Project delays seem like a necessary evil in construction. Despite significant financial penalties associated with missing milestones, phase completion dates, or whole project deadlines, it happens more frequently than anyone likes.

The most common reason for construction delays is miscommunication, primarily in the area of setting expectations. Even when expectations have been aligned, if a key player has been left out of the communication chain, problems still come back to bite you in the form of extra meetings, disputes, and in the worse cases, re-work.

It is critical to establish a clear chain of communication for input, distribution, and response to each kind of inquiry. Be it, change order requests, RFI, submittals, or any directives to and from the client, it all has to be captured in writing and addressed by recipients with the authority to act on, or approve each item.

Use the Right Tool to Communicate

The first step in solving communication problems is to recognize where necessary communication isn’t occurring, and then automating distribution lists, document and approval workflows, and approval procedures. SKYSITE has powerful features that make distribution workflows easy to create and easy to implement. SKYSITE also works on an array of mobile devices ensuring proper document control and communication regardless of where team members may be.

Here are four ways communication improves with SKYSITE:

1. All team members and project stakeholders can see the same information in real time with SKYSITE’s synchronization tools — no one works with outdated information.
2. Information is searchable and viewable with a few touches on a tablet or clicks of a mouse, keeping fewer people waiting for information, and more people working on the jobsite.
3. Submittals move faster so the project can, too. By eliminating “packages” of submittals where one issue can hold up a whole group, automating the distribution and approval of single issue submittals streamlines the process.
4. SKYSITE’s synchronization tools can reduce and even eliminate paper from your workflow, reducing the chances of old, wrong, or outdated information from causes errors and slowing you down.

The flow of communication genuinely affects the flow of a construction project and good construction project management software allows you to stay ahead. When everyone is communicating and collaborating efficiently and effectively, projects will run smoother and be completed on time and budget.

Simplify your project management tasks with SKYSITE. Save time and avoid any delays by keeping communication on track.

Sign up for a free trial today.

If there’s one question that always gets project managers to roll their eyes and express their frustration, it’s this one: “Are you behind in your RFIs?”

“Requests for Information,” or RFIs, have a big impact on the construction process. They enable collaboration between the design team and contractors to mitigate the impact and associated risks to project schedules and budgets. But no matter how well an RFI is written, or how well it is documented, it can’t move the ball forward if it isn’t distributed to the right people at the right time, and responded to with the proper sense of urgency.

Since the turn-around time of an RFI is a key driver of both productivity and the ultimate quality of a project, improving RFI response was high on the list of priorities for the SKYSITE development team.

“We built SKYSITE to help manage construction documents and files of all kinds, including RFIs,” said Dilo Wijesuriya, ARC’s Chief Operating Officer. “RFI’s are among the most critical documents in the construction process and make up the bulk of communication between teams once construction has begun.”

In SKYSITE, construction teams can create, view, review, and respond in real-time to RFIs on the cloud via their mobile devices, or on their desktop. No one has to guess who has the RFI at the moment, who was the last person to respond, or where to send it after it’s been addressed. It’s all there inside SKYSITE.

• With SKYSITE, teams are able to view and review RFIs through web and mobile-enabled devices and can add custom attributes for further sorting, filtering and searching.
• Team members receive information as it is issued and can make fast decisions to mitigate risk to project delivery timelines and project budgets.
• SKYSITE users get real-time RFI changes and status updates.
• Specs, plans, and other documents can be linked to any RFI.
• One click generates the RFI cover and compiles all attachments into a single PDF file.

Curious to see how SKYSITE manages RFIs and speeds up your construction projects?

Call our SKYSITE Customer Success Team at 1.844.SKYSITE.

New to SKYSITE? Go to www.skysite.com and get it for free.