isn’t utilizing historical data, you’re missing out on major opportunities to build better bids and make more informed decisions about timelines, budgets, hiring, and more.
How better data helps construction companies manage projects
Better data leads to better project management in several ways. With consistent, accurate updates from the field, you can improve:
Bids and estimates
Resource management
Risk management
Customer engagement
Bids and estimates
One of the most challenging aspects of construction work is the preconstruction or planning phase. During this time, project managers and other stakeholders need to finalize the project contract and draft a detailed work plan.
Even before preconstruction, construction companies write a rough order of magnitude and initial bid in order to “win” the project based on estimated costs and schedules. This means that from the very beginning of a project’s start, construction companies are making major decisions that will affect end profits.
All estimates must be both competitive and accurate to protect the interests of the construction company and their customers. While a project manager’s personal experience can help them make these crucial decisions, reviewing real, detailed data from past projects is even better.
Without historical data, planning a project budget or schedule can seem like a shot in the dark. Understanding how your field crews operate and analyzing past issues that led to delays, change orders, or rework helps project managers draft the most accurate bids and estimates possible.
Resource management
Effectively managing resources is especially important as the construction industry faces a record number of supply chain issues. Having too little or too much material at any given time can significantly affect a project’s bottom line, which is where construction material tracking software comes in handy.
Historical data about how supplies were utilized in the past helps project managers better plan future work schedules. They’ll be able to make sure the right quantity of materials will be delivered on time and replenished when needed.
Similarly, historical data helps construction companies manage their most important resource—their employees. Historical data that tracks work hours and tasks completed helps project managers accurately assess how much labor is needed for a particular phase of a project. They can hire and schedule internal teams and subcontractors efficiently.
Risk management
Historical data is an important piece of construction risk management. Good historical data paints an accurate picture of what went on each day at the jobsite. Referencing past safety and quality concerns—as well as how those concerns affected the daily schedule—helps project managers avoid those risks with future projects.
Perhaps bad weather kept outdoor work from proceeding on time, delaying the overall schedule. When planning a similar project, managers may want to accommodate for bad weather in the schedule upfront. Or, a surplus of workers onsite may have led to a safety issue that caused extensive rework because a small space was overcrowded. Project managers can reference this data and make sure they only schedule the workers that are truly needed for similar tasks.
Project managers can also use good quality reporting data to better manage projects in real time. With accurate field data that is delivered consistently, they can more closely monitor project progress and ensure field crews are accurately and safely following project plans.
Customer engagement
One of the leading causes of construction disputes is poor communication. Consistent updates from the field better engage customers and help project managers quickly identify and correct miscommunications between the company and external partners.
Sharing accurate field data keeps customers engaged and informed, leading to better customer satisfaction and repeat business.
How technology improves daily reporting and project visibility
The benefits of using historical data are clear, but it’s not always easy to improve your data collection process. Field crews are busy, and sometimes they don’t even turn in reports without project managers reminding them. Requiring field contractors to add more time to the workday to improve data quality is a big ask.
To improve project visibility and streamline data without increasing field crews’ responsibilities project managers can implement daily construction reporting software like Raken. Our construction management app has all the tools you need to accurately track projection and gain valuable insights.
How does Raken work?
Through Raken’s easy-to-use app, field crews quickly and accurately collect detailed data from the field using mobile devices. With features like customizable report templates, voice-to-text data capture, and jobsite photo and video documentation, the quality of data improves while field crews save time that can be spent on project-related tasks.
All Raken reports are submitted with the click or tap of a button and shared with stakeholders via cloud storage. This means project managers and other offsite staff can access reports immediately from any location using the app or our web portal. When multiple contractors and subcontractors submit reports, that data is automatically organized and published into a consistent PDF format with charts, graphs, and other visual aids to help you quickly analyze progress.
What does Raken do?
Raken improves the quality and consistency of data you collect, meaning you’ll be able to draft better bids, plan more accurate budgets and schedules, and effectively hire your workforce. You’ll also gain valuable real-time insights on current projects, so you can closely monitor progress and make responsive, proactive decisions.
Use the better data you collect with Raken’s construction project management software to help with project planning, resource management, risk management, and customer engagement.
Raken keeps projects running smoothly and safely. Project managers can use Raken to improve daily reporting while saving time for field crews and office stakeholders.
Additional safety and quality features
Raken’s app includes a library of toolbox talks and construction safety and quality checklists.
Access a relevant toolbox talk, take attendance, and store records right in the app. Or, use a pre-made checklist or customize your own to make sure field crews are capturing the right information during inspections.
These features keep projects on track by minimizing the risk of safety and quality concerns.
Learn more about Raken’s construction project management software
Talk to the Raken team to learn how our construction management software can benefit your construction business.
Try Raken today and see how easy it is to improve data collection with the right tools and technology.