The construction industry has many complexities that make it unique. Every construction project generates an enormous amount of data, which creates challenges for companies who don’t manage their data efficiently but can also create advantages for companies who manage data well.
Why Data Management is Critical in Construction
Good construction data management helps contractors make better decisions, improve project performance, enhance communication within project teams, and facilitates knowledge sharing throughout construction organizations.
What is Construction Data Management?
Construction data management is the process of collecting, organizing, managing, and utilizing data from your company to help you improve your performance. Poor management of your construction data can cost your company millions of dollars in lost productivity.
Types of Data in the Construction Industry
There are many types of data collected by different departments in your construction company.
- Project documents including drawings, permits, contracts and change orders.
- Financial data including cost estimates and job budgets, invoices and payment records, POs and receipts, payroll, & financial statements. For more information about construction accounting, you can read our blog Construction Accounting Basics for Every Contractor.
- Schedule and timeline data including progress reports, project schedules, daily work reports, and delivery updates for equipment and materials.
- Quality assurance and inspections like safety and inspection checklists, warranty, and maintenance information.
So, what can you do with all this data and how can you use the information to gain a competitive edge?
Tracking and managing your data can help you run your projects more successfully. For example, using project estimates and budgets from past jobs can provide valuable information that will help you decide whether a project is feasible or cost effective; ongoing job cost tracking helps you identify budget overruns before they hurt your profits; and project managers can refer to historic or current data about labor, equipment, and materials usage to ensure their schedules are realistic and efficient. Furthermore, the ability to share accurate, up to date data throughout your construction company means you can make more informed decisions in the moment.
Common Data Challenges in Construction
It can be overwhelming to keep track of the wealth of information that accumulates before, during, and after a project. Here are some of the most common challenges construction companies face with data management.
- Inconsistent Data Collection & Storage. Documents created or handled by different departments may have inconsistent naming conventions or may be assigned a security level that makes them inaccessible. Documents stored in different systems must be imported or exported so that everyone on the team can access the information. Without consistent naming, storage, and management processes, your team may not have the information they need to make important decisions.
- Manual Data Entry & Processing. If you rely on manual data entry at every stage of a project, there is a greater risk of errors that could make running your project more difficult. Manual entry can slow the distribution of data so job costs and budgets don’t get updated quickly enough, which can lead to further delays. The best way to manage your construction data is to enter information once into an integrated system so that the data is accessible by each member of the team that needs to use it. For example, mobile time tracking software that allows your team to enter labor hours on their mobile devices can help construction companies work productively despite the distances between the office and the job site.
- Limited Construction Data Accessibility & Collaboration. Data silos can be another cause of slower project completion. If there are communication gaps between your team members, your ability to get approvals, receive material deliveries, and schedule subcontractors can be impacted, which can lead to delays. Without the ability to easily communicate and share information, no one knows whether they are working with the latest data.
The Benefits of Construction Data Management
The good news is that improved construction data management has multiple benefits that will help you run your construction projects more smoothly.
- Streamlined Project Documentation. Proper data management helps you make sense of the many different types of data you generate on each project. Implementing centralized storage and organization of project documents means everyone can easily access blueprints, drawing, BIM models, permits, and other important files in a single digital filing cabinet.
- Improved Accuracy & Integrity. Effective data management reduces errors, which means your team has reliable information they can use to make informed decisions. For example, streamlining your construction data management processes will help reduce or eliminate calculation mistakes or duplicate entries in your financial reports.
- Enhanced Collaboration & Communication. With better access to project data (and historic data) when they need it, your team will be better able to collaborate and communicate. That means project managers, subcontractors, and clients can share data in real time. More important, everyone can be sure they are working with the most up to date documents.
Best Practices for Construction Data Management
To manage the mountain of data that’s generated by your construction projects, you can implement a document management system that’s made for construction companies. Our Complete Guide to Document Management for Construction has a full list of what to look for and how to integrate digital document management
Embrace Digital Tools for Data Entry & Processing. With more construction sites accessible via powerful wifi or lightning fast mobile networks, it’s easier than ever to use digital tools to automate certain data entry tasks, like gathering labor hours and equipment usage data. For example, if your construction document management system has a mobile version, you can capture information like labor hours on site and automatically deliver the data to the payroll department.
Establishing Data Governance Policies. Keeping track of all your data is easier with standardized, consistent secure data management. Implementing policies and processes governing how to use and track your data and training your team to uses these processes will ensure the information is useful during a project and long after. Make sure you set guidelines for who has access to certain types of data. A second, important key to successful data management is deciding how to back up your data so it stays safe and accessible.
Using Construction Data to Make the Best Decisions with Business Analytics
Business analytics is a method of viewing and evaluating your data to create insights from identifying and understanding patterns. Analytics helps you track, analyze, and display key performance indicators like schedules, financial data, and deadlines to deeply understand how your projects are performing. You can also use business analytics to identify areas where you can improve your company’s performance.
Smart, easy to identify analytics reporting, especially visual reporting, is critically important so construction companies can quickly identify issues like cost overruns and scheduling complications or identify patterns like over reliance on certain equipment and take action to improve project success.
View our JPAnalytics video to learn more.
Conclusion
Integrated construction data management is critical for small and medium sized contractors because it helps streamline the amount of information you handle during each and every project. You can use your data to your advantage by implementing an effective construction data management system as part of an integrated construction accounting software solution. Creating effective data management processes will streamline your construction workflows and help your team work together more effectively so you’ll be able to complete projects more productively.
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