Effective stakeholder engagement is a cornerstone of success in the construction industry. With multiple projects involving numerous teams, vendors, and stakeholders, it is pivotal to establish efficient workflow, collaboration, and monitoring processes. Failure to optimize processes often leads to misalignment in communications, progress updates and collaboration.
However, achieving optimal productivity requires more than communication – it demands aligning and implementing best practices and streamlining processes between stakeholders. One way of aligning stakeholders is by pivoting toward innovative digital solutions like reality capture technology and uniting your data with digital jobsite platforms like FARO Sphere® XG.
Leveraging an ecosystem that hosts regularly updated 360° photos and 3D point clouds, and is compatible with 3D models, makes it easy to notify and present project details, statuses, and progress to stakeholders. To get you started on the right track, here are three optimization strategies you can implement that help sustain efficient management and monitoring processes.
Choosing a Foolproof, Reliable, and Upgradeable Digital Jobsite
At the core of it all, deciding on the right digital jobsite for your firm comes down to several key factors: It must be foolproof for users of varying digital competencies, operate reliably without significant crashes, and easy to install updates.
Digital jobsites with easy to use dashboards and interfaces simplify data access, viewing, and retrieving, even for those less familiar with digital tools. Its compatibility with various data formats means accessing all forms of project data and documentation. Your digital repository empowers project teams, owners, or stakeholders to independently review developments, saving you the time otherwise spent aligning or onboarding teams.
The reliability and upgradeability of digital jobsites are intertwined, as frequent updates being pushed to users often mean stable operating systems and platforms. Beyond just running well, choosing a digital jobsite that is frequently updated ensures sensitive data is protected against cyber vulnerabilities. Security benchmarks of these tools include successful completions of SOC 1 Type 1/Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 1/Type 2 examinations, which are pivotal to consider when choosing digital jobsites.
Inversely, insisting on clunky, siloed, and obsolete digital platforms often exacerbates the already disorganized workflows and ultimately threatens your reputation among existing and prospective clients.
Setting Up Defined Access Limitations and Permissions
Once streamlined collaboration is established between project teams, it’s time to set up the correct access rights within your digital jobsite. Defining these permissions is essential for multiple reasons, mainly privacy and contractual confidentiality. Defined permissions will ensure the right person accesses the right information on your digital jobsite.
It’s good practice to decide access limitations according to functions and hierarchies of users: project managers, owners, and stakeholders are usually afforded the most access, while external vendors, trade partners, and subcontractors are permitted only into specific areas.
In most cases, decision-makers face the problem of either allowing unrestricted access to everyone – risking sensitive information falling into the hands of the wrong people – or becoming too rigid and experiencing miscommunication and collaborative gaps. Finding the right balance of permission definitions is critical to ensure team leaders know the objectives and have relevant information when delegating work to their teams.
“With different trade partners and stakeholders working on one project, permissions can mean the difference between someone being able to find something you don’t really want them to see, or not. It also helps you to not give too much information away to those who might not need it; you could be overwhelming them.”
— Kyle Tarr, Product Manager, FARO Technologies —
Establishing Effective Top-Down Workflow Cascades
With the proper hierarchical access and permission definitions, democratizing responsibilities, data, and information to the right people – upstream or downstream – becomes straightforward.
For superintendents, project, and VDC managers, leveraging a proper workflow cascade enables 360° visibility of incoming requests, the statuses of construction progress, and incoming work to be commissioned. Such a wealth of information at your fingertips allows quick, data-backed decisions based on pressing needs. Commissioning rebuilds and inspections or approving work is just a click away.
Owners and stakeholders benefit from streamlined workflows by witnessing projects built through remote virtual site tours. Keeping these decision-makers updated on the latest on-site developments via 360° photos or 3D point clouds without needing expensive and lengthy site visits boosts productivity while instilling confidence in your firm’s abilities.
Effective cascades eventually lead to better on-site human capital and resources management, ensuring contractors and trade partners are commissioned to active jobsites only when needed. Proper delegation can be the difference between having one to 50 extra persons on-site, avoiding overcrowding and safety hazards.
Conclusion: Sustaining Efficiency: Paving the Way to Success
Implementing these best practices will help streamline and optimize your workflows for internal, on-site, and remote teams. Leveraging these optimization strategies and processes fosters efficient project management, collaboration, and democratization of data with stakeholders. In the long term, these best practices help ensure your business sustains efficient workflows and maintains productivity, strengthening your reputation for commitment to quality among stakeholders and industry partners.
