Construction Information Technology Blog

System check

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I am prepared to wager that your company has an accounting system. If you are a contractor you have a project management system. Your Estimator uses a system to manage and perform the work they do.

Systems are everywhere and part of everything we do. Properly designed and implemented they make our work lives easier and reduce the risk of errors or omissions. Not that many years ago most of these business systems were paper based manual implementations. Technology has changed many of those processes forever. Accounting, project management and estimating software are core elements of virtually every contracting business. They provide the tools to more efficiently manage all those processes and help ensure that mistakes don’t happen.

A quick look around almost any contractor’s office reveals that despite all these systems paper continues to be an essential part of building a project. This is particularly true for project documents such as drawings, specifications, shop drawings and maintenance manuals. The traditional ‘roll of drawings’ is still the most common way this key information is shared among those who need it. The digital world is starting to change this and now more and more information is being shared electronically whether that is on a DVD, sent via email or downloaded from an FTP site or online planroom. With the combination of both paper and digital documents circulating today it is more important than ever to make sure your document control is systematized and that it accommodates both digital and paper media. The expense from the inefficiency of a poorly managed system and the risk and cost of mistakes makes the need to get this issue under control in your business a pressing and essential task.