Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

Jeff Lydon

View Your Data Your Way with Construction Viz Saved Views 

Forms |

Construction projects generate a ton of data that must be tracked and analyzed in real-time. With our latest update to Construction Viz, we wanted to make our form app data views even more powerful by adding the ability to create, edit, and save personal and project views for the entire team to use. Read on to discover how this new feature will allow you to analyze and report on your data quickly and easily.

Construction Viz already includes configurable data views across all our apps. Users can group, sort, filter, reorganize, and search on form columns to get to meaningful data quickly. However, we wanted to provide more capabilities to allow users to create and save their personal and project data views. Since Construction Viz stores your data in your Microsoft SharePoint lists and libraries, we took inspiration from the view configuration options in SharePoint but further enhanced its capabilities for construction management.

New Construction Viz Saved Views UI

We had to make a few changes to our user interface to deliver the new saved views feature in Construction Viz. While maintaining most of our core structure, we re-designed the layouts to align with our Task Manager app for the ultimate flexibility when visualizing data in different configurations.

New Construction Viz Saved Views UI

Now, we can display different data configurations in grouped tabs, such as dashboards, lists, attachments, Gantts, geospatial maps, and calendars. The new tab structure lets users quickly move between different data configurations while keeping the filtering persistent.

We've also added an app-specific settings cog for saved views and future setting enhancements. Users can now create, edit, and save data views from within the app-specific settings or the data view selector.

Construction Viz App-specific settings

In a future post, we will provide more insights into the benefits of this latest re-design. Exciting features to come 😊

Key Features of Construction Viz Saved Views

We packed many features in this latest Saved Views release, but some of the key highlights include the following:

  • Project vs. Personal Views. Quickly find the forms you seek by creating project views for all users or personal views for your own use.
  • Default views. Save time by assigning a default view to display when navigating to any app.
  • My Action Required. Quickly filter tasks assigned to you by clicking the "My Action Required" toggle.
  • Show All Revisions. By default, Construction Viz displays the latest revisions in form data views, but with this update, users can quickly toggle to see all form and related document revisions. This is a great feature for viewing the history of all forms and their attachments and exporting all records.
  • Available in form apps. The new UI and saved views feature are available in all form apps, such as RFIs, Submittals, or Daily Reports.

Construction Viz is a full-featured and enterprise-ready project management information system (PMIS) for Microsoft 365. To learn more about Construction Viz features and apps, check out our weekly blogs. You can request a demo of Construction Viz here. Also, if you need any Microsoft 365 support or have any suggestions for future blogs, you can submit a consultation request here. 

New eSignature Feature for Construction Viz 

Construction Viz, Project Management, Project Management Tools |

As construction organizations move from paper processes to web-based project management tools, the adoption of electronic approvals has been mixed. Clicking an approved button that registers your account name and date is standard in most construction management systems. However, some organizations and specific forms still require digital or wet signatures. While several electronic signature tools are on the market, their ease of use and cost can be a deterrent. We added a free and easy-to-use digital signature feature to Construction Viz to capture signatures in any of our forms. Read on to discover how our simple signature feature might address your challenges. 

Several signature solutions are available for SharePoint, including the new built-in SharePoint eSignature subscription service that will be available soon. The benefit of these tools is that files that receive signatures never leave your Microsoft 365 tenant, ensuring your data remains secure and in your control.  

Leveraging these eSignatures through SharePoint is great but does require additional subscription costs and administration. What if you want something simpler and at no extra cost?  

Construction Viz eSignatures Feature for Construction Forms

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With the Construction Viz eSignature feature, signatures are available on any form in the review components. For example, say you want an inspector to sign a daily report digitally. We can activate eSignatures in your Construction Viz settings to automatically add eSignatures to all your daily report forms. 

Since this new eSignature feature is built into Construction Viz, we included additional controls such as: 

  • Only the user assigned the review can sign their signatures. 
  • If a user is removed from the reviewers, their signature is removed as well.  
  • Administrators are restricted from signing on behalf of a user.  
  • eSignatures are available on any Construction Viz form! 
  • eSignatures print in form reports! 
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Our new eSignature feature is perfect if you need a simple, free solution within Construction Viz. You can find out more about Construction Viz by requesting a demonstration here. 

Break Through the 5K Record Limit in SharePoint Online with Construction Viz 

Project Management |

SharePoint Online lists and document libraries have a 5,000-item limit for filtering data. You could quickly reach that threshold if you want to use a single SharePoint site to house many projects or a large multi-year project.

Read on to discover how Construction Viz can overcome the 5K threshold, continue delivering robust analytics for your projects, and keep ticking regardless of the threshold limit.

SharePoint lists and libraries can store up to 30 million records. At 5,000 records, however, filtering views stop working. And with SharePoint Online, there is no way to change that threshold.

You could re-index the list or library, adding one or more indexes to the list columns, which will fix the error message. However, exceeding the threshold will still adversely impact SharePoint’s functionality. Specifically, column filtering is limited, and lookups can be adversely affected. Removing columns from views can help, but ultimately, you will have a different experience after you hit the threshold.

