Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

Company News

Are you ready for the Murph Challenge?

Company News |

Lydon Solutions is inviting you to take part in The Murph Challenge this Memorial Day and do something great for your health and, at the same time, help support our vets!

What is the Murph Challenge?

The Murph Challenge is considered a hero workout in the CrossFit community. It's an exceptionally tough workout where people from all over the world compete and post their times.

The event honors LT. Michael Murphy with proceeds benefitting the LT. Michael Murphy Scholarship Foundation.

Who was LT Michael Murphy?

Murph-Challenge_1

Michael Murphy was a Navy Seal killed in Afghanistan in 2005 and later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his sacrifice. LT. Murphy risked his own life to save the lives of his teammates. If you are not familiar with his legacy, a Hollywood movie called Lone Survivor tells his heroic story, starring Mark Wahlberg and Taylor Kitsch as LT. Murphy.

What is the Murph Challenge?

The Murph is a timed workout that will test your physical limits. It involves:

  • 1-mile run
  • 100 pull-ups
  • 200 push-ups
  • 300 air squats
  • Another 1-mile run

This workout is especially hard because participants perform all the exercises in a 20 lb. weighted vest! After completing the workout, you can post your time to the Official Worldwide Leaderboard.

Murph-Challenge_2

Tips to prepare for Murph

While this is no shortcut to completing a Murph, a few tips might help your training.

  • Give yourself enough time to prepare. Even if you are in good shape, the workout is strenuous.
  • Thoroughly stretch before and after each training session.
  • Stay adequately hydrated and consider a pre-workout to keep your energy levels up.
  • If you are new to the calisthenics portion of the workout, practice without the weight vest to familiarize your body with the movements and the pacing.
  • Once you are comfortable with the exercises, introduce the weighted vest slowly, like on casual walks, to get your body used to the extra weight and the overall feel.
  • Splitting the workout into manageable sets might help you complete the challenge. Typical partitioning would be twenty sets of five pull-ups, ten push-ups, and twenty air squats.
  • Hole hand grips are an excellent investment to prevent hand injuries from the bar when doing pull-ups.
  • Learn how to do kipping CrossFit pull-ups, which can be easier than traditional pull-ups.

Ready to take the challenge?

While this workout is incredibly challenging, the opportunity to test our grit and support our vets was something we at Lydon Solutions felt compelled to do. We hope you, your friends, and your co-workers will accept the challenge with us and support this great cause!

Visit themurphchallenge.com to register and find out more about LT. Murphy and the Foundation.

Startup Lessons from a 10-Year-Old Company

Company News |

Some data suggests that 90% of small businesses fail in the first year. Others say 66% survive the first two years, but only half are around after five years. Statistics aside, Lydon Solutions has been in business for 10 years.

We are a self-funded, woman-owned construction IT company. We have survived in a cut-throat industry where VC funding supports multi-billion-dollar competitors. It hasn’t been easy. We have made it by the sheer force of will and hard work, and by hiring and supporting talented, passionate professionals who have developed great solutions.

To give you an idea of what IT startups face, I’ve captured the 10 most important lessons I’ve learned along the way. They are what I would want to tell my younger self (in the perhaps vain hope that I would have listened😊).

As you know, a ton of books, videos, self-help gurus, classes, and the like will tell you how to become a successful entrepreneur. The fact is that there is no rulebook for this type of thing. Every IT startup must find its own way and make its own mistakes. I do not have the answers. I do have some thoughts:

