How-To

Create Power BI Reports from Lists in Microsoft 365

How-To | September 8, 2021

Quickly create business intelligence reports in Power BI using your Microsoft SharePoint list schema and data with Microsoft's new guided authoring experience.

Regular readers will know that we are big proponents of SharePoint and the utility of Microsoft Power BI, so we were pleasantly surprised by the new functionality allowing the creation of a Power BI report from a SharePoint list. Microsoft's new guided authoring experience will let you create a formatted Power BI report from your list schema and data in just a couple of clicks. This new Power BI functionality is available for the Microsoft 365 standalone lists app and SharePoint Lists.

Since our project management information system, Construction Viz, utilizes SharePoint lists, this is an excellent addition to our feature set (see screenshots below).

To take further advantage of Power BI's advanced data visualization capabilities, go into Edit mode. Once a report is saved and published, it will appear in the same submenu under Integrate > Power BI.

Note: Users with a Microsoft 365 E5 license or Power BI Pro license will have the complete report authoring and viewing experience.

Easily create a Power BI report in Construction Viz SharePoint Daily Report List app

Power BI Report generated from Construction Viz SharePoint Daily Report List

Lydon Solutions provides turnkey Microsoft 365 solutions for the construction industry. If you need help building or editing Microsoft Power BI reports, check out our managed services. If you need an enterprise project management information system for Microsoft 365, complete with reporting, check out Construction Viz.

How Adaptive Cards Can Turbocharge Your Construction Project Management Processes

How-To | June 14, 2021

Wouldn't it be great to get more of your project management workflow done in Microsoft Outlook and Teams without needing to log into other enterprise systems? Adaptive Cards technology enables you to do just that by providing an open, lightweight, and flexible framework to integrate user experiences into other applications, including Outlook, Teams, and more.

Technology is changing at a fever clip, and construction organizations are having to adapt to survive. Owners, contractors, and construction management organizations are all scrambling to implement the latest whiz-bang IT solution for managing their projects. Unfortunately, project managers and users are often left having to learn and navigate many different systems and processes on top of just trying to do their job. So how can you move the technology forward without leaving your team in the technology wake?

Adaptive Cards are a JSON-based and platform-agnostic way to deliver app data into a native UI. We use it to extend the functionality of Construction Viz, our turnkey construction project management solution, into Microsoft Outlook and Teams. With Construction Viz and Adaptive Card technology, organizations can collect data from users via email (e.g., filling out an RFI or managing approvals) without requiring them to log into another system. We also leverage Adaptive Cards to enable Construction Viz users to share dashboards and reports via email or Teams, again without needing the recipient to log into any other system.

Check out our blog describing how Construction Viz takes advantage of Adaptive Cards. You can also learn more about Adaptive Cards here and here.

Adaptive Card approval embedded in Email from Construction Viz

Why Adaptive Cards matter for construction projects

The number and complexity of systems in construction will only continue to increase. Adaptive Cards take away the training, double-entry, errors, and inefficiencies that can come with multiple systems and new technologies. It allows your team to focus on what is essential for them to do their job and provide the data you need to manage your project's success.

So, no matter which systems house project-related data at your organization, you can flatten the IT learning curve by using Adaptive Cards to provide your end-users with a streamlined and simplified way to get their job done.

Learn how Adaptive Cards can streamline your projects

Find out more about our Adaptive Card technology by submitting a free consultation request. If you prefer a turnkey project management solution powered by Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, check out Construction Viz and our extensive lineup of construction apps.

How to Start Managing Construction Projects in Microsoft 365 – Part 3

How-To | April 12, 2021

This is part three of three in a series of blogs called How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365.

Welcome to the third part of our blog on how to get started with managing construction projects in Microsoft 365. You can read the first and second parts here. If you have been following along, you should have your new Microsoft 365 tenant set up and the infrastructure in place. Now it is time to configure some Microsoft 365 services for your construction projects.

While there are no construction-specific services in Microsoft 365, you can customize several to meet your needs. But be aware that technology changes pretty fast with Microsoft; they regularly enhance, add, and sometimes remove their Microsoft 365 services. It is always good to keep an eye on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and their yearly tech conferences like Ignite.

