Who’s building here? Pongratz!
Successfully executing construction projects with PlanRadar
Pongratz, a construction company in Graz, Austria, faced the challenge of efficiently managing communication, task assignment, and defect recording on construction projects. They adopted PlanRadar, a platform that simplified processes and enhanced communication across the construction process. With PlanRadar, they recorded relevant data directly on-site, communicated defects, concerns, tasks, and deadlines in real time, and integrated subcontractors seamlessly. This streamlined approach reduced response times, eliminated the need for cumbersome Excel spreadsheets, and saved valuable time on report preparation. With PlanRadar, Pongratz completed projects on time and within budget while improving resource allocation and overall efficiency.
The challenge: time and cost-efficient implementation of projects
We spent a day with civil engineer Andrea Teichmeister and learned how exactly PlanRadar supports the company’s daily business. As an engineer, she sees herself as the right hand of the construction managers and provides them with reports. Her responsibilities begin during the construction shell phase and include following official processes and regularly recording defects, a process which includes providing the associated reports to the responsible construction management. The most satisfying part of her job is seeing construction progress every day, from an empty plot to the moment the keys are handed over to new residents.
Teichmeister is also the coordinator for a modern residential project with 41 units in the 22nd district in Vienna. She coordinates all deadlines, inspections, subcontractors and the company’s own employees. This is time-consuming work, not only when she works on the building site but also when she returns to the office in the evening. Even on medium-sized projects like this, there are up to 100 people involved. Transparent flows of information and clear allocations of roles are critical to finish the project on time and in the most cost-effective way. Even the weather can play a major role, potentially causing delays at any time. So how can companies address all of these factors, stay within budget and keep their clients happy? How can they create clear and simple structures?
The solution: save time on transparent communication and task assignment with PlanRadar
Pongratz is an innovative company that pays close attention to technical innovations on the market. Managing director and civil engineer Alexander Pongratz came across PlanRadar in 2019. After a brief demonstration, he was sure that this application was the right tool to improve efficiency in construction projects. With PlanRadar, the company discovered a simple way to keep communication, task assignment and defect recording running smoothly over the whole construction period. He was also persuaded by the simple use and the multitude of customisable features.
PlanRadar provided training on how to use their intuitive software, which consisted of pre-made demo projects tailored to the company’s business area. This training was completed in next to no time. The business then started on a real project. PlanRadar enables Pongratz to record all the data that is relevant for construction process directly on location on the building site. By recording in words, pictures or sound within tickets, defects, concerns, tasks and also deadlines are communicated in real time to all parties involved. Integrating subcontractors with no additional cost was also very effective for Pongratz. In the aforementioned project with 41 residential units, 16 people from different companies were kept up to date at all times with PlanRadar. Response times were reduced, for example for snagging or during approvals. With customisable forms and report templates and clear distribution of data to the people responsible/recipients, each party receives only the information it needs. The era of hundreds of pages of Excel tables is over for Andrea Teichmeister: “Our entire management team and our site managers are happy that we no longer have to fight through lots of Excel tables. PlanRadar makes it easy to filter the information we need.”
The result: time savings, staying within budget and improved communication
For Andrea Teichmeister, the sheer amount of time she has saved on follow-up work when preparing reports for construction management is the biggest advantage. But it’s not only the time saved that sets PlanRadar apart — communication is quicker and easier too. Even in volatile times such as those experienced in 2020, Pongratz was able to use digital solutions to finish the residential project on Donaufelderstrasse in Vienna on time and on budget. Seamless documentation with PlanRadar helps in terms of administration, because workers are always up to date and can therefore better allocate and use their own resources.