  1. Relationships matter – In business school, you are taught that there are three ways to compete: price, quality, and time to market. There is actually a fourth vector that trumps all others—relationships. No matter how good your product or service is, deals happen because of who you know, not what you know. I cannot tell you how many inferior systems and poor implementations are done in the construction IT world because of hallway handshakes. A word of caution: If you aren’t good at getting out and making personal connections, you will have to work 10 times harder on your product or service to compete with those companies that make relationship building a central focus.
  2. Learn to let go – If you started a company, most likely you are not afraid to roll up your sleeves to get things done. It’s in your nature. In a startup, you have to be a generalist, constantly fixing holes and bailing water to keep the ship afloat. Focusing on a single area because you are good at it is detrimental to every other part of the company. The ultimate challenge is learning to delegate in order to scale and propel your company forward.   
  3.  The structure of your company is up to you – You don’t have to subscribe to the 8-to-5 work day, the “client is always right” mantra, and the two weeks of vacation rule. Large organizations created and imposed these rules on their employees to make them cogs in a machine. Everyone is capable of great things and the less you micro-manage, the stronger you become and ultimately the more loyal your employees. Find out what works for you and your team.
  4. Hire people who are much better than you are now or will ever be – Most managers in established companies hire people who know less than they do because they are worried about their jobs and want to maintain their position of power. “Hiring-down” erodes the company from the inside. The only way to succeed is to hire those who are better than you and then cultivate their talent and ideas. You have to let go of the ego and find ways to support your team’s growth.
  5. Hire motivated people – Don’t hire or promote people based on a résumé or job description. Hire based on a candidate’s resolve and commitment. “Do you give a damn? Prove it.” We can always train a person to do a job but more than likely they will not stick around. If you care about what you are doing and take pride in your work, you will outperform anyone who relies on credentials alone. Create a space for that employee to shine, to take responsibility, and dig in. That’s when you’ll see the magic happen.  
  6. Accept change – With the advent of the Internet, your company can be “disrupted” at any time. (I hate that word but..) Every day you need to think about where the industry is heading and how you can position yourself for the next opportunity. Also, don’t be afraid to change your product or service. Not everyone wants exactly what you are providing today, so stay flexible, especially when starting out to bring in the needed revenue.
  7. Success is about opportunity, not luck or hard work alone – You can’t wait for all the stars to line up. Nor does hard work, by itself, ensure that good things will happen. It’s more about being prepared when an opportunity arises. This is not a passive thing. You have to create that opportunity.
  8. Get a mentor – Starting a company is like being dropped off in the jungle with only a knife and you have to survive for a year. You can read all the books you want, get an MBA (like I did), and even read this blog 😊, but there is no manual to tell you how to do this. You will make it up as you go along. You will fail; you will be stressed out; you will ask yourself “how the hell did I get here and can I keep this going?” The best thing you can do is get a mentor who has been through it. He or she will become your sounding board because nobody can relate to what you are going through unless they have started a business. That makes it a lonely lifestyle. Also, the best mentors are those who have failed, not the ones who hit the jackpot the first and only time.
  9. Money doesn’t grow on trees – Banks won’t give you a loan if you are not already booking revenue, and VC firms will only invest money for ownership. If possible, finance your new business yourself. If you want to go after your dream with no strings attached, start saving now.
  10. Enjoy the journey – When I look back over the years, the memorable experiences (which seemed like life or death at the time) were really just tests. I still remember the time my VP and I were working at 2 a.m. trying to fix something for a rollout that morning. We knew that if we didn’t get it right, our company would be done. It was definitely traumatic at the time, but it was a great learning and bonding experience. These events bring your company together and build trust. Time is short, so enjoy the ride, both the highs and the lows. Who knows what’s going to happen? Approach every day with an optimistic viewpoint.
  11. Bonus: Culture is critical – Here is one more takeaway thought for you. Culture is probably the most important, and often overlooked, component of your company. It is like the dark matter in the universe. Good or bad it will permeate your company, but you can’t put your finger on exactly what it is. You can tell when the culture is bad. Employees verbally berate their company in front of others. No one takes responsibility. Nothing gets done because of politics, apathy, and the like. I do not believe that you can teach culture or force it on your employees. It is created and fostered top down and bottom up. It cuts through all the nonsense. It reflects how people feel about your company. All I can say is respect and listen to your employees. Let them take risks and stand by them.

