Selecting construction software can be overwhelming.  If you’ve started looking around for a defect management system for your construction projects, you’ll know three things. 1. There are a lot of vendors out there 2. They all say their system is great and 3. It’s hard to narrow down the choice.

So, if you are new to selecting construction software, here are some questions and criteria to help with your selection and ensure you make the best choice for your company.

1.    Point solution or full suite

Upfront, the key question you need to ask is: what do you want the software to do? Do you want a company-wide solution to run the business and you’re willing to make a large investment of time and money? Or do you want a point solution just to fix one problem: defect management (and fix it quickly). That will quickly allow you to sort out which vendors to consider.

ACCEDE’s view: We provide a point solution. We do one thing – defect management – and we do it quickly, easily and affordably.

2.    Easy to use

If a solution isn’t easy to use, you’re going to be in a world of pain when it comes to training and implementation. Make sure you try any solution yourself – any reputable vendor will allow a trial period – get frontline staff to review and provide feedback.

ACCEDE’s view: We’ll leave it to the words of our customers: “[ACCEDE] allows you to capture issues in the field easily and also manage them easily”. Oh, and we have a free trial available.

3.    Technology triggers

Three questions you need to ask here. One is how involved does your IT department need to be? In some organisations this can be a major factor in getting a project off the ground easily. If a solution needs IT resources, it becomes a much larger, more complex and more expensive prospect. Second, can you use pervasive hardware? Our customers have told us time and time again that iPads work best for defect field capture. In the words of one: “I’d say the first thing you need to do is get the right equipment – the latest iPads.” And third, can you capture data offline? In the construction industry, there’s no guarantee of an internet connection onsite.

ACCEDE’s view: ACCEDE can be rolled out with no or minimal involvement from your IT department. The solution works on tablets, including iPads and data entry can be done offline and synced later.

4.    Ready for reporting

Once you start capturing defect data in the field, you’re going to start asking questions. “How long are defects taking to close?” “Where are the most defects occurring?”. Make sure you’re ready in advance for data interrogation by ensuring your solution provides solid reporting and dashboards that you can customise.

ACCEDE’s view: It’s best summed up by one of our customers: “The reporting is very very good, and it has different levels. The dashboard is a great tool for project team meetings.”

5.    Responsiveness

This is something you’ll only be able to understand by doing reference checks (which are a must) – how responsive is the vendor – to problems, to suggestions, to customisations? If you’re going with a multi-national vendor, you might get the support responsiveness, but it’s unlikely that your suggestions on changes to the software will go anywhere fast. This is where a smaller, local vendor can make a great partner.

ACCEDE’s view: We’ll leave it again to a customer: “ACCEDE makes change quickly and is very easy to work with and accommodating.”

There you have it. We hope this helps make the choice a little easier.

To better align our website policies with our ACCEDE Defect Management System Customer Agreement & End User Licence Agreement and to provide more transparency for visitors to this website, we wish to advise we will be adopting four new website policies effective 1 February, 2017.

These new policies will cover the following areas:

• Disclaimer
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy
• Acceptable Use

From 1 February, 2017 you will be able to access our new website policies from the links provided in the web page footer (to view scroll to the very bottom of the page).

Please note these website policy updates have no effect on ACCEDE Customers or Users who remain subject to an existing Customer Agreement and End User Licence Agreement respectively.

If you have any questions regarding these new website policies, please email info@wicketworks.com.

There’s nothing more stressful than a construction project running behind schedule.  And when an already-delayed project moves into an inefficient defecting period, things only get worse.

It’s a near-impossible task to meet looming PC deadlines when you are reliant on spreadsheets, or even worse – pen and paper.

So, what is the fallout of a sloppy defecting process? And how can you avoid it?

The implications fall into three categories:

1.   Financial impacts

In the construction industry, PC deadlines and quality control are normally associated with financial rewards and penalties.  That means that every defect counts, and so does every day.

One of ACCEDE’s construction customers described the temptation to “turn a blind eye” when a manual system of capturing defects was used.  The problems came back to bite when it mattered most. “There is nothing worse than having to go back and rectify defects after demobilisation. What would have been an easy defect turns into a big problem.”

Another client describes how they use an automated system from ACCEDE to remain ultra-vigilant during the defects liability period (DLP). “It provides assurance that everything is done and we will get money in the bank faster.”

When you look at what it costs to use an automated system vs the financial risks and rewards, it’s simply a no-brainer to tackle construction delays.

2.   Legal and reputational

In the worst-case scenario, poorly-managed defect management and construction delays end up in court. In the news recently has been the construction of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia’s most expensive building.  A court case is in play “over the many defects that cannot be fixed”. (The Australian)

Australia’s construction industry is small enough that news travels fast, and reputations are made on quality control. A tight defect management process enables a smooth handover and minimises opportunities for dispute.

It should be noted that recent legal changes may affect contractual obligations for the Defect Liability Period, as explained by Thomson Geer in a recent article.

3.   Wasted resources

Here’s a secret. Employees and contractors want to work with purpose.  It’s one of the key drivers in engagement, which has many flow on effects on turnover and productivity.  Slogging it out on inefficient spreadsheets isn’t working with purpose.  Chasing contractors to rectify defects using chaotic systems isn’t working with purpose.  Letting defects slip through the cracks isn’t working with purpose.

