Article written by Steven H. Miller and appears on Constructor Magazine.com.

There is an old adage concerning timely action about the uselessness of locking the stable after the horse is gone. It is, unfortunately, the story of many construction companies confronting the issue of cybersecurity. They never considered themselves a target until it was too late.

Many are surprised by how fast the future has arrived, but it is here now. From payroll and tool-tracking to 3D building models and as-built laser scans, a construction company’s network is the conduit for increasing portions of its activities and is hosting an increasing number of outsiders and their devices. That is an attractive target for thieves, especially since the number of vulnerabilities in the network is growing. If the ‘stable’ in the old adage is your computer network with 250 doors instead of one and strangers going in and out, locking it up is not a simple task. To avoid becoming a victim, cybersecurity must be considered a top issue.

Article written by Andy Holtmann and appears on the Viewpoint blog

Submittals are one of the most vital parts of the processes and workflows around construction projects. The submittal process assures owners that their plans and specs are clearly understood by both contractors and subcontractors building the project. This process ensures both quality control and contractual compliance per the plans and specifications.

A typical construction project, though, can feature hundreds, if not thousands of submittals and workflows around them. Delays in processing or last-minute submittals can lead to problems — including requests for information (RFIs) and change orders — which can cause significant project delays, impacting both productivity and deliverability.

Contractors have long sought for ways to improve their submittal processes to streamline their projects’ productivity and mitigate risk of errors due to late or incomplete information.

Stuck in the Manual Process Mud

Making matters worse, many contractors are still relying on manual approaches to submittals.

Article written by Andy Holtmann on the Viewpoint blog

When disaster strikes, having the right technology and a solid plan in place can ensure limited business disruption

Hurricane Dorian, like so many before it, left a swath of destruction from the Bahamas to the east coast of the United States. Whether a hurricane, fire, flood or other disaster of any type, the communities impacted often rely on construction companies to quickly get things moving in a positive direction. To ensure your construction firm can immediately get to the business of helping its community it’s vital to have a meticulous crisis plan — and the right technology — in place.

Article written by Kati Viscaino on the Viewpoint blog

Construction projects today produce a mountain of data. From job costs to materials quantities to equipment usage to labor and production stats, data drives how successful a project will be. The most successful projects — and contractors — are able to accurately collect all available data and analytically dig deep into it to better understand projects. But that’s easier said than done.

Ask virtually any project manager, for instance, and they’ll tell you they’re consistently behind — swamped with work and buried in a mountain of paperwork. Their body of work is judged by four words: “on time” and “on budget.” But if getting there means using a mix of manual processes and outdated, non-connected software systems, then they’re not working as efficiently as they could be.

Article written by Matt Harris on the Viewpoint blog

Viewpoint Teamed with Dodge Data & Analytics to Produce Industry Report on the Digital Transformation of the Construction Industry

As construction work becomes more complex, and as technology continues to transform the way we work, contractors are under increasing pressure to be smarter and more efficient about project delivery. Accomplishing this in a high-risk, low-margin environment means data-driven decision making becomes that much more important for contractors who hope to maintain a competitive edge. The better the business intelligence, the greater that edge, and building intelligence begins with a solid foundation of business data.

Article written by Andy Holtmann on the Viewpoint blog

Contractors that manage multiple construction projects have their hands full corralling people, materials and work across multiple jobsites — each with their own unique sets of contractual and environmental challenges. Since contractors often operate with razor-thin profit margins and unsteady cash flows, having an accurate understanding of job costs is vital to success.

Unfortunately, the construction industry has been slower to embrace modern technologies that streamline job costs, meaning that many contractors today are still using manual processes and outdated solutions to track them. The information they’re gleaning from their projects could be days, weeks, even months old by the time managers have time to analyze the data. And by the time issues are spotted, work could already be past stages where simple corrections can be made, which leads to costly rework.

Article written by Alan Littman for Construction Executive

While the construction industry is slowly adopting technology in its daily operations, many firms are still supported by disparate, non-integrated systems that often require the use of manual forms or spreadsheets to capture and document work performed.

This leads to, among other things, serious deficiencies in the ability to communicate necessary information in a timely manner, users having to access multiple systems to perform and document their work and no opportunity to manage work efficiently “in the moment,” which can have significant consequences—especially in the area of safety.

If that isn’t bad enough, it also dramatically impacts profitability in the form of inaccurate costs estimates that lead to major cost overruns and can introduce significant risk into operations.

Article written by Andy Holtmann on the Viewpoint blog

It’s a special thing when you can see just how your construction organization is driving success — especially when you have a deep understanding into the activities that happen out in the field. However, pulling that data together in ways that are meaningful and timely has been a consistent challenge in the construction industry. Reliance on manual processes and/or different disconnected software programs has meant that oftentimes data from the field is incomplete, inaccurate or just too outdated to properly assess and take action from by the time it actually gets reviewed.

Article written by Natalie RItchie on the Viewpoint blog

If you do a little digging, you may notice that many industries utilize development and maintenance processes that are often repetitive and standardised across the scope of their operations. This may work for them. However, within the construction sector there are multiple aspects which require different approaches, meaning a one-size fits all approach is not appropriate. Each project requires a distinctive output, may be run by various departments, and may be undertaken under a unique set of circumstances. It is akin to a large machine with multiple moving parts and it is because of these multiple parts and unique approaches that there can be a tendency for miscommunication, teamwork issues, and conflicts.

Article written by Tom Sawyer and Jeff Rubenstone and appears on enr.com

Cybercriminals find the construction world a rich phishing ground with fat prey and soft targets

At the end of April, just as St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Brunswick, Ohio, neared the close of a five-month-long, $5.5-million renovation, Father Bob Stec, the parish pastor, was surprised to hear that the contractor, Marous Brothers Construction, Willoughby, Ohio, had not received a $1.7- million payment.

“We were paying our bills. At some point somebody was able to get into our email system and in the course of that, changed the routing numbers for the wire transfers,” the pastor told local reporters. The $1.7 million disappeared.