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PMIS the Right Way

How-To | September 22, 2015

Considering a new Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) for your construction company?

We covered the reasons PMIS implementations typically fail in our previous blog post. Below we share the best practices we’ve learned implementing successful PMIS solutions for our clients over the years. Follow these tips and you will save yourself and your company headaches.

In a future blog post, we’ll explain why we believe Microsoft SharePoint, a tool already in place at most organizations, is the best PMIS option for many companies.

10 Tips for a Successful Project Management Information System Implementation

Do not go into an Enterprise PMIS rollout with your eyes shut.  A PMIS needs a scope, schedule and a budget just like any other construction project.  Buying software is the last step in the process not the first.  Do your homework and follow these best practices:

  1. Take stock of what you already have.  Analyze what you have before going out and buying an expensive new PMIS. You may find you already have tools that will meet your needs. For example, most companies already have Microsoft SharePoint. We have been able to provide 95% of our clients’ requirements by supplementing SharePoint with P6 and Arc GIS integration. Be sure to read our next blog article to learn why SharePoint may be the best PMIS solution for your company.
  2. Take time to do requirements.  We cannot say this emphatically enough. Taking time to do a proper requirements gathering phase is the difference between project success and failure. Requirements are independent of a PMIS, so spend the time defining your process before you even look at platforms. Understanding what your organization needs will make it easier to pick the right tool, prioritize features, avoid bloatware and ultimately save you time and money.
  3. Shoot High, Aim Low.  Plan the deployments so that functionality is released in phases.  The shotgun approach does not work.  Everybody on the project team is busy and their ability to change is very limited.  Small wins build support and foster empowerment of project teams.
  4. Assign Subject Matter Experts. A PMIS doesn’t build itself and magically know how you do things. You have to commit internal resources to collecting requirements, testing, training, encouraging adoption and managing feature requests. Establish a team of internal subject matter experts (SMEs) to support the PMIS throughout the entire Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). These should be experienced SMEs from each discipline that will use the PMIS, not “newbies.”
  5. Get the right team.  Ensure your PMIS deployment is successful by entrusting the project to a team that is expert on the platform. Many construction companies hire one-off contractors or consultants from staffing agencies to develop functionality and deploy solutions. Companies do this because they believe they will save money. But hiring IT generalists often leads to wasted time, incomplete solutions and ballooning project costs. A PMIS solution should be deployed by a team that knows the product – both hardware and software – inside and out. Hire a team that specializes in PMIS deployments that can efficiently deliver a complete solution.
  6. Build grassroots support for your project.  PMIS systems are successful when users embrace them, not when they are forced to use them by upper management. You can increase adoption by ensuring the PMIS makes things easier and more efficient for all stakeholders. Otherwise you are just creating more work for other teams. Find internal champions in each department who know the business and can influence the rest of the organization. Work closely with them to gather their group’s requirements.
  7. Focus on core competencies.  A successful PMIS implementation requires the help of technology experts with experience deploying project management systems. You are probably thinking that this is convenient advice coming from a consulting company. That doesn’t make it any less true. You know your business backwards and forwards, but you are probably not an IT expert. Your internal IT department specializes in software and hardware refreshes. But they are not experienced with the intricacies of PMIS deployments. Bottom line: you will end up spending double the cost and tenfold the time trying to develop and roll out a PMIS without expert help.
  8. Embrace the cloud.  Companies spend millions maintaining data centers that will never keep up with the latest technology and security requirements.  We realize moving to the cloud seems daunting, But if you want to save cost, improve efficiency and foster innovation, your best bet is to get out from behind your firewall.
  9. Make your IT partner part of the construction team.  Your ideal IT partner should become part of your construction team to understand your business and your requirements. This will allow them to respond quickly to project needs and build solutions as they are needed.
  10. Expect to spend money.  Software is only part of the cost you need to consider. A bigger cost is the labor to develop and support your implementation.  A PMIS should be treated just like rolling out an enterprise financial system or CRM.  You don’t buy a system and then walk away. A successful long-term implementation requires careful initial planning followed by expert installation, maintenance, and support. Make sure your budget takes into account the full lifecycle of the PMIS.

Why Microsoft SharePoint is an ideal PMIS platform

In a future post, we’ll pull everything together to discuss why we recommend Microsoft SharePoint to our clients as the ideal foundation for a robust PMIS solution.

