Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

microsoft 365

Got Microsoft 365? Use it to Manage Your Construction Projects

Construction Viz News |

If you have Microsoft 365, it’s a no-brainer to leverage your investment to manage your construction projects. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have the time or resources to build even small construction-specific solutions in-house, never mind a complete project management information system (PMIS).

Got-M365_1

Construction Viz makes it easy to manage projects in Microsoft 365

Construction Viz is a powerful and flexible construction project management software solution optimized for YOU and your workflows. We designed it to include everything you need to manage your construction projects, including document management, dashboards, reports, forms, workflows, and more.

Construction Viz features include:

Got-M365_2
  • Can be delivered as a hosted solution or deployed to Microsoft 365
  • Extensive catalog of construction applications for any size project
  • Powerful reports and dashboards
  • Responsive on any device
  • Offline capable
  • Built-in integration with Microsoft 365
  • Full construction document management

Construction Viz is available in the cloud, on-premise, or as à la carte apps for Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.

What makes Construction Viz different from every other PMIS on the market?

Construction Viz is an enterprise PMIS for Microsoft 365. It has all the features you need to manage your construction projects at less cost than competitors because it can be deployed into your Microsoft 365 tenant.

Construction Viz is all about providing organizations with the ability to choose where and how they want to work.

Construction Viz gives you the power to decide each of the questions below.

Where do you want to work?

Construction Viz empowers you to work where and how you prefer:

  • Construction Viz can be deployed to your Microsoft 365, on-premise SharePoint, or hosted in Lydon Solutions’ data center. We can even deploy your uniquely configured solution to other Microsoft 365 tenants (owners, contractors, etc.).
  • Want to work offline without an internet connection? Not a problem. Because Construction Viz is a progressive web app (PWA), the entire solution can go offline.
  • Want to work entirely in email or Microsoft Teams? We can extend the functionality of Construction Viz using adaptive cards, so you don’t even have to log in to the application.
Got-M365_3

What features do you want in your PMIS?

Construction Viz lets you decide which features you need:

  • Unlike most PMIS systems, where you only use 10% of the product but pay 100% of the cost, Construction Viz is app-based, so you only pay for the apps you need.
  • We have a full suite of construction apps for any size project, from an owner to a contractor across any sector.
  • Want a custom solution? We have you covered. Construction Viz is a framework designed to adapt to your processes. All our apps are configurable and customizable to your needs and are extendable with Microsoft 365 services such as Power Automate.

What if you are already using Microsoft 365 and SharePoint?

If your organization already uses Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, Construction Viz can take your project management practices to the next level:

  • Already have a solution and only need a few apps? No problem. You can pick only the ones you need from our list of robust construction applications.
  • Want to leverage what you have developed in SharePoint or the Power Platform? Also, not a problem. We can bring your prebuilt functionality into Construction Viz.
  • Aren’t ready to deploy in your Microsoft 365 just yet? Again, no problem. Start with a hosted deployment, and we can move to your Microsoft 365 when ready.

Sounds great. Where do I start?

You can submit a free consultation and demo request here.

If we seem like a good fit, we’ll move into the Formulate phase of our FOCUS Methodology. As part of our FOCUS Methodology, we’ll evaluate your current Microsoft 365 infrastructure and determine the best approach. Construction Viz might not be the best fit at this time, and that’s OK. You might just need a tune-up of your Microsoft 365 with redesigned SharePoint project templates, or maybe a couple of Power Automate Flows, Power Apps, or some Power BI reports. Either way, we are here to help.

If you still aren’t ready, you can join our newsletter in the footer below. We mail out helpful Microsoft 365 tips and tricks, updates on Construction Viz features, and Microsoft 365 and Construction Viz news each month.

The 1 tool you should consider for project brainstorming

Reviews |

Microsoft Whiteboard is a brainstorming and collaboration tool for Microsoft 365. It is available as a browser-based application and a standalone tool that integrates with Microsoft Teams. The Whiteboard app allows for real-time collaboration with team members, in an easy to use non-structured way, across devices using a mouse, stylus, keyboard, or even your hands.

To fully appreciate the Whiteboard app, it is interesting to consider the evolution from capturing notes on a chalkboard to show to people in the same room to an easy-to-use app that you can download and within minutes share your ideas with the entire world. Let's consider the history:

  • 1800s – The invention of the chalkboard. Most of us grew up with chalkboards made from slate and written on with sticks of chalk derived from calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate. Chalkboards still find a use today, mainly because they are relatively inexpensive, but the downside is that you still must take notes before someone erases your work.
  • 1960s – The coming of the whiteboard.  Albert Stallion created the dry erase board from enameled coated steel. He went on to start Magiboards, a company selling whiteboards in the mainstream. Whiteboards are relatively low cost and, just like chalkboards, are still in use today. They provide a more natural surface for writing, do not create dust, can be magnetized, and work well with overhead screens but, like the chalkboard, they still require taking notes to retain work.
  • 1990s – PCs and the introduction of SMART Boards. The advent of personal computing created new opportunities for capturing and sharing notes. SMART Technologies introduced the SMART Board, interactive whiteboards using LCD screens attached to computers. Like whiteboards, they are still in use today. When SMART Boards came to market, they were expensive, but they allowed users to save images of the screen and application files and then share them via email or hard copy with participants of the meeting.
  • 2000s – The Internet, touch screens, Microsoft 365, and the Whiteboard app. When all the right technologies line up, you have the opportunity to redefine the space. The Microsoft Whiteboard app leverages the latest technologies to the fullest and addresses all the shortcomings of prior technologies by providing the ability to collaborate in real-time across multiple devices of varying types.

