Are you using project management tools for your construction business yet? If not you’re probably having a tough time balancing projects, shifting between tasks, and planning projects in general. It’s a lot to have on anyone’s plate.

Project tools provide time management, can analyze cost, allow you strategize, and give you real-time updates. That’s only a few things, and if you’re not taking advantage of them, you can bet your competitors are. If you want to stay ahead you’ll need to at least consider making the change. If you still haven’t decided, here are a few more benefits of project management tools.

1. A Central Hub

Project management tools will provide you with a central hub which will house all of your project information in an organized manner. It will provide an overview whenever you need it.

The construction manager, workers, and clients will have access to this hub whenever they need to refresh their memory, or just need to refer to it in general to make changes.

2. Data-Driven Decisions

By being able to see the hub you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions. It helps you to not throw away money on supplies that you didn’t actually need because a list of all the materials will be right in front of you.

When you can see the data in front of you, you won’t waste time on your construction planning because you’ll be able to see all the little details. The best part is, you’ll be able to learn from these decisions so you keep making them, but we’ll get into that later.

3. Get Real-Time Updates

Real-time updates make collaboration between workers and managers so much easier because they’ll be able to actually communicate through the updates.

Managers might not always be able to answer phone calls, emails, or be with the workers on site, but they can see the project’s progress and update it through real-time updates.

Employees will get alerts when these changes have been made and can shift their workday accordingly.

4. Use Integrations

If you’re not using project management tools, you’re probably storing all your data in word or excel documents, this isn’t exactly efficient. These documents are static so you have to move them around yourself and you won’t really be able to look at the entirety of the project. Integration will allow you to move things around a little more seamlessly.

It makes life a little more user-friendly because you won’t have to move the entire project manually. You also get a nice overview of current and future projects.

5. Time Management

Going back to being able to make data-driven decisions, if you’re able to do this, it saves you a lot of time and gives you a big boost to customer satisfaction. The truth of the matter is, a lot of times projects just don’t end up getting done on time.

It isn’t any fault of the worker’s it’s just summed up in poor planning and collaboration. Also, not only are workers updated of changes to the project via real-time updates but errors too.

Being alerted to errors right away stops workers from continuing until they think the project is done and having to go back later to fix them. Backtracking takes up more time than you think.

6. Analyze Cost

When you’re planning poorly you might sink money into supplies that you don’t actually need for a project and when you don’t finish in time, that also costs your company money.

Project management software will allow you to estimate an accurate number for the total cost of a project so it won’t all just be one big guessing game. You’ll also be able to adjust this cost when errors occur and other things that need to be accounted for.

7. Green Construction

When you can see the entirety of the project you won’t waste as many resources by going in blind. This makes the entire process a little more environmentally friendly. By focusing on waste management, this makes your entire company a little more green.

This isn’t a good thing just because it will make you feel great. Being able to say you focus on more environmentally safe methods, and having a LEED construction plaque that states it, will bring a lot more business to your company in the long run.

8. You’ll Be Able to Strategize

One good decision leads to another. You’ll be able to fall into this pattern thanks to project management tools.

The reason for this is because you’ll start being able to see patterns in data. These patterns become predictable later on down the road so if you’ve strategized and completed one project, you’ve done them all.

Basically, you’ll be able to start learning from past projects to perfect and plan future ones. If you’re able to do this, you’ll be able to get projects done that much faster which will increase customer satisfaction and put you way ahead of your competitors.

You Can’t Afford to Not Use Project Management Tools

If you want to stay up to date and get ahead of your competition you’ll need to start using Project management tools. It will allow your workers to collaborate, see changes to the project in real-time, analyze cost, save time, and strategize so you can bring the best customer service to all your clients. You can’t afford to not use it, and really, why wouldn’t you?

Managing a contracting business can be hard. We’re here to make it easier on you. Visit our blog for helpful tips on building an efficient contracting business.