Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

Miscellaneous

Why Progressive Web Apps are the Future of Construction Project Management

Miscellaneous, Reviews |

From the Apple Store to Google Play, the apps you are downloading to install on your device may soon become a thing of the past. In their place, a new mobile app technology called progressive web apps (PWAs) is making moves to steal their crown. And construction organizations should be looking at adopting software solutions featuring PWA technology too.

Progressive web apps offer significant benefits over traditional single-page apps (SPAs) and websites. Many large companies, including Amazon, Google, Alibaba, and Microsoft, have already transitioned to PWA technology. This article will explain why you should also be considering PWAs if you want to deploy or develop a project management information system (PMIS).

The benefits of progressive web apps

Here are a few of the benefits of progressive web apps in a nutshell:

  • Users don't have to install an app on their device, so there is no need for an app store
  • PWAs are responsive across any device with a modern browser (e.g., Chrome, Edge, or Safari)
  • PWAs can be up to 300% faster than a traditional website
  • For developers, PWAs allow for a single code base, which is easier to manage and update
  • PWAs provide access to a device's hardware such as sensors, cameras, and GPS
  • The entire PWA can work offline (not just the form), allowing you to work in remote locations without internet access
  • PWAs can utilize push notifications such as chat, weather updates, changes to content, and even event reminders within your operating system
  • PWAs behave like desktop applications independent of the browser

Why progressive web apps matter for construction organizations

When considering whether to procure or develop your own PMIS, it would be in your organization's best interest to research PWAs to save costs, improve functionality, future proof your investment, and provide a consistent UI/UX across any device with a modern browser.

But you might ask, "If PWAs are so great, what software programs are using them right now?" While the technology is relatively new, adoption is multiplying across all verticals.

Here are just some of the mainstream web applications that you may not even be aware are PWAs:

  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • Starbucks
  • Uber
  • Spotify
  • Airbnb
  • Carnival Cruises
  • United Airlines
  • Air France
  • Nordstrom
  • The Washington Post
  • BMW
  • Pinterest
  • Yummly
  • Housing.com
  • Stance
  • Google Meet
  • Google Maps
  • Android Messaging
  • Facebook Gaming
  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • Starbucks
  • Uber
  • Spotify
  • Airbnb
  • Carnival Cruises
  • United Airlines
  • Air France
  • Nordstrom
  • The Washington Post
  • BMW
  • Pinterest
  • Yummly
  • Housing.com
  • Stance
  • Google Meet
  • Google Maps
  • Android Messaging
  • Facebook Gaming

As the names on the list suggest, major corporations that lead their industries are embracing PWAs.  You probably should too.

We are all in on progressive web apps

Why does Lydon Solutions care so much about PWAs? We are technology geeks, and the more we see the evolution and adoption of powerful technology like PWAs, the more we can better serve our clients in the construction industry.

We wisely chose to build our solution, Construction Viz, as a PWA in 2017, anticipating the new technology's adoption. Construction Viz is an enterprise PMIS that integrates with your Microsoft 365, keeping your data in your environment. Knowing what PWAs can provide, you can easily see the benefits of building our Construction Viz project management solution using this technology.

Construction Viz PWA added to Windows 10 desktop
Construction Viz PWA added to Windows 10 desktop

Learn more about progressive web apps for your construction organization

Want to learn more about PWA technology and its application for construction project management? Check out my PWA article on the Construction Viz blog.

If you have any questions regarding PWAs or are looking for a solution to help manage your construction projects, you can request a free consultation here.

Moving to Microsoft Office 365 for Project Management? What You Need to Know

Miscellaneous |

So, your company is moving to Microsoft Office 365 and you plan to use it to manage your construction projects.  

Office 365 provides many powerful tools—such as Power Automate, Power BI and SharePoint Online—that can help you manage any construction project. The question is “How do you put all the tools and services together to deliver a complete solution for construction management?” 

As a Construction Project Manager, your job is construction management, not IT.  With Office 365, you can do a lot of things yourself without being an IT magician. Unfortunately, that will get you only so far.  

Lydon Solutions has been delivering leading-edge IT solutions and services for the construction industry for more than 10 years. Most of our IT professionals came from the construction industry. We know Office 365 and SharePoint because we use them to manage our projects. Additionally, we built an entire construction management platform, Construction Viz, on top of SharePoint. We combine our tools and experience to help your project and organization be successful. 

