Being late is one of the things that you never want to happen if you work in the construction industry. Not only does it damage your firm’s reputation, but your firm can also face legal consequences, and if this is not enough, being late cost a lot of money. How much money? Well, let’s take the example of the famous Sydney Opera House in Australia. The project was started in 1959 and was originally computed to cost about Aus $7 Million and ended up costing $102 million Australian dollars and to top it all off, the project was 14 years late.
The good news is that nowadays, with the help of technology, everybody can have access to a scheduling software to make sure that projects get finished on time, and within budget. In fact, there are literally hundreds of scheduling software that comes in all permutations to choose from in the market. The question is, how do you choose the best construction project scheduling software for you or for your company? Here are some things that you might want to consider when narrowing down your choices:
Your Scheduling Needs
One of the very first things that you need to ask yourself is how sophisticated of a schedule does your company need? Does your company run big, time-sensitive projects that need scheduling software that can run the sophisticated Critical Path Method, or maybe a Gantt Chart? Or are you still growing your company, and, at this point, a simple desktop scheduler will do? If you need a
complex software, then you might want to look at options like Procore, Primavera or Microsoft Project.
Price Factor
Cost is always an important factor when considering anything, and software is not an exception. Construction scheduling software comes in a variety of price range- from the paid, sophisticated ones like Microsoft Project, Primavera and Procore down to the basic free ones like Agantty, and the Zoho Project. So, look around and have a good think on which ones can fit your company’s scheduling needs as well as your company’s budget.
Ease of Use and Customer Support
One of the important things that you should look at when shopping around for a scheduling software is its ease of use. Look at its user interface and see if it’s easy to figure out and get around the software. Because let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how sophisticated and expensive software is, if it’s too complicated to use it, then you might have a hard time making your staff use it.
What goes hand in hand in a software’s ease of use is its customer service or its after-sales support. Does the software company have a dedicated team available to answer any questions about the software if you get stuck? How can they be contacted- email? Instant messaging? Phone? And, what time are they available? You also want to check if the software company offer any sort of training on how to use their software – be it in the form of a youtube video, a webinar or having a technician visit onsite to conduct the training.
Usually, a software company that has a good reputation will be sure to have good customer service support because in the software business, as well as in construction, reputation is everything. So make sure to get your software from a reputable company.
Does it Have Mobile Options?
More and more people are using smartphones, and, if you want numbers it’s around about 2.71 billion people worldwide. Nowadays, people want the options of taking their work on the go, and this is very much true in the construction industry. You want the scheduling software to be available as an app on your phone so that everybody can be connected and aware of any scheduling changes even if they are out of the office, because, in construction, all of the action happens in the field.
Time is gold in the construction industry because late having disastrous consequences both in terms of money lost and reputation. But with proper project management, aided with a good schedule made by a proper software, as well as a great team, project success in terms of delivering the project on time and within budget is something that’s achievable.