What Are the Steps to Implement Construction Management Software?

Construction project management software is a tool that helps construction companies perform tasks, such as job scheduling, decision-making, and budget management. The goal of such software is to automate the construction business process and simplify it for businesses and contractors. For instance, it can automate administrative tasks, simplify billing and estimating, expedite task scheduling and planning, and facilitate document management.

Construction project management software packages provide operational and financial accounting services that are designed specifically for builders and contractors. Therefore, you must consider implementing construction management software for builders and contractors in your organization.

To make things easy for you, we have prepared a step-by-step guide on how you can implement a construction project management software.

Step #1 – Assess the Need for A Software

An important step in implementing any kind of project management software is to identify an actual need for it. A lot of business owners end up buying software that is either too advanced or too simplified for their needs. Therefore, you need to carefully assess your construction business’s need. For instance, you could want the software to facilitate billing, estimate material cost, or simply speed up task scheduling and planning.

Ideally, you should also calculate the benefit or gain that comes with implementing a construction management software. Typically, this gain will come as a return on investment (ROI) you made to purchase and implement the software. You can use the following formula to calculate ROI:

ROI =Gain from Investment-Cost of Investment Cost of Investment

In this case, the gain would be your anticipated cost savings from implementing this software. The cost of the software will be the actual price you paid for purchasing the software.

Step #2 – Pick the Right Software

This is the most important step in implementing a construction management software as there are several construction management software available. Most of these software programs offer a variety of packages that cater to different needs. There is a lot of variability in terms of their features, prices, support, and platforms. Therefore, you need to pick one that best fulfills your needs. Moreover, you should also check if your team is capable enough to use advanced software.

When you search for a software, there will be countless vendors who will try to convince you into buying a software that you don’t need. So, make sure you have a clear set of goals and expectations regarding your construction needs before making a purchase.

Here are four additional factors you need to consider when selecting a construction management software plan.

- Expected company growth – most construction management software are priced on a per-user basis. Generally, when the number of users increases, the price per-user goes down. So, if you plan on adding more builders and contractors to your team in the future, you should negotiate with the vendor to get a reduced price per-user.

- Training and Support – you need to be clear about the support and training you’ll need to implement the software in your construction business. Some vendors do provide a certain level of training for free but charge an extra fee for advanced training. So, make sure you factor the training cost in your decision.

- Data transfer – if you are switching to a new software, you need to ensure that the vendor offers a robust data transfer process.

Step #3 –Build a Roll-Out Plan

Once you have decided which software you are going to purchase, you should start working on rolling it out. You could factor in the following elements to make a thorough roll-out plan:

- Important dates – When are you going to discontinue using your old software? When will you introduce the new software to your team? How long will the training last?

- Deployment tiers – Will you introduce the new software to all the builders, contractors, and workers at once? Or will you introduce it in groups and provide specialized training to each group?

Step #4 – Deal with Opposing Views

A construction management tool offers numerous benefits and simplifies tasks for builders and contractors. Despite these advantages, some of your team members might still oppose the move. This is because they might not be adept with technology and face adaptation issues. In most cases, these are genuine problems and you need to address them.

However, some might oppose the move simply because they are settled in their ways and don’t want to make the move. You need to deal with such cases with extreme patience and shouldn’t neglect them. In fact, try to actively hear these people out and prepare answers to all their concerns.

It is a great idea to prepare a report containing all the problems you face in implementing the construction management software. The report should include all the concerns put forth by your team members along with potential solutions. Discuss the report with your team of builders and contractors and make them realize that you are trying to help them in the transition process.

Step #5 – Invest in Training

You should aim to incorporate the new software into all areas of your business. This will streamline your workflow and make it easy for your staff to communicate with each other. To achieve this goal, you need to ensure that your staff is adequately trained. You will have to identify the type of training that you need to provide and identify if different employee groups require different training.

The software vendor will help you set up an online or in-person training program for your staff. An in-person training program will be more comprehensive than online training, but it will be more expensive.

Meanwhile, you should also update your current documentation with details of the new software. Your internal communication should inform everyone about the following:

- New login URLs and support information,

- How to retract old data,

- The timeline for the transition.

Wrapping Up.

Implementing a construction project management software can really help the builders and contractors in your organization. Nevertheless, you need to make sure that the software is implemented properly and backed by senior leadership.