Why Microsoft Whiteboard is great for construction projects

So, what’s so great about the Microsoft Whiteboard, and how would you use it for your construction projects?

The Whiteboard app shines when your team is on Microsoft 365, your users have touch screen devices, and your team needs an easy way to share ideas fluidly.  Getting started is simple. You simply create a canvas and invite your team members. Your team can add images, documents, tasks, notes, text, lists, and freehand drawings. The app saves those files to the cloud automatically, and they can be opened and edited at any time. Further, you can share your canvas with users, with the ability to post to Teams and export as SVG and PNG image files.

For a construction project, you could use the Whiteboard app for the following:

  • Mark up PDF drawings using text and insert notes as needed.
  • Create a plan of the day (POD) for fieldwork, complete with images, maps, documents, and a formal task list.
  • Brainstorm new ideas and processes using free-form text, notes, and related images.
  • Review documents by adding pages from a Word document to your canvas and then using free-form text to insert notes as needed.

Once you create a Whiteboard canvas, you can post it to Microsoft Teams, where a link will display in the Posts tab of a Team. Team members can click the Whiteboard link in the Post, and the canvas will open for viewing and further editing.

Project-Brainstorming_1

While Whiteboard is a powerful tool and a technology revolution since the chalkboard days, there are a couple of concerns to keep in mind. First, you cannot currently access the actual Whiteboard files that the app automatically stores in Microsoft Azure. Second, you do not have the ability to permission control the files outside of the users with whom you have shared the Whiteboard files.

I encourage you to give the Whiteboard app a try. Like any other Microsoft software, they will likely continue to enhance it over time. If you need any help with Microsoft 365, check out our Microsoft 365 Managed Services and sign up for a free consultation.

If you are interested in a prebuilt enterprise-ready project management information system for your Microsoft 365, have a look at Construction Viz. You can submit a demo request there to find out more.

Using Microsoft Power BI for Reporting with Project Online

How-To |

More than likely, your organization uses the project-specific reports available out of the box with the Microsoft Project desktop application. But as your portfolio grows, you may need to move to Microsoft 365 Project Online. Project Online offers many advantages over the desktop version, including enterprise resources and codes, permissions management, project templates, and integration with the Microsoft 365 Power Platform. Unfortunately, you will quickly realize that there are no canned reports in Project Online like those you are familiar with in the desktop application. So, what do you do?

Using Microsoft Power BI to create Microsoft Project Online reports

The “official” reporting solution for Microsoft Project Online is Power BI. Power BI is another Microsoft 365 subscription. If you are going to build custom reports, you may want to have at least one Power BI Pro license. Note: Power BI Pro comes with a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription or is available for $9.99/user/month for an individual license.

Next, you will want to install the Microsoft Project add-in for Power BI, which you can download here. The add-in includes some key data fields from Project and some visually appealing pre-defined dashboard report templates.

Project Online Add-In for Power BI

WhereReports_1

So, you are all set to create your custom reports across your portfolio! Well, not exactly…

You will find out pretty quickly that if you want to create a “simple” report like a monthly resource cash flow across all your projects in Power BI, it is much more complicated than you would think. The good news is that Lydon Solutions has built several configurable Power BI solutions that can generate monthly expenditures for any resource or activity across your portfolio. The report can be further customized to your organization’s needs and added to Teams or SharePoint.

Project Online Cash Flow Report for Power BI

WhereReports_2

Get Help with Microsoft 365, Project Online, and Power BI

As you know, setting up a portfolio cashflow report in Microsoft Project Online is more than just building a report in Power BI. Lydon Solutions can assist you with everything from Microsoft 365 configuration to delivering custom Power BI reports so you can focus on managing your construction projects. You can find out more by requesting a free consultation here.

Microsoft 365 Stream for your Construction Videos

Microsoft News |

On most construction projects, there are a ton of videos from safety training to daily construction progress. Unfortunately, these videos typically reside on local computers or shared drives, making sharing extremely cumbersome via email due to the files' size. Microsoft Stream to the rescue!

Microsoft Stream is a video-sharing service for Microsoft 365 that was released in 2017. Stream allows you to save video files, add metadata, assign permissions, and share the videos with team members.

Videos uploaded from different Microsoft 365 services like Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint are all available in Stream based on permissions. So, you no longer have to hunt for a video's save location to access it, and you only need to have one version of it in your Microsoft 365 tenant because you can manage all of your videos from within Stream.

