Recently I came across this article
“How Can the Contractor Participate in the Owner or CMs Environment” talking about work arounds for using Primavera Contract Manager as a collaborative project management application. Essentially this article concludes that Owners and CM’s will need to buy or develop their own application for allowing contractors to submit information electronically into Contract Manager or pay staff to manually enter the data. Choosing EADOC will save 1-2 FTE on a project or $250-$2M on custom software development compared to Primavera contract manager based on the options presented in the article.

Option A from the article
“The Contractor uses same Contract Management system as owner. This can be problematic to execute, even when the requirements are clearly spelled out in the contract by the Owner or CM. Contractors and architects will resist using the owner (or CM’s) system to manage the process of creating or reviewing documents. Most will keep this process internal and only enter the final “official document” in the owners system. Contractors and architects require full “read/write” access to the owners Contract Management environment in order to originate any document or attach any backup documentation. If a document (RFI, Submittal) is managed inside a contractors specific project in Contract Management (as opposed to being manually re-entered in the Construction Manager’s project by the Owner), all review comments can be seen by the contractor, in addition to the official response. These two issues (“read/write” access and the contractor being able to see reviewer’s comments) are often fatal flaws when deploying Contract Management as a project team database. While Option A is a common approach, our experience is this option does not work well. ”

Option B from the article (zero cost savings over an excel spreadsheet since the CM or Owner has to enter all data into Contract Manager)
“The contractor submits an electronic copy of their document. The Construction Manager’s staff logs the document into their Contract Management database system, routing the document for review and recording each reviewer’s comments. The advantage to this approach is, the contractor may continue to use whatever system they currently use (you’d be surprised how many do not have a standard system), to create RFI’s, proposal, submittals (85% of all documents submitted) into a printed PDF electronic document (documents cannot be scanned to PDF – scans are not searchable). The printed document is emailed to the Construction Manager by the contractor. The contractor is never given access to the Owners Contract Management System. This prevents the contractor from seeing others comments, which is often an important issue for the owners team. ”

EADOC is the only true collaborative project management application that allows for the complete control of information as it works it’s way across your project team resulting tremendous cost savings.

I recently received a copy of DRMcNatty’s monthly e-newsletter about their work with Primavera. Under the section “Reduce Costs Associated with Software Implementation” the first line says “Primavera software implementations can be a large and complex undertaking” . When Oracle Primavera’s number one partner is telling clients that an implementation is a large and complex undertaking you know you will be spending major dollars on this project. I am talking well north of six figures for a basic installation. What DRMcNatty won’t tell you is the best way to Reduce Costs Associated with Software Implementation is not to select a Software Solution like Oracle Primavera.
When you are buying a legacy project management software application like Primavera the odds of a successful implementation are slim to none unless you have large deep pockets. Today you can remove the traditional implementation risk from the process by selecting a web based project management application hosted by the vendor like EADOC’s project management application. By selecting a vendor hosted solution you eliminate buying hardware, installing software, and configuring the application yourself. This process alone delays poses tremendous risk to your implementation. Also when you call the vendor for support we are looking at the same screen as you, resulting in issues being resolved in hours not weeks. So why doesn’t Oracle host Primavera for it clients, because they would have to do an implementation and that is too expensive for Larry. Now not all new web based solutions are created equal you need to watch out for newer companies who are are selling legacy enterprise software solutions as if they were a newer web based application. A major Healthcare provider recently contracted with IBM Global Services(Major Expense) to try and fix a 10 year implementation of an Enterprise system that has been unsuccessful to date. To help select the correct vendor conduct a Pilot project with that application. Start by asking for a log in to a demonstration site and then take the application for a spin on one of your projects before committing major dollars and thousands of man hours. If you can;t have access to a demo site within a day or be setup on a pilot project within a 1-2 weeks then you are mostly evaluating an Enterprise solution that could take months to years to deploy. Buying software is just like buying a car you need to push the buttons and drive it before making the big investment.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 1964 design and construction had been the only industry to actually grow less efficient. With all the innovations in tools and equipment we still find the majority of job sites flooded with paper and printers. The best irony I have seen was Green trailers with filling cabinets and hanging drawings. Job sites could go extremely green by needing less trailers if they would get rid of their paper addiction. Using web based project management applications and web meetings would reduce the number of trailers even further by eliminating the amount of staff on site and the square footage required to store all the paper. The first picture shown above with the office administrator and her filing cabinets is not necessary if everything were managed electronically. She could even work from home and not have to travel to the office. Everyone needs to pitch in to get rid of the paper on the projects that is costing companies exorbitant amounts of money, depleting our natural resources and doesn’t provide any real value to the project.

Construction Project Controls and BIM Report published an article “Primavera P3 and Suretrak Sales to Cease December 31, 2010” recently about Oracle finally killing P3 and Suretrak. Even though many in the industry have been expecting this for years this practice of killing off legacy products has a major impact on the users. The good news is that this practice of forcing customer to upgrade by killing products is no longer the only option customers have when choosing a vendor. With companies delivering Software As A Service(SAAS) the product is continuously improved over time so you always have a current version and never have to worry about the product being discontinued because a newer one is available. Delivering the software as a service eliminates: the painful/expensive upgrade/migration process, license upgrade fees, and the potential risk of the product not being supported anymore. These newer applications are also easier to use, come with better support and all at a fraction of the cost of the older enterprise solutions. Today’s construction project management applications delivered via the SAAS model improve collaboration and act as a trusted third party providing even greater value over legacy enterprise software solutions.