10 Reasons Construction Project Management Information Systems Fail

How-To | September 9, 2015

Most construction specific Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) implementations fail. This will not be welcome news if your company just spent tens of thousands of dollars implementing one. But we meet a surprising number of construction managers and owners who are unhappy with their current PMIS deployment. They typically come to us for help after discovering that their fancy new project management system is too costly and complex to implement. Worse yet, no one at their company wants to use it because it doesn’t help them do their jobs better.

We’ve had these conversations many times over the years – enough to know that the construction management landscape is sadly riddled with expensive and ineffective PMIS solutions.

How did the construction industry get to this point? We outline 10 reasons below. If you’re considering updating or implementing a PMIS at your construction company, we hope these tips help make the process smoother. In our next blog post, we’ll also share our vision for how a proper PMIS solution should be designed and implemented.

Top Reasons why Construction Project Management Information Systems fail:

  1. The system is not flexible.  Many PMIS solutions force a team to manage a project in a specific way. The reality is that most companies, projects, and people do things differently. Processes also evolve over time. A PMIS system should be flexible and adaptable – without requiring expensive custom coding.
  2. Internal politics prevent adoption.  Multiple departments are involved with managing a project. Each one has its own specific workflows and software platforms. Implementing a “one-size-fits-all” PMIS across these disparate groups often leads to resistance and lack of adoption. But who can blame them? Deploying a new software tool that doesn’t integrate with other departments’ existing platforms is making more work for them, not less. So everyone falls back on manually importing and exporting Excel files to collaborate. Not exactly a gain in efficiency.
  3. The systems lack internal support.  Individuals who are involved with projects from requirements through implementation make ideal project champions for choosing the proper PMIS. These champions are critical to helping a product gain acceptance in the organization and creating grass roots acceptance.  Without internal support, systems “die on the vine” only to be replaced with another expensive system that never gets implemented.  The system is blamed for the failure and not the organization.
  4. Companies don’t understand what they have.  Project managers and executives are busy. They often simply don’t have the time or technical skills to evaluate the capabilities of their current tools. So they bring in a consultant. But most consultants make money selling fancy new software platforms as well as the services required to deploy and customize them. But this approach overlooks the most efficient and effective option: improving the PMIS solution that the company already owns.
  5. A company’s IT department “locks down” the application.  Once a PMIS is absorbed into a company and hosted on their internal servers, the IT department takes over managing the tool. Further customization and feature requests from users are too often stifled or delayed. Users then have one more reason to not use the tool.Blog Quotes Construction Project Management Information Systems
  6. Business requirements are not valued.  Many companies jump into buying an expensive PMIS solution thinking that the software itself will fix their issues. They then task the implementation of the system to those in the organization that know the least – usually the “newbies” since other subject matter experts are busy running projects.  But this immediately devalues the product.  A system is only as good as the people that develop and support it. There must be commitment to the entire software development lifecycle for a product to be successfully adopted in an organization. Without knowledge of the business processes, proper training, and acceptance by the organization, all enterprise software systems will fail
  7. The wrong team is implementing the solution.  Software development and implementation is a unique craft.  Most construction professionals think they can do it because they managed a construction project. But the truth is they lack the technical experience to do the implementation right. On the flip side, IT companies that don’t know construction and try to build solutions often fail because they build tools that are not grounded in how work is actually performed in the field. A PMIS will fail without the expertise of the right team that knows both construction and how to implement software.
  8. The solution lacks a unified vision.  Companies typically buy the “best of breed” software to do specific things (dashboards, cost, contracts, etc.). Then they end up using only 5% of each systems’ functionality because the rest of the features don’t fit their needs and don’t integrate with other systems. We’ve heard horror stories of team members using up to 10 different systems to do their job – many of which become corporate mandates that make doing their job even harder.  What ends up happening? These individuals enter the least amount of information they can get away in these mandated systems, but ultimately end up doing their real job in Excel. Again, less efficiency, not more.
  9. Management is sold an “out-of-the-box” lie.  Every consulting and software company will claim to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. But there is no such product.  Most, if not all, PMIS deployments are custom coded. Each and every change will be expensive and make the tool more difficult to update in the future. The consultants you hired to install and configure your new PMIS will never leave because the platform is too complex for your in-house IT to manage. Ultimately, the cost to develop and maintain the product will become its downfall.
  10. Companies try for the Hail Mary.  Companies too often try to do too much when they deploy PMIS solutions. Instead of getting the small win, they end up in a state of constant re-engineering.