Microsoft-Stream_1

Stream also lets you share videos across other Microsoft 365 services such as Teams, Yammer, SharePoint Online, OneNote, PowerPoint, Sway, and Outlook. There is even a Stream web part available for SharePoint Online that you can easily add to any page to display your videos. Lastly, Stream allows you to embed Microsoft Forms into your videos for conducting attendee surveys and questionnaires, which is helpful for online training videos.

If you are interested in Stream, it comes with most Microsoft 365 subscriptions. While there are many great features and services in Microsoft 365 for your construction projects, the challenge is always delivering turnkey solutions specific to your organization. Lydon Solutions can help. You can request a free consultation here.

Need help with Microsoft 365 for Construction Projects?

Consulting News |

More and more organizations are taking the leap to Microsoft 365. They see the benefits of having all of their company data securely stored in one location while accessing Microsoft's multiple services such as Teams, SharePoint, Project, and Office. They are also taking advantage of the Power Platform to create organization-specific customizations that they can readily distribute to users as joined-up solutions.

If your organization is one of those that have taken that first step and signed up for a Microsoft 365 subscription, congrats! Microsoft 365 has all of the tools you need to build an enterprise-scale organization or project solution. Now comes the hard part.

IT initiatives are not unlike any construction project. You need to design, budget, and have experts in the field with a successful track record that can deliver. Check out our series of blogs articles with tips and suggestions on using Microsoft 365 to manage your construction projects:

Expert help from Lydon Solutions on managing construction projects with Microsoft 365

Lydon Solutions has been delivering enterprise-scale Microsoft-based solutions for construction since 2009. We offer Microsoft 365 managed services to get you up and running at any point in your journey. We've delivered solutions for small organizations and fortune 500 companies ranging from a Power Automate workflow automating the review of daily reports to custom SharePoint program management solutions supporting multi-billion dollar projects.

While there are many IT companies out there, what makes us different is our consultants have both construction and IT experience. We've been there with you, and our solutions prove it. Check out our Microsoft 365 Managed Services or submit a free one-hour consultation request here.

Why Having a Construction Software Solution Trusted by Microsoft Matters

Construction Viz News |

Cloud computing has become the norm in the past ten years. But, for all the benefits of the cloud, the challenge of delivering robust applications securely remains. Fortunately, Microsoft continues to lead the way on enhanced cloud security with their identity platform for application partners. Applications like Construction Viz that meet the Microsoft identity platform standards offer peace of mind for organizations concerned about cloud security and data protection.

When implementing a construction software solution, organizations need to consider two major data security questions: will your data be secure, and can you trust the application to run in the cloud?

Will your data be secure in the cloud?

When your data resides outside your information firewall, it presents an IT risk and creates a data archiving problem.

With Microsoft 365, your data resides securely in SharePoint or the Microsoft Azure Dataverse, both of which exist within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. While your data is in the cloud, the security measures enforced by Microsoft Azure are far greater than most externally hosted applications. Additionally, when your data is in your Microsoft 365 tenant, you have 24x7 access should you want to archive in place or export it to a third-party system. Check out this related article, "Why it's Time to Rethink Where You Store Your Project Data," over on our Construction Viz blog.

So, the good news is that your data is in safe hands if you are using Microsoft 365. But what if you want to use an application like Construction Viz to manage your projects better? Now you need to think about evaluating and trusting applications that will gain access to your secure data.

construction management software solutions laptop

How do you know which applications to trust?

With any applications hosted in the cloud, there is a chance that third parties could penetrate the system and embed malicious code or gain access to information by masquerading as a legitimate solution. Before allowing an application to access your Microsoft 365 data, you must consider if you can trust it.

The Microsoft Azure identity platform lets you minimize security risks with third-party applications. Microsoft partners must now register their applications with Azure Active Directory. Once verified and trusted by Microsoft, the application integrates with the Microsoft identity platform to validate the application's authenticity for users. The first time users attempt to use the application, the platform asks them to allow access and approve how it will interact with their data. This step essentially limits what data the application can access within your Microsoft 365 tenant/Azure solution

Once the user provides consent for the application, it is trusted, and your Microsoft 365 authentication will automatically work with the application (i.e., single sign-on). By having your application trusted, you gain the added benefit of not having to deal with multiple log-ins and passwords😊.

It does not matter if you build in-house custom solutions or leverage a trusted project management information system, like Construction Viz. With Microsoft 365 and the Azure identity platform, you can be confident your information and data will remain secure.

You can also have confidence that you will remain compliant with your IT department's security policies without restricting the functionality you need to manage your projects.

permissions 1
permissions 2

We are proud that our Construction Viz project management solution adheres to Microsoft's Azure identity program. As a result, our customers can manage their construction products using Construction Viz's robust suite of apps while benefiting from industry-leading security standards to protect their data.

Ready to do more with Microsoft 365?

Lydon Solutions has been delivering construction IT solutions built on the Microsoft stack since 2009. We work hand in hand with construction organizations and IT teams to provide leading-edge technology solutions for managing projects. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation and demo today to learn more.