New Home Construction Web Portals: 24/7 Access for Vendors & Buyers

Are you familiar with the concept of a web portal, sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?  Portals provide users the ability to view — and sometimes update — information developed by one or more systems from a single web-based location.

Give Your Vendors 24/7 Access to Schedules & Punch

What would 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.

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

Home buyers, on the other hand, login to the FieldCollaborate Portal to view 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. Great for out-of-town buyers!

Home builders use the Portal, as well, to share information within their enterprise. When we consider the entire set of participants — the builder, vendors and homebuyers. 

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?  Your 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 their vendors. Ask us how FieldCollaborate and Portals can improve your scheduling, communication and efficiency!

Home Builders: Taking on the Search for Skilled Labor

We've been reading interesting articles regarding a labor shortage in the homebuilding trades and seeing suggestions as to how to find qualified vendors.  We'll highlight a few -- as well as ask have you considered how to best manage the resources available to you?

First, the suggestions:

-- Network
-- Encourage current employees/vendors to join in the process
-- Build a pipeline
-- Make sure you're competitive
-- Develop talent within
-- Consider apprentice programs (your own and those in the community).

All great ideas; some will take a fair amount of time to produce results.

FieldCollaborate: anywhere/anytime scheduling & more!

We have one additional suggestion that can generate results almost immediately: make sure you're maximizing your current resources. 

Automated construction scheduling will not only create schedules and allow you to track/report progress against the schedules.  It will highlight problem areas, allow you to focus attention on trouble spots and help you develop solutions.

Do you know which trades show up on time, have all their equipment available and are ready to work, leave the job site clean and ready for the next trade? Scheduling systems that include quality ratings, punch lists and safety assessments will take you a long way in answering those questions.

How about taking your knowledge and expanding it throughout the supply chain? Make drawings available on line through a Vendor Portal; provide illustrated guides to specialty installations; put your schedules on line to streamline the trade partner notification process and keep everyone up-to-date.

Growing your labor pool is essential; maximizing its effectiveness is critical, too. Talk to us and see how CPS' FieldCollaborate can add efficiency and effectiveness to your construction process.