Construction Data Portals: 24/7 Collaboration Tools

Are you familiar with the concept of a web portal, sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?

Portals provide users with the ability to view — and sometimes update — information developed by one or more systems from a single web-based location.

What can a construction portal do for your construction process — inside and outside the company, including vendors and home buyers?  Effective portals improve communication and collaboration by providing real-time data access to enterprise information.

FieldCollaborate Portal Offers 24/7 Vendor Access 

Let's take a look at a real-world example.  Vendors can login to CPS' FieldCollaborate Portal — at any time, 24/7 — and view their current construction schedules, punch items and safety assessments.  And, they're able to pull up builder documents and drawings.

Home buyers, on the other hand, login to the FieldCollaborate Portal to find their home's schedule and stage-of-construction photos.  The Portal keeps home buyers actively engaged throughout the home buying/construction cycle, which in many areas can take nine months from the time of contract acceptance to closing.

Home builders use the Portal, as well, to share information within the enterprise. When we consider the entire set of participants — the builder, vendors and home buyers — think about the number of phone calls, faxes, emails and misunderstandings that can be eliminated!

What's more disruptive than having multiple sources of information?  A well-managed portal provides the same information to everyone (governed by access credentials, of course) — and it's all available 24/7, in real-time, via the cloud!

Portals improve communication and that makes the builder's entire enterprise more efficient and productive — resulting in more profit for both the builder and the vendors.

Mobility: What Benefits Are Available for Construction Operations

Did you see last week's blog highlighting the value of mobility tools to the construction industry?

Nile Lars suggested, in an Insights.Wired article, that mobility solutions add real value to the construction process.  Generally, construction-related businesses are managing multiple projects, in a variety of locations, with most staff working remote -- and all participants have a need to communicate status, results and financials.  Depending on the project, you might also want to add in vendors to the mix, as well.

FieldCollaborate Mobile:  Anywhere/anytime schedule access

Lars suggests several key benefits available throughout the entire construction life cycle:

-- Improved communications as mobility keeps the field and corporate office connected.  Easy sharing of data and images as everyone has anywhere/anytime access.

-- Better workflow processes as a result of real time data.  Field managers, for example, can indicate a task has been completed and approved for payment and, using mobile devices and an integrated system, accounting can issue payment.

-- Increased productivity.  Think improved efficiency, no more double data entry, missed phone calls, lost faxes and the like!

-- Ability to integrate systems and outside staff. Now that field managers and corporate staff have anywhere/anytime access to data, why not offer access to your vendors?

And, mobile tablets and smart phones offer the ability to go beyond data: field managers, for example, can capture onsite images, videos and audios to back-up activities onsite as well as distribute to corporate staff.  Document sharing is becoming more and more popular, as well.

Mobility enables  field staff  and vendors to be active participants throughout the enterprise -- saving time, enhancing communications and strengthening workflow processes.