When you are good, you are good – and everyone wants to work with you. For many subcontracting businesses in the construction industry, their skill in their trade is so good they have customers lining up. However, for some, that can be where it goes wrong. Inefficient business systems limit the ability to successfully deliver all the work – and customers sadly start to back away.
The right construction management software, properly implemented and actively used by the team, can support a quality subcontracting business on a growth trajectory to make the very most of its excellent trade skills.
What is construction management software?
Bigger teams, bigger inventory lists. With ever more people and plan to manage, growing a business adds challenge and complexity each step of the way. From handling all the details of one project site at a time, now it be can five, ten or even more. Or perhaps its more that the projects are more complex or larger in scale. Plus as the scale of work grows, so does the regulatory oversight and amount of scrutiny the business attracts. While everything else in a growing business gets bigger, often the team managing it is the last to add on new headcount, so the pressure mounts until it cracks.
What is construction management software?
This is where construction management software makes the difference. Subcontractor-focused software is centred on the tasks and records that subcontractors need, both on-site and off-site, to be productive and efficient. From scaffolding to plumbing businesses, or formwork and every trade in between, construction management software manages the resources and scheduling to deliver projects on multiple sites, with tools to record and report on all aspects of the work.
While some full suite project management systems may have the capability to put a rocket into orbit, purpose-built subcontractor software delivers on the areas that make up subbie work life, not bundling into the cost tools that subbies will never use.
Moving forward
Software is a big leap forward from paper records or even spreadsheets to manage projects.
Managing information in a digital system with data stored in the cloud means that project information is more accessible and secure than a supervisor’s notebook could ever be. White boards are great for brainstorming in a room but not for project management, especially when the team is spread far and wide. Messenger apps are terrific for sharing a joke, but less so for updating the team on changes and capturing variations where information is easily lost in the post thread.
Getting what you need to grow
The specific benefits of construction project management software make it easier for businesses wanting to scale and grow.
- Streamlining operations: the whole team works out of the one project management and operations system for project data, resourcing, reporting, and more.
- Automation: let the tech do the grunt work! Repetitious tasks can be done automatically with software, leaving staff to use their energy for higher-order tasks.
- Data for decision-making: having a wide range of data in the one system provides a wealth of information for reporting and decision-making, giving management visibility over expenses and upcoming work, to forecast future needs including labour.
- Communicate like a team: built in communication tools, via apps and notifications, smooths out the seams between management, admin team, supervisors and field workers, helping everyone to get the information that they need without interrupting work flow to call the office.
Find what you need under the hood
The key features of construction project management software that any subcontractor should look for are here.
- Easy rostering across multiple projects, with drag-and-drop scheduling tools. Share staff work rosters with one-click SMS to send updates to their phone.
- Simplify pay day, with timesheets completed in the app, plus interpretation of Enterprise Bargain Agreements (EBAs) or awards done within the system, and integration with payroll systems – saving up to 80% of payroll time.
- Digital construction site diary is used to collect information from site that can be used by the team, to manage issues on site, reporting, client invoicing and project updates.
- Custom form builder helps the team collect bespoke information for the business in a standardised way, to reduce chasing the team for details.
- Reporting function can make claiming for payments quick and easy. Use customisable PDF templates to merge in database information into the formats that suit management or clients.
- Plug in the construction management system into related business software with integrations to payroll or Jobpac to move information to the right place automatically.
Where to start?
The prospect of moving to a new system can be daunting, so start with what the business needs. What are the time suckers in the business? These are the areas where your team is spending too many hours a week.
What would you like to achieve here? What kind of change would benefit the business the most?
Get the support you need to explore software options, with a local Australian team that can demonstrate how it’s being done by many businesses just like yours, across Australia.
The only way is up for a quality trade business that is good at its job, and having the right construction management system on board takes away the growing pains of scaling up a service business. The team at Neo Intelligence is ready to listen to what you need and the challenges you are facing within your business and walk you through a purpose-built system to help subcontracting businesses grow.
