Overview:

One of the leading Contracting Services is a heavy civil contractor that performs excavation to help construct major highways, roadways, railways, shopping malls, airports, sprawling residential subdivisions. With the goal of integrating their business, enhancing decision making capabilities, and improving access to information, it came to the realization that their method of Document Management System is not so effective. They decided to help enrich the business through improved efficiencies, providing them with a sustainable software solution that would grow with them as the needs of the business increase.

Major Problems faced by Contracting Services:

• Communication gaps: You are pretty sure the architect said something about needing more structural supports or the roof would cave in. But where is the paper trail? Or was it just in passing over the phone? Poor document management leads to confusion that is embarrassing at best and disastrous at worst.
• Legal ramifications: You need to ensure your document management complies with a variety of laws and otherwise you may face criminal charges.
• Loss of information: Unfortunately, bad things sometimes happen. Computers crash, viruses cause files to be deleted; fire or floods destroy physical archives. Imagine having to tell the mechanical contractor that you have no idea how many cooling units are planned for the building?
• Version confusion: As revisions occur, multiple versions of documents are created, which concerned parties may not be aware of or have immediate access to. This can easily lead to errors and rework if crews consult an outdated document.
• Access difficulties: Finding the right paper documents can take time but accessing digital documents in the field can be time-consuming as well. Internet connectivity issues, slow VPNs, file permission problems and other delays can arise, especially when multiple digital solutions are used to store, send or access documents.
• Problems modifying in the field: Not all software applications make it easy to edit or comment on documents, especially for people who work outside the office.
• Wasted time: Without a centralized repository for documents, everyone spends extra time looking for what they need.

Above are the problems were before implementing Document Management System, Contracting Service was using a paper based document management system which was in-house legacy system to handle their day-to-day construction process needs. Although that process performs many basic functions, a lot was left to be desired in terms of functionality and majority of the business still the company relied on manual, time consuming processes. With their previous document management system, they were also limited in what they could do when it came to reporting and were lacking visibility into the business. As a Controller at Contracting Service, “They weren’t able to create reports in the way they wanted them and generating reports to better understand things like inventory and equipment or job cost was difficult and time consuming.” Another problem was that their current method of managing all the documents was no long going to be providing support for the document version, which left them in a tough situation. With all of these issues surrounding them, Contracting Service decided it was time for a change and began exploring options for a new way to manage all the documents.

By using a docManager®, all documents are stored at the same place. It can include all be it the product documents, complaints, reports, bills, supplier documentation, questionnaires and contracts. All archived documents are stored online and remains organized for easy access by the team members. What’s actually easy is that you can look for a specific file and can find it in no time thanks to filter systems and text based search. A task that takes sever hours to find physical copy of document can be done in just a few seconds using DMS like docManager®.

                      Benefits to a cloud-based document management solution

Document Management System is a cloud based digital system that is curated to efficiently manage and organize documents. This allows the user to track, access, modify, share and centrally store all the documents. The use of an efficient DMS can actually help in every sector including construction and surely it does help in reducing the time and money that has been traditionally spent on each document.

Cloud-based solutions, such as docManager®, provide cost-effective and efficient document management that allows information to be shared across project partners, designers, subcontractors and clients also. You can also remain updated with the current set of documents.

Enhanced collaboration: If you are considering SaaS, collaboration is what happens to be the core of digital document management. Using collaboration tool, you can easily share and work easily with your different team members at the same time on the same document. You cannot just see the current set of information but can also check the revision dates and who has done it. With this you can be absolutely sure that your colleagues are using the right data, ready to share at any time.
 

• Announcement
• Discussion Board
• Internal Messaging System
• Plan Management
• Resource Management
• Content Approval Management
• Event Management
• Task Management 

Better consistency: If you have to handle a good amount of documents and that too from various companies and vendors then surely the biggest variety of documents crops up with different languages, formats as well as layouts. Using a Document Management System (DMS) helps you to easily upload by setting some nice templates that will be actually super easy to share with other business partner. Multiple file formats can be quickly uploaded maintain the same folder or directory structure as in the local machine. Generally you can see it in readable formats called PDFs.

Better Security: Security is always a constant concern for any enterprise in terms of document management. Any documents are not just prone to coffee spills but also natural hazards. All sensible data needs to be encrypted so that only the person with the right permission can actually access the documents. DMS generally offered access control that is actually based on role. Each user can access just the data and documents he/she that are required. The administrator has full rights and can share access. He can decide if the document can be viewed, tracked, edited or invisible to this user.  The smart tracking systems help the administrator to check the full history of all documents and if any modifications have been done immediately notification goes out. Surely all your documents will be safe and easily accessible.

Smart Data backup: Paper based document management has multiple flaws. There might be a lot of changes happening that can take up a lot of space.  It might get destroyed by fire or floods as well. Digital document management helps you to keep data backup. You can always get back to all documents. What you cannot ignore is that you save a lot of office space and you can use the extra office for new employees any for other important work.

Automated Process: Some documents used by construction firms are only available for a particular time and has to be constantly updated. Usually construction project document management becomes too tedious if the documents are not well maintained. docManager® generally offers you the possibility to set deadlines. This helps you to save time and also remain within the stipulated budget of the project.

An efficient document management system helps you to smartly manage risks, save money, resources as well as time and the environment on a daily basis. Are you ready to make a change?