Don’t let Office 365 turn into another file share document repository. And stop looking for another tool to manage your projects. Let us ensure you make the most of your investment by helping you leverage the best of Office 365.  If you want a more turnkey solution, like Construction Viz, we can deliver that as well, all within your Office 365 tenant.  

You have the tools with Office 365. Let us help deliver the solutions. Contact us to get started.

Solutions Based Consulting for the Information Revolution

Miscellaneous |

Technology is changing so fast that even organizations that were once considered leaders are finding themselves behind the times.  Almost daily, the foundations of what’s possible is changing.  Amazing developments in areas like mixed reality, the Internet of Things (IOT), cloud platforms, and more, are redefining the construction industry whether you like it or not.  If you don’t invest in technology, I can guarantee your competition will. 

At the core of this technology revolution, beyond just the IT gimmicks, is information management.  You need to know how to get your information in the most efficient way possible to be able to make actionable decisions, all at the lowest price.

So how do you get an honest assessment of the best way to manage information to inform your IT decisions?  Do you use an IT firm that has never managed a construction project, a construction consultant that has never developed or implemented IT solutions, or a vendor that is just hawking their software?  Let’s face it; these choices represent a broken model.

You need solutions delivered by experts in their field

From the very beginning at Lydon Solutions, we have always delivered innovative and compelling solutions for our clients. From integrating a range of technologies and solutions, to providing rock-solid hosting in Microsoft Azure, all the way through to the development of our own React-based Construction Viz Apps for SharePoint and Office 365, we strive to provide the best advice, direction, and strategy at every turn.  We don’t just do IT; we provide information management solutions.  Our team knows the construction industry. We have boots on the ground, a can-do attitude to tackle big challenges, and a commitment to delivering world-class solutions.

Information management tools for your business

Lydon Solutions provides not only IT solutions but also a high level of expertise in the construction industry. Contact us today for a free consultation and see how Lydon Solutions can help your business be at the forefront of this technology revolution.

There is no Such Thing as a “SharePoint Developer”

Miscellaneous |

Yes, you heard it here: Don’t get fooled into hiring or contracting with an individual who claims to be a “SharePoint Developer” because there is no such thing.

Why? Working with SharePoint requires a broad range of skills beyond what any single person could realistically master.  If you want enterprise level solutions to manage your construction projects, what you really need is a team of experts that can help your organization unlock SharePoint’s full potential. Your best bet is to look for a company that has deep experience and broad expertise in SharePoint.

SharePoint's Capabilities

SharePoint is incredibly powerful. It is the number-one Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system in the world. On the surface, it looks simple and straightforward. That’s by design. Under the hood, however, it’s a different (and a complex) story depending on how and where you host SharePoint.

Just take a look at this partial list of SharePoint’s capabilities:

Content Management

  • List and library creation
  • Meta data
  • Retention

User Administration 

  • Account management
  • Permissions
  • Training

Architecture

  • Server administration
  • Security
  • Active Directory

Client-Side Development 

  • JavaScript, Angular, React, etc.
  • REST API
  • SDLC – build, test, deploy and support

Database 

  • SQL Server
  • Integration
  • Web services

Search 

  • Queries
  • Search properties and parameters
  • Search center

Reporting 

  • Third-party reports
  • SSRS/SSMS
  • Power BI

Forms 

  • List, infopath
  • Third party
  • Custom JS/VS

Workflow 

  • SharePoint designer/flow
  • Third party
  • Custom JS/VS

Each one of these areas requires years of experience to master and are rarely seen all together in any one individual.  This is why I say there is no such thing as a generic “SharePoint Developer.”

So what do you do if you want to use SharePoint to effectively manage your construction projects (and not just store your documents)?

Here are several approaches.

The first (and my recommendation) is to use a SharePoint-specific service provider like Lydon Solutions. We have people with experience and expertise in different areas of SharePoint so you can be assured your bases are covered.

Better yet, use our Construction Viz solution for SharePoint. This solution gives you full-featured construction management tools available right in SharePoint, on-premise or in the cloud, at a fraction of the cost of building your own environment.

If you prefer to do-it-yourself, here are suggestions on how to proceed:

  1. Separate business configuration from software development. Business configuration should be more focused on understanding your processes and document/content management than with software development. Business-configuration candidates should be client-facing, have a working knowledge of SharePoint, and understand construction and document control.
  2. Separate database development from client-side development. Typically, developers are stronger in one area or the other – so, if possible, separate database from the client-side development. Also, remember the software development lifecycle (SDLC). When it comes to developing custom solutions, you will need resources to not only build but also test and deploy any SharePoint solution (at a minimum).
  3. Decide whether the solution will be on-premise or online. If you go with Office 365, you will reduce your architecture needs since you won’t be managing servers. However, you will still have to manage your Office 365 tenant, integration, security, backups, and support, not to mention the continuing changes Microsoft makes to Office 365.
  4. Decide on your supporting software platforms. SharePoint is great in that you can build anything you want and its bad because you can build anything you want.  Commit to a standardized software platform for developing and deploying forms, workflow, and reporting.  This will allow specialization within your team and ensure a consistent experience for the users.