As we mentioned previously, there is no right or wrong answer here. The important thing is to fully understand your users' requirements and assess the options against these to determine what works for your organization.

So, let's get started with some of the Microsoft 365 services you can configure for a construction project.

Microsoft 365 Services for Construction

Document Storage

Your construction documents include SOWs, drawings, and specs, which can be in multiple formats such as PDF, Word, and Excel. You can upload these documents to several Microsoft 365 services, including OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint. Here are few things to keep in mind when selecting your document repository:

While OneDrive and Teams allow document saving, they lack metadata functionality, so you will need to use a file folder structure for organizing files.
Consider also that OneDrive is primarily for personal storage.
With SharePoint, you can add metadata and folders, which improves your search and reporting capabilities.

Forms

Forms such as submittals, transmittals, permits, RFIs, invoices, inspection reports, and the like are the primary input for any project management system. Microsoft 365 comes with various services that you can use for forms, including Power Apps, Forms, Lists (SharePoint), To-Do, Planner tasks, and Microsoft Project activities. You could configure any of these tools with form-style capabilities. But if you are looking to build out an enterprise-level solution, you will most likely want to leverage Power Apps. Power Apps allow you to build forms and complete applications from scratch and store information into multiple database back-ends such as SharePoint lists and libraries and the Dataverse.

Check out my previous blog post with tips on building construction forms using Power Apps and request our free example RFI Power App to get you started creating your own.

Notifications

Alerting and notifying your users of events or action items is a core requirement for any project management system. With Microsoft 365, several apps (Planner, To-Do, etc.) include built-in notification features. You can also configure SharePoint lists and libraries to send alerts, and Power Automate workflows can also do the same. And finally, there is the old-faithful email notification. New technologies, like Adaptive Cards, can be used to meet your users where they work and allow them to interact with your project management system without even leaving an email inbox. You can learn more about Adaptive Cards over on our Construction Viz blog.

Unless your organization is already using some of these services, we recommend building Power Automate workflows that send email notifications to your project team as a good starting point.

Scheduling

Depending on the complexity of your project's schedule, several services are available in Microsoft 365 that may work as a scheduling tool for you:

Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project provides integrated Gantt chart scheduling, cost tracking, and resource management. Project is the go-to solution for most construction companies and has become tightly integrated with SharePoint over the years. Gantt chart scheduling in Project employs critical path analysis that can be manually or auto-updated depending on your need to analyze network logic. Project does require a separate license in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Planner. Microsoft Planner approaches work from a task management perspective. Tasks are assigned to team members and then updated using List, Board, Charts, and Schedule views. There is no Gantt chart or network logic, but you can manage work on a task-by-task basis with the board view. Planner also integrates nicely into Teams and SharePoint.
Microsoft Lists. The new Microsoft Lists app is a modern SharePoint list that has become a stand-alone service in Microsoft 365. Lists are a great way to track tasks, events, assets, and more. Like Planner, there are multiple views available for creating and tracking progress, and your lists are available in both Teams and SharePoint.
Microsoft Power Platform. With the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), users can build out robust scheduling solutions that integrate with Teams and SharePoint. You should note that while the Power Platform offers no-code and low-code experiences for building solutions, they are generally more suited to advanced users in your organization. There may also be times, depending on your requirements, where you will need help from IT resources. Be aware that using Power Platform to its fullest may require additional licensing beyond your basic Microsoft 365 license level. See my blog post discussing some best practices with the Power Platform you should implement for your organization if you go this route.
Third-party applications. If the standard Microsoft 365 services do not seem to fit the bill, third-party scheduling applications can plug into Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, such as our Construction Viz Scheduler.

