Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

Company News

Construction Viz: Looking Ahead for 2018

Company News |

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.

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Happy New Year from Lydon Solutions

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Lydon Solutions wants to thank all our clients, partners and colleagues for a successful 2016. We look forward to working together in the new year!

Author: Rusty Ostboe

As we say goodbye to 2016, our team here at Lydon Solutions has many reasons to be thankful. We get to help businesses and organizations in the construction industry do their jobs better with technology every day – and have a lot of fun along the way.

We were thrilled to launch Construction Viz this past fall. Construction Viz is a new, flexible, subscription-based construction project management solution based on our award-winning program management portal. It has been very exciting to see the enthusiastic reception that the platform has received.

And we are excited to continue teaming up with you — our clients and partners – to lead the way with innovative construction program management solutions in 2017.

Finding Ways to Give Back

For all the above reasons and more, we feel very fortunate and appreciative. Which is why all of us at Lydon Solutions are committed to giving back to our community wherever we can.

I had the honor recently to represent Lydon Solutions and help support two very good causes. If you are able, I encourage you to learn more about these organizations and the ways you can also help them with their work.

We were very happy to participate in the A Taste of Switzer event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Switzer Learning Center located in Torrance, CA. The Switzer Learning Center serves children and families with mild to severe learning, social, emotional and behavioral challenges. Programs include a 3rd-12th-grade special education school and family services clinic. It was great to see more than 20 local restaurants, breweries, wineries and caterers team up to donate food and beverages to make this event supporting Switzer Learning Center a success. Lydon Solutions was honored to be able to donate to this organization to further its important mission.

We were also glad to once again support School on Wheels as a premier sponsor of their Sip of South Bay event put on by Joyful Giving this past November in Southern California (see event photos here). School on Wheels is a nonprofit organization providing academic support to homeless children in grades K-12 through tutoring and mentoring programs. By providing educational support and reducing gaps in their education, School on Wheels’ tutoring program improves the children’s chances for academic success, and serves as a consistent support system to homeless students at a time of great stress and fear.

On behalf of everyone at Lydon Solutions, we salute these two organizations – and the many others like them – that are doing good and important work every day in our community. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to assist their missions.

Looking Forward

To all our customers, partners, colleagues and friends: We wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2017.

Announcing Construction Viz: Project Management Perfected

Company News |

Construction Viz is our new flexible, subscription-based construction project management solution powered by Microsoft SharePoint™ 2016, SQL 2016 and Azure.

We are thrilled to announce Construction Viz, our new subscription-based construction project management solution.

Construction Viz includes everything you need to manage your construction projects— document management, dashboards, reports, forms, workflows and more—in one place.

Best of all, a seamless mobile-first experience makes all of these tools available where you need them. So you and your team can stay productive in the office and at the remote job site using a fully-responsive interface.

Key  Features of Construction Viz

  • Work from Anywhere on Any Device
  • Leverage Your Existing Tools
  • Create Reports & Dashboards
  • Securely Share Information

A Subscription-Based Version of our Award-Winning Portal

Construction Viz is based on the Lydon Solutions Construction Program Management Portal, our award-winning platform deployed by leading construction and utility companies to manage their multi-billion dollar projects.

So which solution is right for your organization?

Our Construction Program Management Portal is a powerful and fully-customizable Project Management Information System (PMIS) powered by Microsoft SharePoint. It can be deployed as a hosted solution, on premise or in a hybrid environment. The portal is designed to be tailored to the advanced infrastructure needs with near limitless customization and integration options.

Construction Viz is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of our portal available as a hosted, subscription-based solution. Basically, we’ve taken the same framework that we’ve deployed for large utility and construction companies, and built an affordable per-user, per-month hosted solution that you can get started with right away.

Jump right in to managing your projects, not learning or configuring custom software

Our Construction Program Management Portal is a powerful and extensible PMIS solution. Some organizations require the full range of features and customizability it offers – particularly if they have complex integration or legacy requirements.

Many other teams can get started right away and have everything they need already built into the tool as an affordable subscription.

And since both solutions are based on SharePoint—you can even start with Construction Viz and migrate to our portal (or a completely custom SharePoint solution) down the road.

Ready to Perfect Your Project Management with Construction Viz?

Find out more about Construction Viz by visiting our microsite for this new offering, or contact us to schedule a free consultation and demo.

Learn More

Mobile Dashboards for Construction Project Management

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We have good news for construction project managers. You can now easily provide real-time dashboards and KPIs to your team – no matter what OS or device they use.

We are big believers in the power of dashboards for construction project management. Our award-winning Construction Program Management Portal is built around robust custom dashboards. Construction projects are complex, with lots of moving parts and dependencies. Dashboards offer stakeholders a visual summary of a project’s status at a glance. And of course, more detailed information is always only a click away in our portal.

But wouldn’t it be great if your team could access these dashboards from anywhere on any device? We agree. Which is why we are very excited to offer construction project managers an even more powerful way to deploy dashboards.

Enterprise Mobile Construction Project Management Dashboards with Microsoft Data Zen

Lydon-Solutions-Construction-Project-Management-Dashboard-Example
Easily provide real-time dashboards and KPIs to your team with the Lydon Solutions Project Management Information System

Lydon Solutions now provides enterprise level dashboard and KPI reporting using Microsoft Data Zen. Now you can easily provide your team with interactive dashboards that show real-time KPIs in a visual and easy-to-understand format.