In conclusion, I’m thankful to my team, my VP, my wife (and owner), and family for helping make this happen. I hope at least one of these lessons will help an aspiring IT startup. There are many more ideas swirling around in my brain, waiting to be discovered. Here’s to the future and what it may bring.

Welcome to the new and improved LydonSolutions.com

Company News |

We are excited to launch our new LydonSolutions.com website with a redesigned mobile-responsive theme and several other enhancements. You may have noticed that our ConstructionViz.com site also recently underwent a minor refresh. Read on to learn more about what’s new on both sites.

What’s New on LydonSolutions.com 

Web technology has come a long way since we launched our original site in 2009 and a redesigned version in 2014.  Not only have monitor screen sizes kept getting bigger and wider, but the portion of our web traffic from users on phones and tablets continues to grow. We also wanted to make it as easy as possible for web visitors to learn about our products/services, events, and resources.

With these goals in mind, our redesigned site is optimized to provide the best experience possible with room to grow for several more years.

Fully mobile-responsive for today’s devices

The new Lydon Solutions website has a brand-new design that should look good on the latest widescreen monitors while scaling down gracefully for comfortable viewing on mobile devices.

A spotlight on events

Our team attends multiple conferences and events each year not only to show off the power of Construction Viz and our other solutions, but because the invaluable feedback we receive from real-world construction professional shapes and improves our products. So we created a new Events section to let the community know about upcoming events we will be at and provide a way to schedule meetings with our team.

Magazine style blog

Our team regularly puts out blog articles on topics ranging from product updates to tips and resources for construction project management teams. Our revamped Blog section boasts a bold magazine-style article template, a dedicated blog search function, category pages, and related/suggested articles.

A focus on growing our team

The key to the success of Lydon Solutions is the outstanding people that make up our team. Our updated Career section will help us find the best and brightest talent to take our solutions to the next level.

Other under-the-hood updates

Many other changes lie behind the scenes, like using the latest and most secure web technologies, sitewide search, an improved contact form experience, various security enhancements, interactive widgets, enhanced administrative features that will make it easier for us to update the site, and more.

The Refreshed ConstrucitonViz.com 

We also refreshed ConstructionViz.com, the information hub for our construction project management solution, which we launched in 2016. The site now features a bolder home page, an expanded section for our growing lineup of Construction Viz Apps for Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365, and numerous design tweaks. Like our Lydon Solutions site, the new ConstructionViz.com also underwent the same sort of under-the-hood updates to improve performance, security, mobile-responsiveness, and administration

The above lays the groundwork for a couple of exciting enhancements on the horizon. First, we’ll be implementing a blog/news section on ConstructionViz.com to highlight product news and updates. Second, as we announced earlier this year, we are working on a new marketplace and streamlined installation process for our Construction Viz Apps. When the marketplace and updated installers are in place, any user will be able to select, buy and install our apps in a few simple steps. No IT expertise required.

Get a Free Consultation & Stay in Touch

We invite you to schedule a free demo and consultation to learn more about how Lydon Solutions can help your organization reduce cost, stay on schedule, and be more efficient with your construction programs and projects. And don’t forget to signup below to join our mailing list so you don’t miss any future updates.

We Have Big Plans for Construction Viz in 2019

Company News |

We’ll be expanding our lineup of Construction Viz Apps for SharePoint and Office 365, introducing a new marketplace to make it even easier to buy and deploy our apps, adding services to help construction organizations manage and get the most out of Office 365, plus a lot more. Read on for a preview.

The Construction Viz Story So Far

Construction Viz tackles the pain points of owners, construction project managers, and contractors like no other product on the market. Much more than just another Project Management Information System (PMIS), Construction Viz brings all your critical project data into one place with robust reporting and dashboards. It has all the tools you need to manage your projects—document management, workflows, forms, mobile and offline support—and is powered by the latest versions of Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server, and Azure. You can use it with confidence knowing that Microsoft will support the underlying technologies for the long haul.

What’s more, Construction Viz is customizable using pre-built components and assets to suit how you work. Also, the solution is extensible and can be integrated with your other applications.

