How to Make the Best Use of the Digital Transformation of the Construction Industry
Digital transformation in the construction industry is inevitable. With most organizations facing ongoing safety concerns, decreasing labor productivity levels, and project inefficiencies, the need to implement the right tools in your construction business has become critical.
To address these workforce challenges and achieve growth you need to be digitally efficient. Using digital technologies, construction companies can capture information more accurately and implement that knowledge into project construction and plans.
However, digitizing construction is all about using digital technology in the construction industry. You also have to evaluate the current business state and integrate technology properly to strategize future outcomes and map out the overall journey.
In this article, we’ll be sharing some tips on how to maximize the digital transformation of the construction industry to reduce errors, improve processes, and increase returns on investments.
1. Reduce Gap Between Office and Field Workers
Field and office communication are vital to ensuring a successful construction project. If your office and field teams operate disjointedly, it results in conflicts and misconceptions. While the dedication and skill of the field workers is critical to every component of the construction project, without office personnel behind the scenes, nothing would ever get done.
With digital transformation in the construction industry, you can eliminate the disconnect between office and field workers and allow them to work as a cohesive unit to help meet project goals and requirements. The advantage of digital transformation is it allows you to evaluate the communication flows that occur between field and office employees. This way, you can make adjustments and create a positive atmosphere for communication to avoid the unwanted stressors in managing construction projects.
2. Improve Recruitment Strategies
Improving recruitment strategies is one of the benefits of digitalization in the construction industry. Unlike other industries, the shortage of employees in the construction sector has been apparent in the past years. A Fox Business report reveals the construction industry is expected to need 747,000 more employees by 2026.
Regardless of its numerous openings, the report adds that only few people find construction to be a viable and attractive career option, mainly because of the lack of technologies used by professionals in specific processes. With digital transformation, modern construction companies can optimize their existing recruitment strategies to remain competitive in a tight labor market. It also enables them to understand hiring trends and use these insights to craft their job listings to attract an applicant with an engineering degree.
3. Generate Data-Driven Insights
Construction companies face risks daily. Being able to evaluate and handle risks requires skill, thorough planning, and quick decision-making skills. One way to ensure quick decision-making is to generate data through digital transformation tools to optimize existing operational efforts and drive more opportunities.
By generating data, construction professionals can predict every aspect of a project before it starts to save them a significant amount of time and financial resources. Being aware and informed of traffic or even weather patterns allow you to preempt problems and ensure everything runs smoothly.
Gathering and monitoring data also empowers you to reduce any misunderstandings in the field and get everything back on track, reducing downtime and increasing overall productivity.
4. Streamline Business Processes
It is not uncommon for most construction companies to have their information difficult to access and categorize poorly, making it even harder for everyone to perform a required task quickly. A Forbes report reveals that this confusion has cost construction businesses over 20% of organizational productivity. By taking advantage of digital transformation, construction managers can streamline workflows and allow for easier work approvals.
This means your team will no longer have to wait for team leaders to request approvals and provide reports. In doing so, you can ensure that no time is wasted between the submission of request and receipt of approval, which expedites the work. Streamlining business processes also provides you with full control over the project lifecycle, allowing you to determine risks and bottlenecks to ensure that it won’t slow down operations.
5. Use a Construction Accounting Software Platform
Often, construction companies encounter data entry errors as their clientele grows and they start dealing with massive paperwork. An excellent way to eliminate errors and stay on top of mundane and repetitive tasks is to leverage a construction accounting software platform.
Using a construction accounting solution, contractors can provide a comprehensive job costing estimation while simultaneously ensuring that their records are accurate and up-to-date for an easier audit.
Taking advantage of construction accounting software platforms will also improve data entry precision and speed while simultaneously enabling your contractors to focus on pressing matters. It can minimize overall expenses and give you an accurate financial report which you can use to improve operational efficiency.
A construction accounting solution also allows you to forecast project budgets to reduce planning complexity and apply cost control measures more effectively.
Using Digital Transformation to Improve Construction Operations
Digital transformation is no longer mandatory in staying competitive and thriving in a cutthroat construction industry. Therefore, construction professionals must be agile in using powerful technologies such as ProjectPro to remain on top of their operations. ProjectPro is a dynamic construction accounting software platform that helps professionals with subcontract management, project accounting, job quoting, customer relationship management, and job quoting.