Moreover, saving your documents is necessary to meet the filing requirements for any legal procedures afterward. Also, maintaining the blueprint drawings saves your proofs for any further claims or litigations. The construction industry is one of the fastest growing industries now and that’s why the technology market is working on providing multiple helpful tools for the practitioners in this field. The new advancements showed vigorous efforts to provide easy use mobile blueprint software that allows you to open and check your drawings wherever you are. According to a recent construction technology survey in 2017, large construction firms were asked how important mobile capabilities are. In 2012 41% said it is not important while in 2017 only 17% said so. This shows how mobile software is essential to the construction sector nowadays. Depending on the previous facts, this means that your helpful tool would be software that gives access from both, your desktop and your phone even in the offline mode. PlanRadar offers these features and more, you can explore them yourself in the 30 Days trial version.
Best general contractor software tools
A general contractor is the one who manages and monitors the real building process on site. He is responsible for providing all the material, equipment, and labor to the project. For every project, there is one general contractor who can hire a subcontractor for some specialized work afterward. His main goal on site is to provide the highest quality with the existing budget and schedule, in parallel with maintaining the site safety. The general contractor’s responsibilities are not fixed they sometimes extend to include multiple branches as administrative roles, job site coordination and technical defect management. This totally depends on the size of the construction firm because in large companies these duties are shared with the project manager while in small companies, the general contractor will be the ship’s captain. It’s a difficult role that requires multi skills, expert knowledge, and effort.
As a trial, to help the general contractor in his work, the technological market designed two kinds of software; one is for scheduling and the other is for the project management. Both software types can include features that help the other field, but using a specialized tool will aid you much better. Next, you will learn what the difference between the two kinds of software is and how to benefit from each one of them. You need a specialized kind of support through software products that keep your data´s privacy and focuses on the base of your construction business, namely the blueprint. Different solutions are available for download or as a web application. We want your company to use the best floor plan, management and scheduling tool in terms of saving time and money. Therefore first of all let’s get clear about your own requirements. What exactly do you need to translate a great design from blueprints into reality?
General contractor scheduling software
The construction industry consists of a group of sequencing steps that are most of the time, basic fixed steps, which include a group of multiple tasks. If you properly manage this sequence, then you are holding your project parts tight. The benefits you gain from planning and scheduling your project are enormous because these will provide an accurate execution of your plans, higher efficiency, cost, time-saving and effective communication. All of these benefits will let you gain your client’s trust and so you will save your work reputation. As a general contractor, engaging your scheduling tasks on a specialized software requires being ready with all your plans and decisions to sequence them in it. This will eliminate the possibility of postponing or forgetting a critical step of work.
A scheduling driven software enhances the work progression by putting you on track and lets you divide your project into main milestones to be updated and monitored afterward. A suitable software should also enrich your company policy regarding maintaining contact with all parties involved in the design and building process. Remember; communication is key to success!
General contractor project management software
Project management work is the engine of the site, you got to always keep it maintained to guarantee a smooth workflow. Your loss of not managing your project can go beyond your expectations. Sometimes you start planning for your project with an initial budget of $1 million and an average cost overrun of 20% thinking that the $200,000 loss will be your worst-case scenario output, but this could be inaccurate. As an example is the Big Dig project in Massachusetts state in the US, the project was initially planned to finish in 1998 but it actually completed in 2006 with 8 years delay and cost overrun of $18 billion. According to the Globe analysis, these costs will not be paid off until 2038. Can you imagine the size of the massive loss? That’s why you need project management software in the construction business. Paying a small amount to support your work success is better than paying a huge amount of money to save your project from a fetal end. General contractor tasks are endless, interfered and variable. However, by his role of being the site leader, he always tries to manage these tasks. Project management software is one of the main tools that aid the general contractor to manage his work precisely. Find the main benefits you gain from using a project management software as a general contractor in the following:
- Collaborative communication between project parties
- Cost and time management
- Project monitoring solutions
- Safe documentation for your project data
- Customer satisfaction
Following the technology choice and choosing the proper project management software for your project will result in a win-win relationship between you and the owner of the project. Today, project management software is served to support all kind of engines, such as windows, android, and IOS. PlanRadar is on top of the list of project management software because it provides a combination of the essential features you need in the design and also the construction phase. While using PlanRadar software you will be able to document each defect instantly, send and receive direct messages to your team and save your project documents safely on the software cloud. Give it a go and Try it now! You don’t need to download our software, our web applications can be used online from anywhere you are! Create an overall view for your team and start to communicate through cad plans uploaded on the PlanRadar interface.
Subcontractor management software
The construction sector’s recent expansion caused a shortage of professional skills that can hold the project responsibility. It is no longer possible for only one person to hold all the project duties. Based on the previous fact, the subcontractor role has evolved. The subcontractor is hired by the general contractor to perform specialized technical or managerial tasks. If the subcontractor work is administrated properly the consistency and accuracy of the project will be evident, which will result in increasing the profit. An active and up to date subcontractor now uses a multi-option software to manage his work and operations. For large companies with complex projects, there is an enormous number of subcontractors. They all need to be connected with the general contractor as well as being connected to each other to perform their work adequately in terms of quality and efficiency. A Subcontractor specialized operating system with a connecting platform will be the best tool to connect you with your co-workers.
Smart project management software systems can help the subcontractor by giving him the ability to monitor work progress on site instantly and providing him with the accurate data he needs. Choosing an effective software tool is a critical step because you have to think not only about today’s work but also in your future business. Start by knowing your biggest problems so you can find the appropriate tool to solve them. Discuss with your team their needs to provide a better working environment. And always think of the great benefits that you will gain. PlanRadar software can help you to track your project’s defects on a digital floor plan and to be connected with the other subcontractors all the time. You and your project team will have a common base that you all can access to share the same information and modifications in your blueprints. Don’t be left behind and take the advantage of 30 days trial version to save up to 7 working hours per week.
Construction industry software – Investment barriers
Despite the rapid expansion of the construction sector, until recently construction software systems were not forming a substantial portion of this industry. Actually, there was no obvious reason for limiting the role of technological tools. Is it because of the difficulty of applying automation due to the uniqueness of each construction project, or because of the lack of investing more money in programming from the large construction firms. It was found in the JPKnowledge 2017 report that after surveying over 2600 construction companies, the majority of construction firms spend less than 1% of their annual sales volume on IT. The situation is not going as expected because the survey showed a decrease in annual expenses in this slice of 9.5% from 2016 to 2017. However, large companies are trying to implement more developed software technologies in project management after losing much because of mismanagement problems.
Source: JPKnowledge 2017 Construction technology report.
Construction experts are well-aware of the vital role of software technologies and how these systems can improve the efficiency and accuracy of work. But the problem is the lack of budgeting to invest in this mechanism. The solution is choosing a software that suits your business needs and can also save you money that you can invest again in developing your IT working tools. As an example, PlanRadar software saves you 40% in costs. If the project’s budget is $1 million you will save an average amount of $40,000 which is much more than what you should pay to work with software. This closed cycle can maintain your work efficiency without spending a fortune to implement the technological utilities. Create an account, upload files you planned in cad and start communicating news with your whole team! Try PlanRadar now for 30 days without charge and start your saving. There are heaps of architecture apps for the construction industry on the market in 2018. Contact us and learn more about the right choice for your business and the most intuitive solution so far.