But we know that not every organization needs a standalone cloud solution. Maybe they just want to customize an existing SharePoint application. Or maybe they want to extend existing tools, or to use Construction Viz features within an existing SharePoint environment.

So last year we made Construction Viz even better by creating Construction Viz Apps. So far we have launched 15 different integrated Form Apps as well as the Scheduler, Planner, and Project Tracker Apps.

Construction Viz Apps are powered by React, a JavaScript library developed by Facebook and used by companies like Netflix, AirBNB and Dropbox in web and mobile applications. Embracing React and the app model enables us to do two things. First, organizations can deploy features of Construction Viz to their own SharePoint 2013/2016 environment or Office 365 / SharePoint Online with just a few clicks. Second, end users can pick exactly the features they need and install just those apps. Each app functions as a completely standalone application or can be combined to seamlessly work together. That way, you can start with the features you need and add more functionality later.

Nothing else on the market offers the total package Construction Viz provides.

Looking Ahead for 2019

What’s next? Quite a bit.

New Marketplace for Construction Viz Apps for SharePoint and Office 365

Today many smaller organizations are embracing the power of Microsoft’s Office 365, but they may not have in-house IT support. Even at larger organizations, a department or group may want to install our apps without getting IT involved.

This is significant because installing our Construction Viz Apps—while easy— typically requires some technical knowledge. So our first big initiatives for 2019 are implementing an online marketplace for our Construction Viz Apps and streamlining the installation process. When the updated installers are in place, any user will be able to select, buy and install our apps in a few simple steps. No detailed IT expertise required.

Deeper Integration Between Construction Viz and Office 365

We are also deepening the integration between Construction Viz and Office 365 with enhanced data-sharing features. For example, we are building a custom data connector that extracts live lists and libraries from both on-premise SharePoint and Office 365 for storage in our data warehouse. This will extend the advanced querying, reporting, archiving, and backup capabilities of Construction Viz Cloud into SharePoint Online and Office 365 – functionalities not otherwise available on those platforms. Another related feature we have in progress connects our Form Apps with OneDrive, enabling users to pull documents from their OneDrive desktop client into their forms.

More Construction Viz Apps and Feature Enhancements

That’s not all. We will continue to expand and enhance our lineup of Construction Viz Apps. Our product roadmap includes plans to add functionality based on our existing Primavera P6 and geospatial tools, as well as integrations with Microsoft Office 365 productivity applications and Microsoft Graph. Also, we plan to take our offline form support to a new level by tapping the native offline capabilities of React. This would allow the entire Construction Viz solution to go offline – not only forms, but also any page, dashboard, view, and more. We are also looking to incorporate artificial intelligence technology (AI) into our Construction Viz Apps.

Managed Services for Office 365

Another significant initiative for 2019 will be our launch of a managed-services offering for Office 365 to help organizations get the most out of Microsoft’s cloud tools. Frankly, few organizations have the in-house expertise to take advantage of all that Office 365 has to offer, which includes tools like InTune, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Delve, Sway, Skype for Business, Planner, Power BI, and Advanced Threat Protection. Our managed services will help our clients make full use of Office 365 with features like Voice over IP (VoIP), device management, user administration, security, data migration, workflows, and more. And we’ll be there to provide help desk support.

Resources for Construction Project Management Professionals

We’ll support all the above with a website refresh, webinars and videos.

Get Started Today

As you can see, we have great stuff coming soon. But you don’t have to wait. You can get started with Construction Viz right away. Contact us for a free demo and consultation today. You will be glad you did.

Introducing Construction Viz Apps for SharePoint and Office 365

Company News |

Our new lineup of Construction Viz Apps gives you the ultimate in construction project management flexibility. Now you can select and deploy exactly the project management features you need right into your own SharePoint and Office 365 environments.

Did you ever wish there was an easy way to pick and choose the specific functionality you want for your construction project management software instead of “buying the farm” and only using 10%?  Ever wish you could use your own on-premise SharePoint or Office 365 SharePoint Online environment to manage a construction project enhanced with the latest and greatest technologies?