Instead, imagine a scenario where you are proactive and rigorous about defect management, with the right tools and communication.  A customer of ours described how they include ACCEDE in their induction and when executing agreements with subcontractors.

“The dashboard is a great tool for project team meetings.  The project manager or site manager can table defects on a weekly basis at these meetings and look at who’s got the issues – is it a contractor, internal person, are the defects being closed out?  It’s also useful at subcontractor meetings, and if there are difficulties getting contractors to close out, we use the data to delay month end payments.  It’s there in black and white.”

 

With a determined focus on quality and the right tools, you can lift your quality game.  This has many tangible business benefits, but it’s also a great way to pull your team together with renewed focus and pride in the job they do.  ACCEDE is an automated construction quality system designed to greatly improve the defect management process and minimise construction delays.

If you ask most people in the industry about construction quality management, they normally talk about defects. But it’s this narrow focus that’s the problem.

A heavy focus on quality at the defecting and handover stages of a project is inevitable. The issue is that all phases of a project could gain from this attention. It just needs the industry to rethink how quality management technology is applied.

It’s about looking at quality throughout a project’s lifecycle.

If construction management systems are applied holistically, issues at all stages can be detected, rectified and analysed.

A stronger quality focus makes for a smoother construction journey.

Here’s how:

 1.    Design and construction

Using a quality management system during earlier phases benefits builders and owners. This could mean tracking an issue in the design phase, or a blocked floor waste during construction.

 

 2.    Defecting and handover

This is where construction management automation systems are typically applied.

 

 

3.    Operation and maintenance

This is where the same systems can be used to record a tenant reporting a maintenance problem, or a property management inspection. In fact, these construction quality management systems can handle nearly any issue that needs follow-up and closure.

 

Seeing the whole picture: A cradle-to-grave approach

Kevin Granger has been in construction management for nearly 10 years, and agrees that defect management systems are under-utilised.

“Thinking of a project as a whole and not as individually-managed fragments; from new build to the property manager’s role and beyond, is an exciting concept, said Mr Granger.  “Using the same quality assurance system throughout the entire life of a building, from footings to later managing new tenant builds and even base-building refurbishments years down the track, is remarkable and realistic.”

ACCEDE is a platform for builders, subcontractors, project managers and developer/owners to manage quality. Its detailed data collection (both written and photographic) and live reporting functions set a foundation for solid commercial relationships.

Capturing data from a building’s inception, through construction to completion, right through to operations, makes for a strategic approach to quality management. One that delivers time and cost savings – not just in the defect management stage, but across the board.

 

Parts of this article were first published in The Urban Developer.

 

Capturing and rectifying construction defects. It’s a painful and arduous job that’s often done under extreme pressure. It’s even harder when your quality team uses a manual system to capture defects and notify sub-contractors.

Typically, isolated spreadsheets are used to capture data, with subcontractors followed up manually.

But using purpose-built software to automate this process is a realistic alternative. It puts tablet computers straight into the hands of your field staff. This makes defect capture easy, automates the notification and follow up process, and leaves you with a central repository of defect data.

 

Here are the top five ways you’ll benefit:

 

Save money, make money

“On average, rework ranges between 4-6% overall” – UNSW Australian Centre for Construction Innovation. If you have a $50m project with a 5% rework cost, that’s $2.5m – a hefty sum. And $1.25m of that is just the cost of recording and managing defects. There is no doubt that automation can bring this cost down and do the job faster. But it also presents the opportunity to make money and improve cashflow. For example, one client was able to hold off payments to subcontractors until defects were fixed. This in turn allowed them to achieve final completion and secure their bank guarantees. “We get money in the bank faster.”

 

Ramp up quality

Technology allows you to drive your project to have minimal defects. When manual processes are slow and cumbersome, it’s human nature to cut corners and skip minor defects. But with instant data capture on a tablet, you can record each defect on the spot. This in turn provides total transparency in a central system. Everyone from subcontractors to upper management can see the status of current defects. By analysing where defects are occurring, you can keep only the best subcontractors.

 

 

Record-beating efficiency

Replacing manual labour with automated processes creates efficiencies that let you do more with your existing resources. There’s no need to tie up staff on manual processes when they can use technology to get the job done faster. When you have accurate, central defect data, you can use it to run your project more efficiently with better communication.

 

 

 

Win more business

The government is the single largest and most regular consumer of construction services. In Australia, legislation dictates that local, state and federal governments select the highest quality providers. If you want to tender for government work, you must adhere to quality management systems, including ISO systems. Automating your construction quality procedures opens a wealth of opportunities in government and other industries.

 

 

Better management

‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure’. New clients often tell us they don’t know how many defects a project has, because the information is stored in multiple places. But with a central, online repository, you can analyse where the problems are and get proactive about fixing them.

One popular report in our system is Average Number of Days to Close by Subcontractor. Can you imagine how much easier it is to manage subcontractors with this information? Not just for your current project, but also in deciding which subcontractors to keep in future?