2018 promises to be an exciting year for all of us at Lydon Solutions. We will be building on the success of Construction Viz – our flexible, subscription-based construction project solution powered by SharePoint 2016 and SQL 2016 – with some very exciting new announcements for the coming year.

As we look forward to 2018, we cannot help reflecting on our past years to see the trajectory of where we are heading. Here is a brief look back – and a preview of the awesome new offerings we’ll be introducing next month.

Our Mission to Build the Perfect Construction Project Management Software Solution

2009 – Pioneering SharePoint as a Construction Project Management Solution

We founded Lydon Solutions in 2009 as a woman-owned business enterprise with the mission of offering the best tools for managing construction projects.  Our experience deploying many systems over the years convinced us that SharePoint is the ideal foundation for a construction project management information system.  SharePoint’s flexibility and extensibility have made it the most widely adopted platform in the enterprise. However, no one was using its full potential to manage construction projects. We set out to change that.

Our initial development was rudimentary.  We started delivering solutions using out-of-the-box tools like Microsoft InfoPath and SharePoint Designer and subcontracting hosting to another company.  This approach got us into the market quickly and helped us hone our skills, understand the software industry, and build the foundation of how to deliver complete solutions.  Our offering worked well for our clients who were just starting to understand the benefits of a web-based construction project portal.

Market conditions soon changed. We found that our clients wanted more:  More functionality, more reporting, and more dashboards. They also wanted a single point of contact for support issues.  Out-of-the-box offerings began to lose their appeal since they lacked the flexibility and scalability to build into more robust solutions.

2012 – Extending SharePoint with Client-Side Development and Custom Features

We responded to the limitations of an out-of-the-box approach by incorporating client-side development, creating a set of standard forms, adding robust reporting, and incorporating third-party tools as needed for dashboards and custom functionality.

We also began offering our own SharePoint hosting as early adopters of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to give our clients a complete one-stop solution. There was little information available about doing what we needed to do in Azure when we implemented our data center in 2012.  Our clients were just starting to embrace the cloud as well – so it was unfamiliar territory for all.

Our innovation to meet our customers’ emerging needs paid off.  SharePoint combined with client-side enhancements delivered via our dedicated hosted environments worked well and proved popular for our construction-industry clients over the next several years.  We learned a lot in the process about end-to-end solutions from requirements to hosting.

Market conditions shifted once again. Our customers wanted sites implemented faster.  There was no time or money for spinning-up dedicated environments.  They also wanted complete solutions with complex reporting, integration with line of business applications, and responsive sites and forms for mobile users.

2016 – Launching Construction Viz as a Cloud-Based Project Management Solution

Meeting the demand of our clients for faster deployment of mobile-responsive project sites with robust features required a new approach.

We responded with a new product offering, Construction Viz, where we combined SharePoint 2016 and SQL 2016 for the best of reporting, integration, custom forms, and GIS mapping into a software-as-a-service platform.  Construction Viz is a complete end-to-end solution configurable to each customer’s needs.  It is the culmination of seven years of continuous development that has resulted in the best of the best we have to offer.

But we are not the type to rest on our laurels. Many in the construction industry are now adopting Office 365 with SharePoint Online and moving their businesses to Microsoft Azure.  Our customers told us that they wanted to have a solution wherever they want, whenever they want, and pick as much or as little of a solution as they want. We listened. Which brings us to our exciting new offering for 2018.

Taking Construction Viz to the Next Level in 2018

In February 2018, we will be supplementing Construction Viz with new custom bundled SharePoint applications that our clients can deploy themselves.  These client-side apps are a complete package that include forms, logs, reports, search, and more. Customers can add Construction Viz Apps in minutes to their own environments, including on-premise SharePoint 2013 or 2016 as well as Office 365 SharePoint Online.

Clients now have the ultimate choice:

1. They can use Construction Viz as a fully hosted or on-premise construction project management solution.

OR

2. They can take advantage of our new apps to add specific functionality from Construction Viz into their own environment even if they use Office 365.

Construction Viz truly is project management perfected for your needs!

It has been quite a journey to get where we are.  Market conditions, customer needs, and iteration after iteration has brought us here.   If you want to use SharePoint to manage your projects, which most companies do, look no further. Lydon Solutions has you covered with Construction Viz and our new application offerings.

All of us at Lydon Solutions are looking forward to 2018 and wish you all a very happy new year.  Thank you for some great years – and we cannot wait to take Construction Viz to the next level with you going forward!

See What Construction Viz Can Do for Your Team

Find out more about Construction Viz by visiting our microsite, or contact us to schedule a free consultation and demo. Join our mailing list below to be the first to hear about the launch of our upcoming Construction Viz Apps.