Choosing a SharePoint Development Partner

As stated before, you can eliminate all this work by using a provider like Lydon Solutions. We’ve been working with SharePoint for years and have experts in virtually every area of the platform. We can leverage its power to reduce your work and lower your costs for construction management.

If you want to learn more, contact us for a no-obligation consultation. And be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter in the footer below to get our latest blog updates, tips on using Microsoft SharePoint, and other useful info delivered directly to your inbox.

2017 CMAA Capital Projects Symposium Recap

Miscellaneous |

The Lydon Solutions team had a great time showcasing our construction management solutions at the 2017 CMAA Capital Projects Symposium.  Here are a few photos and takeaways from the event.

The annual CMAA Capital Projects Symposium is the ideal venue for construction industry leaders to learn about new techniques and technologies to improve their project management processes. We were proud to be bronze-level sponsors of this two-day event for the third year in a row.  As always, it was great connecting with industry professionals and showing off our latest innovative construction program management solutions.

Visitors to our booth had the chance to explore Construction Viz, our recently released construction program management solution powered by Microsoft SharePoint 2016. We presented demos highlighting Construction Viz’s powerful SSRS reporting capabilities as well as how easy the platform makes it to integrate geospatial map data with project information.

Thanks to everyone that stopped by our booth to chat with our team!

A few takeaways from this year’s CMAA Capital Projects Symposium

The CMAA event is a great opportunity to learn what is foremost on the minds of industry leaders. Here are a few insights we gained:

Breaking down information silos and encouraging collaboration – Many construction managers and owners are looking for a centralized location for all their project information. They want a solution that will enable them to better share this information among project team members.

Better Primavera P6 integration and reporting – P6 is the go-to project management application for many organizations. What’s missing is a way to integrate project information from other sources with P6 data and create robust reports.

Mobile is a requirement – Project teams need 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.

In all the above conversations, we were delighted to show off the capabilities of Construction Viz, a solution well-suited to meeting the needs we heard from CMAA attendees.

Construction Viz integrates with industry-standard software (Microsoft Office, P6, ArcGIS and more), putting all project data in one place for collaboration, sharing and reporting. The platform makes it easy to share P6 schedule information via built-in reports and dashboards. Finally, Construction Viz is designed from the ground up to be a mobile-first platform.

When we showed visitors to our booth everything Construction Viz could do – and then told them it was built on technologies that they already knew and trusted like SharePoint 2016, SQL 2016 and Azure – we generated a lot of excitement. It’s gratifying opportunities like these to share much-needed solutions with our construction industry colleagues that ensures we’ll be back at the Capital Projects Symposium next year!

Discover Project Management Perfected

If you missed us at this year’s event, make sure to check out the reporting and mapping capabilities of Construction Viz in our most recent blog posts. You can also contact us to schedule a free consultation and demo.

Join Us For The 2015 CMAA National Conference & Trade Show

Miscellaneous |

Lydon Solutions is a Bronze Sponsor at this year’s CMAA National Conference & Trade Show, taking place October 11-13th at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in Orlando. The conference is an excellent forum for industry professionals to learn about new trends, share best practices and network with their peers. We are excited to take this opportunity to showcase the benefits of our award-winning Construction Program Management Portal powered by Microsoft SharePoint as well as our full range of professional services, IT development and hosting solutions.

Look for us at booth #111 and make sure to join us for our ‘Microsoft Excel PowerPivot and SharePoint – The Perfect Solution’ presentation at the Demo Theater, Monday October 12th at 2:30pm.

This event will be special for us, since we will be unveiling our new cutting-edge enterprise mobile technology for Dashboards and KPIs that runs across IOS, Windows and Android devices.  These dashboards are served up through apps that can be downloaded across devices and then connected to your enterprise data sources such as Microsoft SharePoint.  At our booth, we’ll be demoing our power BI solutions using Microsoft Power Pivot and SharePoint – it’s sure to knock your socks off.

Not able to make it the CMAA National Conference? Contact us for more information about our services and schedule a free consultation.