There are so many moving parts involved with any construction industry project. From the design phase to finding subcontractors to the actual building process and into inspections, the paperwork to track progress and maintain regulatory compliance is significant.
Construction document management has advanced past the era where hard copies of every invoice and materials request were necessary. Digital transformation of your document management system is a necessity to stay competitive.
TEAM IM has looked closely at the specific needs common to organizations in the construction industry and developed a versatile framework centered on M-Files that allows your main office to collaborate with the job-site instantaneously. And that’s just the beginning.
Several factors combine to make construction document control a potential pain point that any growing firm needs to address. Consider that the construction industry is complex, fast-paced, and highly regulated — and every project has issues pop up that may require design adjustments, overtime payment authorization, and any number of other concerns that can befall a project with dozens of different teams operating at the same time.
The way a firm handles its documents is a major contributor to whether or not a project runs as smoothly as possible or gets caught up in expensive reworks. Some of the most common problems sub-optimal document management can lead to include:
FMI estimates that, in the construction industry, upwards of 30 billion dollars are lost to reworks caused by poor construction document management annually. Avoiding those extra costs can mean the difference between a successful year and a year where your financial goals are not met.
In general, document management systems should make it easy to store and search for the information you need. Where things get complicated in the construction industry are all of the outside parties that your company will need to collaborate with to successfully complete a project.
Using M-Files for construction gives you a centralized document repository with role based access permissions. M-Files provides a platform from which you can build portals specific to clients that need access to specific files, subcontractors, and your internal teams that run your administrative and business operations functions.
Centralized document management also creates document workflows for subcontractors and other project stakeholders that track version updates to ensure that everyone is working with up-to-date information at all times.
It is also imperative that your construction document management software be able to work with your industry specific applications. For example, Procore integration is a major requirement because Procore is such a ubiquitous name in construction. But you also need integration with other important tools like the Microsoft 365 suite of apps.
Integrating these important and disparate pieces of software allows you to bring functions such as RFIs and submittals automation into your workflows. You can also add automation to certain approval processes and incorporate more tools that allow usage of e-signature for construction contracts.
At the core of why M-Files works so well as a central piece of a high-quality document management system for construction firms specifically is the way it organizes files according to metadata.
Essentially, metadata management means files are stored according to their content instead of file type. This makes your searches for information on a project more effective because one inquiry can bring you contracts, blueprints, correspondence, and even images from field service inspections.
A quality document management system for a construction firm is more than construction records retention. It touches every aspect of a project and can be used to improve communication and collaboration from the first step of a job to the last.
TEAM IM took years of experience as a Premier level partner with M-Files to create a platform that is uniquely geared toward the construction industry and its intense need for accurate documentation and compliance measures.
M-Files for Construction allows you to standardize your document related workflows while identifying opportunities to resolve pain points with more efficient processes and automation where applicable.
Field-to-office communication becomes much simpler as you add more unique modules to your M-Files platform. Bid Management, Contract Management, and/or Package Management modules add focus on specific areas of your business.
One of the best tools you can incorporate into your document management system is AutoRecords for M-Files. It provides several valuable services for records management including placing holds on documents, AutoRedaction for sensitive information, and creating an automated system to enforce key policies across your entire document library.
QA and safety inspections are vital parts of the lifecycle of a construction project. Allowing your inspectors to forgo hard copies of checklists in favor of mobile devices that can directly tap into your M-Files essentially eliminates the risk of key documents getting lost in a truck or destroyed by a rogue cup of spilled coffee.
And if you are concerned about safety document management for jobsites that have no mobile web access, don’t worry. Inspection Management can automatically sync up documents, video files, and photos from inspections as soon as your device recovers its connection.
The construction project collaboration tools that each module of M-Files for Construction provide bring a range of benefits to their users. These benefits include, but are not limited to:
A smart document management system can help with everything from automated permit tracking software to brand identity on any custom, outward facing portals that you build for clients and subcontractors.
Smart document management, optimally deployed, with proper training and support can all but eliminate the frustrations of the analog storage systems of the past. A digital transformation makes change order document tracking a snap where, in the past, you might have had five different people with different ideas on what was happening on the jobsite.
In that instance, the need for a change can be identified, approved, and implemented in a fraction of the time it would have taken even a few short years ago because all parties can collaborate from wherever they are in real time through the power of intelligent software.
Version control, role-based access, online and offline functionality, metadata-driven search and storage — these are just the tip of the document management iceberg. And in order to move your firm into the future, all you need to do is reach out to TEAM IM.
From identifying needs to installing and integrating your new system to training your team in optimal usage to offering long-term support, TEAM IM has your construction document management needs covered.
Reach out today to see how M-Files for Construction can make your document management efficient and easy to handle.