Challenge

The coordination of project teams and construction processes imposed a heavy administrative burden on Leander’s project managers. Keeping track of project documents such as RFIs, Submittals and Daily Logs, along with the collection and management of field data in non-integrated apps and spreadsheets required manual processes and double handling which increased risk from error and delay.

Collaboration between the extended project team was hindered by a lack of visibility and rework stemming from having built off of construction drawings that didn’t reflect the latest changes. Heavily reliant on email, project communications were multi-layered in order to keep members of the extended project team of subcontractors, suppliers, architects and engineers aligned and on-track. Additionally, job financials, only accessible from the accounting ERP, limited the availability of job cost and billing data. Non ERP users instead relied on monthly financial reports from the accounting team.

Solution

Leander sought to replace manual processes, a non-construction cloud storage solution, and email as the medium of document exchange, with collaborative project management software. An evaluation of competing software was undertaken. Viewpoint Team, an ERP integrated project management solution on the ViewpointOne platform, was selected for its ease-of-use, project management roadmap and its direct integration with Vista, Viewpoint’s accounting ERP.

Viewpoint Team automated and streamlined project management. Where Leander used to key data into a Submittals register and had to manually update each Submittals’ state as it moved through the workflow, subcontractors and suppliers can now log in from the internet and see all project tasks assigned to them. Once inside, they can add the required information and advance the workflow themselves.

Email, except in the case of alert notifications, has been confined to a bare minimum. The project management team previously played middleman, trading emailed RFIs between upstream and downstream partners, and were forced to send hundreds of emails to alert team members of tasks both new and overdue. Today, Viewpoint Team has transformed Leander’s communication and collaboration processes, delivering speed and complete visibility into ball-in-court.

Superintendents enter information into Daily Logs on a mobile device from the jobsite. Project Managers review information daily and are easily able to identify missing logs or required information that was not submitted such as safety documentation. The back office is able to verify certificates of insurance and make accommodations for certified payroll.

Previously, the approved set of construction drawings were stored in a non-construction cloud solution that didn’t incorporate changes from ASIs and Addendums. This meant that crews and subcontractors weren’t always accessing the most up-to-date plans which resulted in rework. With Viewpoint Team, crews and subcontractors access the very latest drawings from a phone or tablet, even when offline.

Integration between Viewpoint Team and Vista surfaces job financials via operational reporting that’s updated twice daily. Instead of receiving projections once per month as was the case, project managers can glance at a project dashboard to quickly and easily understand how projects are performing versus the original contract estimate and if they’re over or under billing.

Result

Every construction professional knows that time is the enemy. By replacing manual processes and non-integrated software with an accounting integrated project management solution, Leander was able to automate, streamline and improve project efficiency.

Excessive use of email and duplicate layers of communication were eliminated as members of the extended team gained ball-in-court visibility over document control workflows such as RFIs and Submittals which helps projects stay on schedule. Collaboration with subcontractors accelerated, while risk was mitigated with Daily Logs from Superintendents, and incidents of rework lowered by having every member of the project team access the most up-to-date drawing revisions from a mobile device in the field.

Where previous job financials were readily accessible only to Vista users who were able to write or access reporting, now project managers and those with sufficient permission are able to assess project health by accessing job cost and billing data that’s updated twice daily with Vista, from the Viewpoint Team project dashboard.