Cost Management

Construction cost management is often unique to each company. You can customize any of several services in Microsoft 365 to meet your needs:

Microsoft Project. If you manage costs using resources, then Project might be a good solution. You can assign units and costs to resources and then associate them with scheduled activities. It's simple and easy to then run cash flows based on your schedule. Project also integrates into SharePoint and Teams. But as mentioned above, Project requires a separate license in Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Lists. If you are looking to build an interactive web-based cost report solution, Lists is pretty flexible. You can create your cost columns in a list and then use views to group, filter, sort, and total each column. You can then utilize Power Automate to update list columns from multiple data sources and use Power BI for reporting. Lists are available in both Teams and SharePoint.
Microsoft Power Platform. With the Power Platform, you can build a complete cost management solution and integrate it with Teams and SharePoint. Depending on the complexity of your cost tracking and the need for stringent corporate controls, the Power Platform might be your best approach.
Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft Dynamics is a suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications for managing many aspects of a company. Dynamics can be an expensive solution for cost tracking, but it is incredibly flexible and customizable to your needs. Dynamics is an additional license to the standard Microsoft 365 plans.
Third-party applications. If the Microsoft 365 services don't fit the bill, third-party cost tracking applications can plug into Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, such as our Construction Viz Cost Report.

As you can see, there are many options for you to consider. We have only touched on some of the possibilities in this post. Hopefully, it will give you a place to start your journey towards construction project management in Microsoft 365.

A final piece of advice: If you find all this somewhat overwhelming, do not worry. There are many SharePoint consultants available to help you. But be sure to choose one that not only understands Microsoft 365 and all its associated technologies but, more importantly, has a deep understanding of construction and can demonstrate a track record of delivering successful IT solutions across the industry.

Get Expert Help with Microsoft 365

If your construction organization needs help setting up your Microsoft 365 environment, you can request a free one-hour consultation by clicking here. If you are looking for a turnkey construction project management solution or a specific construction app for Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, check out ConstructionViz.com.

Check out more blogs from How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365

How to Start Managing Construction Projects in Microsoft 365 – Part 2

How-To | April 6, 2021

This is part two of three in a series of blogs called How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365.

In a previous post, I shared some tips on getting your organization set up to manage your construction projects using Microsoft 365. Now that you have your new Microsoft 365 tenant in place and have licensing covered, I'll cover which tools in the suite you can use for construction project management.

Microsoft 365 has an abundance of features and services that you can use to help manage your construction projects. There is not a right and wrong answer here; the important thing is to fully understand your users' requirements and assess the options against these to determine what works for your organization.

So, let's get started.

Microsoft 365 Tools to Manage Construction Projects

Database

The database is the most crucial feature of any IT solution. With Microsoft 365, you have several options, including the following:

SharePoint Online – Microsoft SharePoint's lists and libraries make it exceptionally flexible, allowing you to take it in almost limitless directions. It is a strong candidate for your database solution.

Teams – Microsoft Teams has been in the spotlight lately as Microsoft adds features to this collaboration tool. The Teams app, built on top of SharePoint Online sites, provides a quick-start alternative that will get you up and running faster. It also offers integration with lots of ready-made apps. There are some limitations, however.

OneDrive – OneDrive is Microsoft's personal file/document storage and sharing solution. While it can be a powerful database option, its user-centric design focuses on ad hoc file sharing, limiting its information sharing and collaboration capabilities.

Dataverse –Microsoft's Dataverse is a scalable low-code data platform that Power Apps can leverage. I'll talk more about it in a future blog post.

“Database” example - SharePoint site contents

Sites

Users need a way to access the system to view reports, search data, and act. While users can navigate to all the Microsoft 365 services using their Microsoft 365 portal, it can be a bit overwhelming. Building SharePoint sites or Teams sites allows you to aggregate data and simplify navigation. It also facilitates security and permissions to restrict sensitive information to specific users. However, consider how users will find information carefully, as planning the navigation and information architecture is critical to ensuring usability.

Example SharePoint site

Workflow

Power Automate is the workflow engine in Microsoft 365. Power Automate can connect data across all Microsoft 365 services and external sources (requires an on-premises data gateway). Most Microsoft 365 plans include some licensing level for Power Automate; however, more advanced features generally require additional licensing. Also, there are many third-party add-ons that you can leverage that typically have different licensing requirements.

Power Automate workflow

Permissions

Microsoft 365 and SharePoint have incredibly powerful permissions and access management controls for managing both licensed users and unlicensed guest users. Here is a quick rundown.

