May 6, 2022 by Tom Jodeit
The successful planning and execution of any capital project has never been an easy undertaking. After expending sizable efforts in planning the allocation of capital, raising funds, and gaining the necessary approvals, owners of all stripes—whether they manage the construction for a school district, set of condo buildings, public power utility, or an oil refinery—must execute on delivering each project. Any failures due to poor collaboration or insufficient risk mitigation strategies ultimately cost the owner time and money.
During execution, owners are charged with managing the risks of hazardous and ever-changing jobsites while trying to rein in unbridled schedules and costs. They must outline and communicate the project vision for their stakeholders, including both public sector voters and governmental agencies, and private sector finance executives and lenders, while relying on information that has been siloed for ages. But while the landscape of the construction industry has become more complicated and demanding, an investment in construction technology can help capture the opportunities that are available in the new terrain.
Platforms like Procore now offer the ability for the organizations that are ultimately responsible for the success of a project the means to centralize data and access it from anywhere. Industry leaders now apply technology to their processes to capture the benefits a platform can provide. It’s out with the old disconnected set of point solutions and in with the new extensible platform that connects all project stakeholders.
So how should an owner implement such a solution and what opportunities exist for beneficial returns on your investment in technology?
Is it possible that we could re-capture 45% of the time currently wasted on non-value-added tasks?
According to McKinsey, the average worker spends one quarter of their work-week managing email and another fifth of the week looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. Together that’s 45% of your time in any given week. So consider the team that is instrumental in managing your portfolio of projects. The time they each spend mining data silos and collating their findings could instead be spent analyzing that data to make better decisions and setting a clear direction for the project. As we know, time is money and could be calculated as such (45% of a salary?). But the benefits of time reallocated to deeper engagement in the work or to engage at higher levels will pay dividends for your projects and portfolio.
How much time per day does your team spend looking for the information needed to keep the work moving? How easy is it for you and your teams to occasionally detach and unwind and come back to the project with new energy and a fresh perspective?
Are 4% of your construction costs attributable to rework?
The cost of rework has plagued the construction industry for decades. Above and beyond the 5% of direct costs that contractors must contend with, owners often bear the 4% indirect costs of schedule delays and the interruption of project flow. Contingency, a budgetary tool meant to cover the cost of unforeseen conditions, instead seems to be devoured by the costs of unclear scope or untimely decision making that could likely have been avoided with better planning.
With Procore, Owners can invite end users, contractors, and third-party consultants into their projects in Procore to assist in the completion of the coordination efforts, even during the design process, to flag any issues before their costs erode the contingency during construction. Design coordination and clear contract scopes built out of a thorough and centralized bidding process should allow for the translation of coordinated design scope into construction-ready documentation and should help chip away at the costly impacts of rework.
Are there weeks that go by where it seems nothing on the project is getting done? Maybe your projects cannot seem to find their “flow state”? Are you seeing too many change orders for issues that could have been avoided with better planning?
In 2020, the average cost of a construction claim was $54M. Are you protected?
According to Arcadis, the average cost of construction claims globally was $54.26 million in 2020, up from $31 million in 2019, and most claims were attributed to miscommunication or misunderstanding of the contract scope or delays in the project delivery. Clear communication of the project scope and effective collaboration in executing are the keys to avoiding disputes before they become claims. Unlike project management systems of the past, Procore’s pricing model encourages unlimited users and therefore enables real-time collaboration within your team and with any project stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. Anywhere, at any time access to a single source of truth means stakeholder communication flows freely and the work keeps moving. Information gets logged in real-time as opposed to transcribed or noted as each day closes. Real-time data logging complemented by standardization of processes and workflows translates to higher quality data and more visibility all the way up the chain of command. Timestamps and integrated workflows ensure accountability across the team.
What if the disputes on your projects could be resolved by a clear record as soon as they arose and didn’t risk prolonged and costly dispute resolution or litigation?
How can empowering your people protect your projects?
As our processes evolve along with the technology to support it, the greatest resource to protect is your people. Owners can ensure that by setting their teams up for success, their people will be engaged in work that is fulfilling by minimizing any busy work. By promoting clear communication and providing accountability to company goals, owners can instill a culture of integrity and teamwork. By ensuring the work is done right the first time through innovations in coordination, owners will see teams satisfied by their work and ready to achieve even greater gains on each successive project.
The cascading effects of successful work then become self-perpetuating. An organization’s great achievements will attract and retain great achievers. And while investment in technology cannot by itself build a great culture within your organization, it can definitely offer returns well beyond your project budgets. Invest in empowering your most valuable resource––your people.
Check out the recent Procore ROI Report to see how owners have realized the benefits of the Procore Platform and request a value consultation to begin to realize these returns on your investment.
Tom JodeitAs a Value Consultant at Procore, Tom Jodeit works with clients to map their business goals to the value that Procore’s platform can provide. Prior to working at Procore, Tom worked both as an Owner’s Representative and Project Manager with two of ENR’s Top 10 Contractors.
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