We’re currently in the process of researching a variety of ways that builders and GC’s collaborate and communicate with their their clients’ during the project. Here are some of the things we’ve heard so far:
Document management - shared access to plans, agreements, change orders, invoices, etc.
Communications feed - place to post updates, comments, q&a.
Light task management
Light budget management - show initial budget, up-to-date payments, contingencies, etc.
True simplicity - ideally something that would integrate easily with sms and e-mail to avoid having to log-in to an application all of the time.
Do any of these seem unnecessary? Is anything missing? Comments & suggestions are welcomed.
Yes! In today work environment with so many options for communication it gets difficult to track all the different pieces in one forum. On many occasions with different email and text group messaging with clients, designers, project managers, etc its hard for everyone to have the most updated information. With a management software this keeps everyone “in the loop”, its just a mater of training everyone to use it a s a first choice of communicating. I hope this helps!
We at Future Construction Group in LA area use the Builderstrend construction management software and it seem to have all the features needed to not only manage schedules but also clients needs. The difficult part we face is getting clients to take advantage of the programs power. We still find clients going back to text messaging instead of using the Builderstrend forum where the communication can be documented in easy to find format.
@futureconstruction - so if the client were to be able to essentially communicate via their preferred means, whether it be e-mail or sms, but the communications would be logged in the workspace, would that be an ideal situation?