Microsoft 365 Groups

You can use groups to control access across all Microsoft 365 services. There are two roles, Owner and Member. Owners can change the group's settings and the membership while members can remove themselves, add members to a public group, and recommend guest users to receive invitations.
You can assign access to your team as owners or members to any Microsoft 365 service.
The Microsoft 365 admin center is where you manage groups and add members. Unfortunately, not everyone will have access to the Microsoft 365 tenant admin center, and this is where SharePoint's permission groups come into play for more granular permissions controls.

Admin center - 365 Group administration

SharePoint Permission Groups

SharePoint permission groups assign permissions to SharePoint-specific content (e.g., sites, lists, libraries, etc.).
SharePoint groups provide permissions levels such as read, write, and everything in between. You can assign a group to any SharePoint content with unique permission levels.
If you selectively grant access to content within your SharePoint sites, make sure to map out a permissions strategy and develop auditable permissions templates, especially with guest users.

SharePoint permissions levels

Reporting

The primary reporting service in Microsoft 365 is Power BI. It is a powerful dashboarding and analytics tool. If you need paginated reports (for example, a log report of many records or a printable version of a form), you will likely need to consider additional Power BI licensing, SQL Server reporting, or other third-party tools. See my prior post on "Microsoft Power BI and Paginated Reports for Construction."

Power BI status report

With this blog, we have covered the critical infrastructure services required for building a construction management solution in Microsoft 365. While the path can differ for every organization depending on your budget, resources, and processes, we hope this series will provide insight into how you can use Microsoft 365 to manage your construction projects. Our upcoming third part in this series will cover construction-specific functionality like scheduling and cost management.

Get Export Help with Microsoft 365 Managed Services

If your construction organization needs help setting up your Microsoft 365 environment, you can request a free one-hour consultation. If you are looking for a turnkey construction project management solution or a specific construction app for Microsoft 365/SharePoint, check out ConstructionViz.com.

Check out more blogs from How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365

How to Start Managing Construction Projects in Microsoft 365 – Part 1

How-To | March 2, 2021

This is part one of three in a series of blogs called How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365.

More and more construction organizations are moving to Microsoft 365 to manage their businesses and provide their employees with the tools they need to get work done. Logically, one of the first questions in a construction company is: "Can we run our construction projects from Microsoft 365?"

The good news is that Microsoft 365 has many features that are ideal for managing projects. The not-so-good news is that identifying the right mix of Microsoft 365 tools for your organization to use for projects can be overwhelming with so many service options available.

So, where do you begin? In this first installment of our latest blog post series, we will help you navigate your way into managing construction projects in Microsoft 365. In future posts, we will dive deeper into your options.

Five tips to get started managing construction projects in Microsoft 365

Do these things first to manage your construction projects with Microsoft 365 successfully:

Start small and build on wins

We recommend starting small in your approach and focusing more on upfront planning. It's best to pick a pilot project and phase the work as much as possible.

Plan, plan, plan

We always recommend spending as much time as you can in the "planning" phase before moving forward with any real development. If you have not already, check out our four-part blog series on implementing a Project Management Information System (Planning, Evaluating Technology, Implementing, and Supporting) to get the big picture.

To get started, consider the following:

- Define the problem. Make sure to clarify what problems you are trying to solve. By documenting and agreeing to a problem statement, you will keep the team focused on solving that problem. You will also be able to develop a cost-benefit analysis for implementing a solution.
- Establish the budget and schedule. Before embarking on your journey, make sure to set aside a budget and a deadline as to when you would like to have this solution in place.
- Assemble your team. Identify and build a team of subject matter experts who will use the solution. It would be best if you involved this team to some level throughout the entire process, from requirements gathering to implementation.
- Define your requirements. This step is the most critical in any software implementation. Take the time to document your as-is business processes (what you are doing now) and your to-be processes (what would you want to do). There are multiple ways of collecting requirements: interviews, surveys, use cases, etc. Check out our blog posts on requirement gathering in general, as well as how to use case studies.
- Develop document controls processes. Invest in developing your document controls processes to ensure that you standardize the data you collect and how you use it for reporting and search.