As of today, you can. 

Our new lineup of Construction Viz Apps enables owners, construction managers, A&E firms and contractors to individually purchase and deploy custom functionality into their own SharePoint 2013/2016 and Office 365 environments.

Construction Viz Apps are based on the same tools we have built and delivered to multi-billion-dollar construction programs and projects since 2009.  But here’s the upside: not only do our new apps include everything you need to manage your work, but we built them using React.  Why does that matter?  React is a leading-edge application development platform that is used by world-class technical companies such as Facebook, Instagram and Microsoft. Building our apps in React brings unparalleled speed and scalability to our construction project management solution.

And, Construction Viz Apps are completely responsive to mobile browsers and can be used in the field without an internet connection.

Key Features

Each Construction Viz App includes fully self-contained functionality and is based on our years of experience with SharePoint in construction and facilities management.

Some of the advantages of our Construction Viz Apps include the ability to:

  • Deploy in your own SharePoint 2013/2016 or Office 365 SharePoint Online
  • Be productive anywhere with mobile-responsive tools and offline access.
  • Work across all modern browsers
  • Purchase only the features that you need
  • Use apps individually or seamlessly combine them for more features and convenience
  • Install any app in minutes using client-side technology
  • Configure the apps to meet your needs using flexible components
  • Easily manage users and access with custom permission administration tools
  • Take advantage of your existing SharePoint investment and configuration (e.g. lists and libraries)
  • Always have the best technology and functionality with frequent enhancements and updates

Construction Viz Apps

Below are the first few apps that we will release this year – with more to follow.

Project Tracker App – Project Tracker redesigns document management from the ground up. Keep everything you need to know about your project at your fingertips in interactive dashboards with logs, reports, search, and more.

Forms Apps – Add an extensive library of mobile responsive construction forms with built-in permissions, comments, workflows and reminders to your SharePoint environment. You can customize virtually any part of the form to add logos, fields, permissions and more.

GIS Map App – See where your project is happening. The GIS Map App enables you to add geospatial data to your own SharePoint to create interactive maps with linked photos, videos, libraries and more.

Scheduler App – Stay on schedule with a simple yet powerful tool to manage and assign resources. Includes Gantt charts, critical path, Microsoft Project import and more.

A Solution Tailored to You

We designed Construction Viz, our flagship construction project management software, from the ground up to be the most flexible, customizable and extensible solution available. For anyone looking for a complete project management information system (PMIS) available in the cloud or on-premise tailored to them, there is no better solution available.

But not every organization needs or wants a full PMIS package. Which is where our new Construction Viz Apps are the perfect solution. Now, if you only want to add specific features to your organization’s existing SharePoint, you can select and deploy specific Construction Viz Apps into your own environment. Whatever your needs, you can select between Construction Viz or our new Construction Viz Apps for the ultimate flexibility to deploy the solution that fits your organization’s requirements

It has taken years for the technology to progress to a place where it meets our vision of what a PMIS should look like.  Are you ready?

Sign-up for a demo of Construction Viz Apps

How to Get to ‘One Source of Truth’ on Large, Multi-Year Programs

Company News |

See how Exponent, an engineering and scientific consulting group, uses Construction Viz to make it easy for client teams to efficiently communicate and keep project data up-to-date when managing complex construction projects.

The presentation shows how Construction Viz, our flexible construction project management solution powered by SharePoint, is enabling one major utility to manage a large-scale, multi-year transmission tower program spanning thousands of locations and hundreds of thousands of activities.

Construction Viz provides a centralized and complete source of project information with features such as offline mobile inspection forms, tower activity tracking, interactive dashboards, and more.

About the presentation:

Andy Much, lead developer for Lydon Solutions co-presented “How to Get to ‘One Source of Truth’ on Large, Multi-Year Programs” with Winnie Hung of Exponent, at the AACE 2018 Western Winter Workshop.