A better way to implement your Construction Project Management Information System

As we can see, the challenges and resulting opportunities that the construction industry faces in choosing a new PMIS are numerous. Stay tuned, because in our next blog post we will explain how to successfully implement a PMIS solution. The final blog post in our series will share how construction professionals can use solutions already deployed at their organization – tools like Microsoft SharePoint and Excel – to avoid these pitfalls and achieve better results.

Construction Project Reporting Made Simple

How-To | May 28, 2015

A key part of every Construction Managers’ job is analyzing reports to determine project health. Timely and accurate reporting not only keeps stakeholders informed, but is critical to ensuring the success of increasingly complex mega projects and programs.

Lydon Solutions knows that it’s important for Construction Managers to quickly and easily provide the right information to management and project team members. This is why we integrate robust reporting functions into our Construction Program Management Portal using the inherent power of Microsoft SharePoint. Our Portal makes it simple to create, customize and share reports as needed. We provide visual tools such as dashboards that enable stakeholders to understand a project’s status at a glance – with more detailed information only a click away.

Example reporting tools in the Lydon Solutions Construction Program Management Portal:

Data Driven Dashboards:

Lydon Solutions puts critical project data in dashboards integrated into team homepages so that each group has everything they need in one place to easily determine project health. Data for these dashboards can be linked to Microsoft SharePoint lists and forms, pulled from external data or be manually entered. Information can be presented as standard charts (pie, line, bar, X/Y, heat maps, bubble charts, etc.) with drill down capability.

Sharepoint ScorecardScorecards:

Raw data can be overwhelming to consume. That’s why we use visual indicators such as traffic lights, custom icons, and color coding to represent the status of an item in lists or libraries of data. We also use scorecards on form libraries to provide an approval status of a record. Rules can be easily setup to determine which conditions drive the scorecard.

Microsoft Excel SharepointMicrosoft Excel Services:

Everybody loves using Excel to manage day-to-day operations on a program.  The Lydon Solutions Construction Program Management Portal allows you to quickly web enable your existing Excel reports/dashboards so that the entire project team can have access to them.  Users can interact with your Excel files directly on the Portal using pivot tables, slicers and data selection, reporting and file downloads.

 

SharePoint Reporting for Construction

Microsoft SharePoint Reporting Service:

SQL Reporting Services allow developers to build standard reports with charts, maps, dashboards, and log information. Data can be filtered with user parameters and exported to PDF, Word, and Excel. Users can also subscribe to reports that can be automatically scheduled.

Reporting is situation dependent and having the right information at the right time is critical.  With the Lydon Solutions Construction Program Management Portal, all your reporting tools are at your fingertips.  Contact us to learn how we can help you simplify reporting for all your construction projects.

Mobile SharePoint Forms for construction with offline capability

How-To | March 10, 2015

“No Internet Connection? No Problem.”

Being able to conveniently complete and electronically submit forms like Daily Inspection Reports or Safety Incident Reports is an important requirement for most construction projects. But connecting to a server in the field is sometimes impossible. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to work on your forms with or without internet access and not worry about losing data or having to re-enter information?

Lydon Solutions understands that construction professionals can’t always count on an internet connection in the field. That’s why we created Mobile SharePoint Forms for Construction featuring robust offline mobile support. With Lydon Solutions’ mobile forms, you and your team can complete all your necessary project forms in the field offline with a tablet or a mobile phone (IOS, Android, and Windows 8 devices). Forms can be filled out on your device without a connection and then uploaded to SharePoint when you are back online with a simple push of a button.

Best of all, Lydon Solutions’ Mobile SharePoint Forms for Construction can be configured for your business requirements without coding. Need to include photos in your forms? No problem, simply take photos with your mobile device and they are automatically embedded directly into your forms and ready to be marked up with comments. You can also include your GPS location, so the forms can be Geo Located into an Arc GIS map once they are submitted to SharePoint. Users can even sign the forms with their finger or stylus.

If you need to access the same forms on multiple devices, we have you covered too. Multiple views of the same form can be tailored to different screen sizes so you don’t have to build new forms for each device. And no matter which view you use or where you work, every field in the form is seamlessly integrated into a single SharePoint library with workflows, queries, reports and dashboards always available.

Want to find out how Mobile SharePoint Forms for Construction from Lydon Solutions can enhance the mobile productivity of your construction team in the field? Offline mobile forms are one of the many tools that are offered with Lydon Solutions’ award winning Program Management Portal. Learn more about our construction solutions and contact us for a demo.

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