CMAA has posted a copy of the presentation given by Gregg Humphrey with Springfiled Metropolitan Sanitary District and Christy Crites with Crawford Murphy & Tilly on using EADOC’s web based construction management application for the Spring Creek WWTP expansion project. Here is a link to the presentation Presentation You can also learn more about the CMAA Water Summit that was held in Kansas City, MO a couple weeks ago. If you want to learn more about this years Summit you can visit CMAA For those of you that missed the presentation we will doing another one at CMAA’s annual conference in San Diego this Fall. Check back for more details as it gets closer.

In this article by the Las Vegas Sun about the dispute between Perini and MGM Mirage New group enters dispute between MGM Mirage, the developer of another Perini building project is claiming that Perini used “sophisticated wiping programs to sanitize its project server and project computers after it was ordered by the District Court to preserve all project records.” Whether this occurred or not is up to the courts to decide. The question every owner should ask is “am I tracking all this information myself?” All too often private and public owners say “we let the contractors take care of managing project information on our projects”. This is obviously a recipe for disaster, even if a contractor does delete information on a construction project and is found guilty the information is still lost and can not be recovered. Every owner should implement project management applications that track and control project information. To protect yourself even more you should implement a system from a trusted 3rd party to guarantee that no one on the project can modify or delete records pertaining your projects. Systems like EADOC’s construction project management application do not allow any users to edit the database, this is where all the records are stored ensuring complete and accurate records of everything that occurred on the project.

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less -
General Eric Shinseki

A couple weeks ago I was talking with one of our construction management clients about the cost savings and benefits of using EADOC’s web based construction management application. The CM asked if we had any advice on how they could present the cost savings of using an electronic construction project management application to their client. I suggested the CM explain to the client how all the cost of inefficient processes like paper submittals are coming from the client’s pocket with the following explanation.

This process is also conducted by sub contractors and sub consultants. All the costs of meeting the owners requirements are calculated and passed back to the owner in the form of bids and fees. The owner is not only paying the actual costs but also the profits that are typically added to these fees. As an owner you should really review your specs to see if the 6-10 copies of paper documents you require is really worth the impact this will have on your budget.

This is a follow up to my previous post on industries being behind the construction industry in technology adoption. I ran across an even better example then the insurance companies I mentioned in my last post that is a little closer to home. Specialty Publishing who writes Constructech magazine appears to be more concerned with talking about technology then actually using it. This is a magazine dedicated to technology in the construction industry yet they appear to be about 10 years behind. At the end of last year I ordered a copy of their IT playbook. To do this I went to their website and filled out the order form, several days later I received an email with a form that I needed to complete with my credit card information and return to them via fax. Online payment would have allowed this process to be completed in a couple minutes. Online payments are so common that the small pizza place next to our office accepts them. Constructech took what should have been a 2 minute process to order into a 20+ minute process of emails, faxes, and filling out multiple forms. Next the Postal Service damages the magazine so bad that it was returned, so they have to mail me a new one. Had Constructech been operating in 2010 instead of 1995 I should have downloaded the It playbook after placing my order online. The worst part is this magazine is supposed to be experts on technology in the construction industry but they appear to be behind many of their subscribers in adopting modern tools.. Their latest example of being clueless is their articles about blogging, yet they themselves do not have a blog. How can a writer write about blogging when they do not have one?

In the mean time construction companies are disposing of their paper processes at a record rate and moving to web based project management applications, BIM modeling, blogs, and virtual offices. Many of our clients receive our invoices electronically and pay us through direct deposit. I think the editors at Constructech should put down their pen and paper and visit a modern day construction site. It could help them avoid the terrible fate that so many media companies have gone through.
Eric Law
EADOC Founder

The insurance industry is way behind the construction industry in the use of technology. Blue Shield and Travelers are perfect examples of companies that still believe the fax machine is modern technology. I have had the unfortunate experience of having to work with both of these companies laboriously painful paper processes recently. Blue Shield who provides our employee health insurance plan does not have email access. Everything has to be mailed or faxed. Their invoices are 5-10 pages long with many pages duplicated. When I asked them to email these to me their response “we don’t do email”.
Travelers a company all of us in the construction industry know well has a slight advantage over Blue Cross. This year they provided me a temporary email address for submitting our 2009 payroll records for their annual review. This is a lot better then last years 30+ page fax I had to send them. There is still room for improvements, they should really provide clients with a portal for uploading this information and tracking the status of invoices and renewals. Even the state of CA DGS lets us go online to upload our Small business certificate documents for renewal. Travelers has made some progress but still has a way to go.
In the mean time construction companies, facility owners, and engineering firms are disposing of their paper processes at a record rate and moving to web based project management applications, BIM modeling, blogs, and virtual offices faster then these three companies can refill the paper tray on their fax machine. Many in the construction industry have recognized the limits and inefficiencies in email and are moving to collaborative applications, portals, and blogs to move information electronically.
So if you want to help move the insurance industry forward I would urge you to request all insurance documents via email, after enough requests they may finally get it.
Eric Law
EADOC Founder