Your users can interact with these reports regardless of the device or operating system they use. That means mobile users see the same information as team members back in the office.

Best of all, no special coding is required. You can build and deploy these dashboards yourself. Data Zen makes it simple to combine information from virtually any system you use (including SharePoint).

With the Lydon Solutions Project Management Information System (PMIS) and Data Zen, you now have several powerful new capabilities, including:

  • Interactive charts – Display data in robust graphs, charts, tables, maps, and KPIs. Quickly drill down to more detailed information.
  • Real-Time Reporting – Build robust dashboards using real-time information from all your data sources. No custom coding required.
  • Support for multiple platforms and devices – Use your preferred device. Data Zen supports iOS, Android, and Windows phones, tablets, and laptops.
  • Better team Collaboration – Share KPIs and dashboards in real-time. Collaborate with team members using integrated instant messaging.
  • Dashboards on an enterprise scale – Deploy your dashboards across your entire organization and leverages SQL server and Active Directory for permissions.

Lydon Solutions continues to push the envelope of what is possible in managing your construction projects. Thought you knew SharePoint? Guess again. Contact us for a free consultation.

Giving Thanks to a Mentor Who Changed My Life

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This week many of us will gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. We will share in good food and fond company as a way to express gratitude and appreciation for the people and things near and dear to us.

I recently had a chance to give thanks to someone who gave me a foundational opportunity in my early life and career. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d like share my story with you.

Opportunity is not just a word. For me, opportunity is the reason I went from an entry-level retail clerk to the business partner I am today. Twenty-two years ago, I graduated from Penn State with plenty of education but no job. Because one man dared to take a chance on me, my professional life was radically changed.

Jobs were scarce in 1993 when I received a B.S. in Environmental Resource Management. I ended up working retail sales hoping something would open up in my field. A friend of my mom invited me to meet with her husband, the president of a well-established construction company. I met with him at his house and he grilled me on different topics – many of which were not related to my degree. That meeting left me feeling intimidated and thinking I was destined to fold clothes and work the cash register for a while. I had no idea that this man would eventually become my mentor.

I was surprised to be invited back to interview for a job at his company a few weeks later. The interviews were grueling because I knew little to nothing about construction and engineering. But I got the job. Why me? It was obvious that my mentor was going out on a limb to give me a chance. The job was the perfect opportunity to learn the construction business from the ground up. Thankful for the chance, I worked my tail off to ensure that I would never disappoint my mentor for taking a risk on me.

With hard work and dedication – traveling to job sites, doing cost and scheduling, health and safety, QA/QC – within 5 years I became a project manager and project controls manager on a $120-million-dollar project. My mentor would check up on me and provide guidance by assigning project managers that he felt were the best to help steer my career. While I rarely engaged with my mentor directly, my goal was to never let him down.

I eventually left his company to obtain an MBA and later progress up the ranks and deepen my knowledge at other major companies. Now a partner of our own company in the construction industry – Lydon Solutions – I felt compelled to thank my mentor for the original opportunity he gave me.

Recently I visited my parents in Pittsburgh and decided to reconnect with my mentor. Walking to his front porch with a confident and poised aura –I nearly broke into tears within seconds of seeing his face. He and his wife greeted me with open arms. I instantly felt like I was at my first interview all those years before.

We spoke for hours and he talked about the professional risk he took to hire me.  I found out from him that after my initial interview with his company, the rest of the managers didn’t feel I was the right candidate, but he put his neck on the line because he saw potential in me. Without my knowing, he was always in the distance checking on me and seeing if he made the right choice. Hearing of my successes in business made him ecstatic. I thanked him countless times before our visit ended and we wished each other well.

The experience that my mentor provided me with stands out above all the opportunities I’ve had. His influence helped inspire a similar mentality at Lydon Solutions. We’ve found that there are candidates that might not be the best candidate on paper but given the right opportunity, will far exceed expectations.  Those are the “diamonds in the rough” that we look for at our company.

When opportunity meets potential, there is success. The purpose of this post isn’t about touting myself or my company, but sharing an example of what happens when someone sees potential in an inexperienced person and gives them an opportunity. I thank my mentor for the experience he provided me. I also encourage everyone to look beyond what is expected in a position. You’ll never know the impact to your company, you, or another person’s life in doing so.

On behalf of the entire Lydon Solutions team, I want to wish you – our customers, partners and colleagues – a Happy Thanksgiving.

Oracle Primavera P6 hosting & SharePoint integration

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We are pleased to announce that Lydon Solutions, a leading provider of Microsoft SharePoint solutions for the construction industry, now provides Oracle Primavera P6 enterprise hosting, integration and reporting in our Microsoft Azure data center.

This this new offering has several key benefits for our clients:

1. Affordable Primavera P6 enterprise hosting in our Microsoft Azure data center along with seamless integration of Primavera P6 and our Microsoft SharePoint solutions
2. Custom Primavera P6 web service reports as well as Oracle BI reports. These custom reports provide the entire project team with the ability to run reports and queries within Microsoft SharePoint.
3. Activity, WBS, budget, resource and dashboard reporting combined with the capability to export to Excel. These features are available to the project teams based on user permissions.
4. The ability to compare multiple projects side by side for “what if” analysis, changes from the baseline and reports on critical path and longest path

Oracle Primavera P6 enterprise hosting, integration and reporting is yet another way in which Lydon Solutions is helping you aggregate all of your mission critical construction project information into Microsoft SharePoint.

Contact us today and ask for a demo.