Best software for construction project management

[downhill racer]

We may be taking on a large construction project soon. The success of it and the likelihood of repeat business will depend on getting the work done on time, budget and to a high standard - not much pressure then!!

Currently we use a mish mash of spreadsheets, sage, timesheets etc.... to track projects but i am thinking it might be good idea to invent in project management software but i'm not 100% sure of the benefits of doing so.

Is anyone using software relating to construction projects and what do they think of it?

Thanks.

 

[gpietersz]

Have you looked at:

1. A custom web app?
2. An ERP?

 

[Stas Lawicki]

When you say imvent I think you mean invest?

How big is the project and what is your role? If your the PM youay want something entirely different to a main contractor or design consultant.

Are you going through all riba stages or post tender?

There are a number of free or low cost options: Wednesday : hubspot : asana : loads of others.

Google the most important features you need and do a comparison. Beware those offer £0 fee. Once you start adding features the price rockets per user... Hubspot being one of them!

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Check out zoho one, they do project management and timekeeping apps that feed back nicely to book keeping.

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

If your current system works and gives you results, then it would seem silly to switch just before a particularly important project.

 

[Beyond]

When you say imvent I think you mean invest?

How big is the project and what is your role? If your the PM youay want something entirely different to a main contractor or design consultant.

Are you going through all riba stages or post tender?

There are a number of free or low cost options: Wednesday : hubspot : asana : loads of others.

Google the most important features you need and do a comparison. Beware those offer £0 fee. Once you start adding features the price rockets per user... Hubspot being one of them!

When you say youay I think you mean you may?

 

[intheTRADE]

Nothing comes close to www.viewpoint.com

Its pricey but as always you get what you pay for. It does everything you need and more.

 

[Stas Lawicki]

When you say youay I think you mean you may?

There go my fat fingers again... Why are phone keyboards so blooming small?!

 

[downhill racer]

A few software packages mentioned there so i'll spend a bit of time checking them out.

How big is the project and what is your role? If your the PM youay want something entirely different to a main contractor or design consultant.

Are you going through all riba stages or post tender?

Anything up to a £1,000,000, which for us is large. It's labour only to begin with possiblly moving onto supply of materials as we build funds up. I'm (hopefully) moving into the PM role from my current role of office manager. We currently dont follow the riba stages.

If your current system works and gives you results, then it would seem silly to switch just before a particularly important project.

We don't currently have a PM process that we follow, very ad hoc at the moment with a lot of finger crossing going on. This project might encourage us to adopt a more formalised approach.

As a follow on does anybody find employing a specific piece of software for project management helps them achieve project targets?

Many thanks.

 

[Stas Lawicki]

you may wish to ask the PM what they use and if you can be incorporated onto their system (if it allows/is appropriate). I know the founders at Fonn (https://fonn.io/en) if you wanted a referral? It sounds like you don't need anything overly complicated to begin with but with potential to expand later?

If you want that intro, PM me and I will put you in touch with their person over here. A lovely woman who I am sure can help.

 

[JoeCM2]

Only heard good things about Chalkstring

I was a director of a previous business where we invested 45k in a custom built app that site ops could use and management could see different elements... was a great idea but never got to fruition.

 

[gpietersz]

@JoeCM2 what went wrong with the custom built app? Incomplete, wrong functionality delivered, nothing ever delivered.

I am interested in why projects at that sort of scale (not costing millions, but not just a few thousand).

 

[JoeCM2]

@JoeCM2 what went wrong with the custom built app? Incomplete, wrong functionality delivered, nothing ever delivered.

I am interested in why projects at that sort of scale (not costing millions, but not just a few thousand).

It was never as we envisaged. We obviously had an idea in our heads on how we wanted it to work, but the amount of data input required on a thousand contracts was incredible, nevermind all historical data that needed to be on there. I dont want to say misold but misunderstood

 

[gpietersz]

Thanks for the reply @JoeCM2 That is an interesting one that I have never seen data entry issues derail a project myself.

One way or another misunderstanding are a common problem: the client does not see something because they do not have experience of running software projects, and the developers do not see it because they do not understand the clients business (or business in general).

 

[Faizan Shaikh]

I can suggest you the top 5 best companies.

1. Monday.com. Monday.com is the effective way to manage constructionprojects, time, and people.
2. CoConstruct. CoConstruct is one of the highest rated custom builder and remodeler software.
3. Corecon.
4. Smartsheet.
5. Buildertrend.
   

   We may be taking on a large construction project soon. The success of it and the likelihood of repeat business will depend on getting the work done on time, budget and to a high standard - not much pressure then!!
   
   Currently we use a mish mash of spreadsheets, sage, timesheets etc.... to track projects but i am thinking it might be good idea to invent in project management software but i'm not 100% sure of the benefits of doing so.
   
   Is anyone using software relating to construction projects and what do they think of it?
   
   Thanks.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

A few years ago now , but always found Microsoft Project Manager to be of great use and used by many other firms so you can plan things together, not free but a small proportional cost compared with most job awards and proven over many years

 

[Josh Bonfield]

What sort of things do you need to track and manage?

Would the software be responsible for the business side of things such as invoicing or just tracking what needs to be done on what day and who needs to do it?

If you just want to track what needs to be done, you could use apps like Hive.com, Asana, Trello and Monday.com

 

[brianj_hill]

We may be taking on a large construction project soon. The success of it and the likelihood of repeat business will depend on getting the work done on time, budget and to a high standard - not much pressure then!!

Currently we use a mish mash of spreadsheets, sage, timesheets etc.... to track projects but i am thinking it might be good idea to invent in project management software but i'm not 100% sure of the benefits of doing so.

Is anyone using software relating to construction projects and what do they think of it?

Thanks.

It depends on what level of detail you need. I've been project managing for 30 years and have used everything from Powerpoint to MS Project and Primavera.
The problem with going into too much detail is that you can spend all of your time replanning.
What do you need out of it? Get in touch if you want some free advice.

 

[Sean Quinn]

If need to track time spent on jobs, I run a product called TimeKeeper. 14 day free trial - no credit card. Happy to help if you are interested.

www.timekeeper.co.uk

 

[Prasad]

Asana is Not too friendly for new users, they need to do onboarding training it is to changeling for users. it can become too overwhelming for a very basic project that doesn’t need all these features.

Trello is simple & clean but not good for big business they lack many features.

TeamWave is an integrated Project Management, CRM & HR platform. Manage your entire business with TeamWave’s all-in-one software. Integrations include G-Suite, Quickbooks, Xero, Mailchimp and Zapier

 

[Bob Morgan]

DO NOT RELY UPON SOFTWARE ALONE! - You have to factor-in various IF THEN ELSE situations!

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The OP started this in January, so guess he has sorted this by now