Part 1 of 2

If projects are the primary revenue stream for a business, then careful financial management of each project is critical for the success of that business.  Managing a project’s finances means much more than just focusing on its revenue, it clearly also means vigilant control of costs, along with ensuring contract terms laid-out by the client are successfully delivered on time. 

Additionally, clients and other stakeholders can be very demanding in their requests to be regularly updated on the budget status of a project. Management, for example, will want to keep a close eye on ensuring the budgeted project margin is realized once the project is complete as it is the foundation of their business model.  Project managers will therefore need to be able to produce detailed reports on project finances on-demand that include analysis on actual margin and profit.  A project manager will therefore need to apply key techniques for ensuring target profitability is achieved. In this article, we explore several methods for protecting and maximizing profit from project estimate all the way to close out.

A key part of resourcing for the work that is required to be completed on larger construction project includes contracting-out some or all of the project to subcontractors. Owners and general contractors will typically subcontract the entire project, but even subcontractors themselves will sub-out work to do specialty contracting or to supplement their own workforce. With the new subcontracting extensions to the 4castplus procurement module, this process is significantly streamlined as subcontracts can be created and issued right into the project. Subcontracts are created and issued in the same easy way that 4castplus purchase orders are, so the robust and flexible interface is familiar, easy and secure.

The construction industry is swiftly shifting towards a new digital era where technology that connects the jobsite with the office is no longer considered an advantage, but rather a necessity. Document updates, electronic checklists and forms, material status, timesheets, crew management, vendor productivity and more can be shared in real-time between disparate teams, offering enhanced data integrity, transparency and real-time visibility into the health of a project. The transition from manual and paper-based processes to cloud and mobile-based solutions has never been more important than today. At 4castplus, we are committed to the ongoing development and enhancement of our project-driven solutions that enable companies to digitally communicate and collaborate on their construction projects. With the recent release of 4castplus 5.0, we have delivered an abundance of key upgrades and new features that are designed to streamline how contractors execute projects. In this entry, I'm going to briefly describe some of the enhancements to the jobsite tracking module that have been built to bring increased power with increased efficiency.

Major Upgrades to Crew and Shift Management

Driven by client feedback, our R1, 2021 release of 4castplus is a testament to our commitment to continually deliver critical new features and enhanced functionality that will bring even more value to our customers and their end-users. Read on to discover some of our new features and enhanced capabilities. 

Data security is a topic that is at the forefront of discussion for most businesses today. The construction industry in particular is embarking on a period of rapid digitization, with technology increasingly being embraced for project management and day-to-day operations. As they adopt more technological solutions to increase efficiency and productivity, construction companies run the risk of becoming more attractive targets for cyber attacks.  In fact, for some businesses in various industry verticals, ransomware attacks - as one of several cyber security breaches - have led to the loss of confidential data, systems shutdown, and significant interruptions to accessing key information causing debilitating harm to their business. That's why at 4castplus we take the management and security of our clients' data extremely seriously.  In this article, we explain some of the safeguards we have in place to ensure the privacy, reliability and security of your information is upheld to the highest standards, but first it's important to understand why cybersecurity is important for cloud-based software that provides solutions for the construction industry.

We live in a data-driven world - and as construction projects become more complex, sharing vital project information across project teams and with key stakeholders becomes an essential building block for success. Yet, many organizations that engage in construction projects continue to work in disconnected, disparate systems, causing information silos between teams that should otherwise be working collaboratively together to maximize project success. When they don’t, this leads to disjointed processes, data inaccuracies and errors. This misalignment across project teams ultimately drives up costs, delays schedules and can negatively impact information accuracy and quality, which ultimately impacts the health of a company's bottom line. By both bringing people together into the same system – or by tightly integrating enterprise systems together – organizations can create a truly collaborative environment that elevates project transparency and minimizes errors and gaps to give project stakeholders the insights they may not have otherwise had. To better understand if information silos are creating a barrier to a holistic view of your company data, read on.

Most everyone in the construction business will go through a software evaluation at least once or twice in their career, where they’re part of a multi-discipline team appointed to pick the best software solution option on the market for their business. When it’s a smaller system with a limited enterprise footprint that’s being evaluated, this can be a relatively straightforward process. If, however, the requirements for the desired construction software system are such that they are lengthy and complex – and the system impact can span multiple departments – this process can be a significant undertaking.

Construction projects are highly structured endeavors, whether that’s building Canada's largest LRT expansion project or a natural gas pipeline project.  From design to planning, to scheduling and construction of the project itself, there are a lot of moving parts and people that must be precisely coordinated.  Each phase and activity of a project are complicated enough by themselves but in congress with the entire project, the overall complexity grows exponentially. This puts pressure on the various members of the project team to work closely with others so that work not only gets done correctly, but it also gets done within budget and schedule.  This is one clear reason why, for example, it's important for construction managers to work closely with project controls. Before we dive into this, let's first briefly explain the roles of construction management versus project controls.

It’s been fascinating to watch the stock market soar over the past 6 months while the world has continued to be stuck in one of the worst economic declines in a century. Why is it that the stock market can be so out of step with reality when there is so much uncertainty out there? I can’t say I have a clear answer for that, but my theory is that investors are confident that the pandemic is short-lived and a rebound is imminent once vaccines are rolled-out over the upcoming months. It’s also likely a case of investors shopping for bargains as price dips are somewhat routine currently. The economics of construction projects (and the project management software to run them), is not unlike other market segments in that some industries have been hit hard by the pandemic, while others have flourished.

2020 was a year like no other. The entire world underwent a transformation where people, businesses and families were forced to adapt to a challenging new reality.  Despite it all, our 4castplus team rose to the challenge and continued to provide responsive and personal support to our valued customers, and continued building and growing 4castplus. Looking forward to 2021, a global sense of optimism is on the horizon as the anticipation of the end of lock-downs and a gradual return to normal promises to kickoff a strong economic recovery.  It is valuable for all of us to reflect on the year that past,, so we'll take a brief moment to share a look at some of our 2020 highlights.