The best way to signup for Microsoft 365

If your organization is already using Microsoft 365, you are all set. If not, be wary of reaching out to third-party Microsoft 365 licensing providers to set up your environment. We have seen some providers lock down their clients' tenants and restrict access to many services available in Microsoft 365. Our recommendation is to contact Microsoft directly to set up your own Microsoft 365 company tenant. If you need help, check out our Microsoft 365 managed services.

Research your options

Depending on your license, there are many tools and services available in Microsoft 365 (e.g., Teams, Planner, To-Do, etc.), some of which provide overlapping features and functionalities. If your organization prefers to work in one service over another, that service should be central to your design. For example, if your team likes to work in email, then explore forms, reports, workflows, and so on that can be made available within Outlook.

Understand your licensing

Microsoft licensing is always changing and can be very confusing and potentially expensive. Ensure you have the right licenses to deliver all aspects of the proposed solution, from reporting to workflows. Make sure to monitor licensing continually to ensure you are paying for what you need.

One thing to note is that Microsoft 365 provides for guest licenses, which lets you provide limited access and share information with users outside your organization. Guest licenses can be handy when working with subcontractors that you wish to allow access to your projects. Allocating guest licenses does not incur a charge, but there are limitations to this feature. Also, make sure to document any access given using guest licenses to make sure internal or confidential information is not unwittingly shared.

Are you interested in managing your construction projects with Microsoft 365?

We will dig deeper into the Microsoft 365 services available to manage your construction project in our next blog post. Stay tuned!

Check out more blogs from How to Manage Your Construction Projects in Microsoft 365

How to Use Microsoft Teams for Construction Timekeeping and Shift Management

How-To | February 17, 2021

The Microsoft Shifts add-in for Microsoft Teams is a no-frills time management tool. If you need a simple way to manage your small construction team's actual time worked, Shifts offers you a straightforward solution. Here are some things to consider when evaluating this tool for your team.

Microsoft released the Shifts add-in for Microsoft Teams as a simple schedule management tool for first-line workers in 2019. Shifts enables workers to track their hours and tasks right in Teams and even supports features like requesting time off and balancing workloads with the "move to open shifts" option. The add-in has a clean and intuitive interface, with daily, weekly, and monthly views. You can add users, groups, and shifts in just one or two clicks. The tool works with Excel, letting you import and export schedule data.

The Shifts add-in integrates tightly with Teams. You can pin the Shifts icon to the Teams navigation, making it easy to access and update. Each Team can have a Shifts schedule associated with it. If you have downloaded Teams for your mobile device, you can also access Shifts from inside the app.

Is Microsoft Shifts a good fit for construction teams?

So how could you use Microsoft Shifts for construction? If you need a simple way to manage a small team's actual time worked, the add-in is a straightforward solution, providing a no-frills time management tool. It finds a sweet spot in making sure you have coverage on your project when needed while letting you visually see gaps where you might need to move resources around.

However, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

Unlike Microsoft Teams, which stores data in a SharePoint site collection, Shifts data resides in Microsoft Azure. Therefore, you cannot directly access your Shifts data.
Hourly rates for cost projections and planning are not part of the current functionality.
There is currently no integration with Microsoft Planner or Project.
You cannot consolidate schedules created in Shifts from multiple teams.

If you are looking for a simple timesheet tracker for smaller construction projects or a simple time tracking solution for facilities maintenance, give Shifts a try. Just understand the tool's limitations.

On the other hand, if you need support for billing, cost tracking, Gantt scheduling, or the ability to customize forms and UI, I suggest considering other Microsoft 365 services and applications which would better fit your needs.

Want to do more with Microsoft 365?

Microsoft 365 is an incredibly powerful suite of enterprise tools. If you need help setting up your Microsoft 365 tenant for your construction organization, check out our Managed Services and submit a free consultation request.

Need a turnkey enterprise construction management solution? Check out Construction Viz and the available apps for Microsoft 365 at ConstructionViz.com.

Create Power BI Reports from Lists in Microsoft 365

How Adaptive Cards Can Turbocharge Your Construction Project Management Processes

Why Adaptive Cards matter for construction projects

Learn how Adaptive Cards can streamline your projects

How to Start Managing Construction Projects in Microsoft 365 – Part 3