Takeaways from CMAA National Conference & Trade Show 2016

We had a great and productive CMAA Conference this year, including announcing our new Construction Viz solution at the event. Here are some insights we took home from the show.

Lydon Solutions was proud to be a bronze-level sponsor at the annual CMAA National Conference & Trade Show held Oct. 9-11th in San Diego. As always, our team had a great time chatting with our colleagues in construction program management. This year’s event was extra special for us because we unveiled Construction Viz, our new subscription-based construction project management solution.

Below are a few of our takeaways from the three-day conference:

1.       Organizations are wrestling with how to replace Primavera Contract Manager

The industry is facing the impending end of life for Primavera Contract Manager. Oracle is directing its clients to SKIRE Unifier. Many companies we spoke with, however, are weighing their options before making the move.

2.       User experience matters

Companies like Apple and Google on the consumer side and leading SaaS vendors in other industries, have raised the bar for user experience by providing streamlined and intuitive user interfaces.

So, it is no surprise that CMAA attendees we spoke with expect that same ease of use in their construction program management tools. They are tired of complex and convoluted software platforms. They want simple and intuitive interfaces. They don’t want to read a bunch of manuals or attend multiple training sessions.

3.       Users don’t want a one-size-fits-all platform

Related to the above, a lack of flexibility in many Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) was one of the biggest gripes we heard from users this year. In fact, we have heard this issued raised for several years running.

This complaint makes a lot of sense. After all, companies have different processes. Each project has its own set of requirements. Project teams and their individual members have their own workflows and ways of doing business.

Yet many PMIS platforms are not flexible enough to accommodate this reality.

4.       Mobile-first is a necessity for construction project management

Users want mobile-first tools that enable them to be productive in the field or away from their desk, with or without an internet connection. This isn’t just about convenience. Today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment makes this a necessity.

5.       Construction Viz really is project management perfected

The above observations mostly fall in the “industry challenge” column. Which is why it was so gratifying to announce Construction Viz at the CMAA this year.

Construction Viz builds on our award-winning Construction Project Management Portal powered by the industry-leading Microsoft SharePoint. Our portal is used by leading construction and utility companies to manage their multi-billion dollar projects. We believe our Construction Project Management Portal is the most flexible and extensible PMIS solution available.

Construction Viz takes everything we learned deploying our portal and makes it available as an affordable, subscription-based hosted solution. The Construction Viz platform is as flexible as project teams need it to be, offering customizable pages, forms, dashboards, reports, workflows and more. Since it is based on SharePoint, users can dive in and get to work right away without a steep learning curve.

Companies looking for a better way to manage their projects can start with the turnkey Construction Viz today and be confident that the underlying framework is scalable and flexible to keep pace with their changing business needs. Users can even seamlessly migrate from Construction Viz to our fully customized Construction Project Management Portal in the future.

6.       Construction Viz and SharePoint: the perfect PMIS solution with full mobile-first support

Most everyone is familiar with SharePoint, but not necessarily as an ideal construction PMIS solution. What blew folks away, however, was how we have mobilized the SharePoint experience with Construction Viz.

Construction Viz is fully responsive so users can access and update their project data on virtually any mobile device.  That means dashboards, reports and forms are always at the project team’s fingertips. Robust off-line support enables team members to be as productive in the field as they are in the office.
The mobile capabilities of Construction Viz we showed off to attendees really blew them away – and it is always fun to see someone’s eyes light up when they realize the benefit this functionality would provide them and their team.

Want to perfect your construction project management?

We loved showing off Construction Viz to everyone who stopped by our booth and presentation at the CMAA conference this year.

Not able to see our CMAA demo? Contact us today for a free consultation and demo to see what Construction Viz can do for your organization.