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Construction Viz Solves the 5K Item Limit in SharePoint Online

Since organizations may need to manage one or many projects in a single SharePoint site, with Construction Viz for Microsoft 365, we built controls to keep your projects running smoothly regardless of the threshold. So, even if you have not implemented indexing on the SharePoint list or library, Construction Viz can continue delivering analytics and reporting.

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With Construction Viz, we take the best of Microsoft 365, fill in any gaps, and deliver a second-to-none project management information system in your Microsoft environment.

Click here for a free demo and consultation to learn how Construction Viz can save you time and money while keeping your data safe in your Microsoft 365.

Construction Viz Task Manager 2.0 – Gantt Charts Coming to Task Management

Project Management, Project Management Tools, Scheduling |

The Construction Viz Task Manager app for Microsoft 365 delivers a simple yet powerful way to track and report on project tasks. It is a stand-alone application in Construction Viz but can be integrated into any other application, such as RFIs, Submittals, or Meeting Minutes. With the latest update, we’ve moved the needle significantly on project task management to include scheduling, checklists, and sub-tasks!

Read on to find out more about how our updated Task Manager app can help you organize and track tasks for your projects.

What is New in Construction Viz Task Manager 2.0

We built the Task Manager so that team members have a 360-degree view of project tasks. The Task Manager includes the following views:

  • Dashboard – Displays charts of key metrics with drill-down capability.
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  • List – Provides a log of all tasks with filtering, grouping, and search.
  • Board – Displays a Kanban view for updating the status of tasks.
  • Calendar – Plots tasks on a familiar calendar with today, day, week, month, and agenda views.

With the latest Task Manager release, we are extending the functionality to include lightweight scheduling. So, if you are looking for a three-week look ahead project schedule tool or prefer a Gantt chart-style view of your tasks, we’ve got you covered.

This release includes the following updates to the Task Manager app:

  • Schedule View – A new view that displays all tasks in a familiar Gantt chart schedule. The schedule includes scheduling controls to filter and change displays.
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  • Task Schedule component – We added a scheduling component to the task form for managing start and finish dates, times, all-day events, and durations.
  • Task Checklist component – We added a checklist component to the task form to track items needed to complete the overall task. The checklist allows for drag-and-drop ordering, auto-assign completed by, and completed dates.
  • Sub-task component – We added a component to the task form to add sub-tasks to a task. Sub-tasks include fields for the required by date, forecasted completion date, status, and percent complete.
  • Visual alerts – We updated the mouse-over tooltips and added color indicators across views to display late and incomplete tasks. These visual alerts will help project teams stay on track.
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While these updates are significant, we are just getting started. We plan on further extending the scheduling capabilities of the Construction Viz Task Manager app, including dependencies and resource management. Stay tuned as we continue to deliver a leading-edge task management solution with Construction Viz for Microsoft 365!

Sign up today for a no-obligation demo to learn how Construction Viz can help your organization manage your construction projects more efficiently.

 

Archive Your Project Data in Three Clicks with the Construction Viz PDF Report Wizard 

Project Management, Project Management Tools, Reporting |

Have you ever needed an easy way to archive PDF versions of all your project correspondence, such as RFIs and daily reports, including attachments (which could be in various file formats)?  

The new Construction Viz PDF report wizard aims to build on our existing technology with the ability to generate PDFs from multiple forms at the same time. Read on to find out more about this new feature. 

Introducing the Construction Viz PDF Report Wizard

We built the Construction Viz PDF Report Wizard based on the Construction Viz Form archive wizard which is a powerful and heavily used feature in Construction Viz. It allows users to create PDF binders from any form, including the form attachments. The step-by-step wizard walks you through selecting a form, adding and ordering attachments, and naming the generated PDF binder.

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Form archiving wizard – re-ordering attachments 

The cool part is the archive wizard converts attached files from their native format (Excel, Word, etc.) to PDF and automatically provides a name for the PDF binder. So, if you want to send a contractor a PDF of an RFI with any relevant attachments, select the form, select which attachments they need to see, and follow the wizard to generate a PDF you can email.  

This feature is an excellent form-by-form solution, but what if you want a push-button way to choose more than one form? Let's say you want to archive all of the RFIs, submittals, and dailies on a project and include all the form attachments. And you want to do this in bulk. 

The new PDF report wizard leverages some of the same technology from our form archive wizard to create multi-form PDF binders of your project correspondence. Users select one or more forms, click the PDF Form Report(s) button, and have the option to include attachments, images, or both. And just like the form archive wizard, the attachments are automatically converted from their native format (Excel, Word, etc.) to PDF, including any images. 

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If you are wondering about file sizes impacting the system and preventing you from continuing your work, don't. While the file conversion runs, the tool prompts you to load another screen to continue working without interruption. Construction Viz will notify you when the processing is complete and the PDF files are downloaded locally.  

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Our development team at Lydon Solutions continues to drive innovations in your day-to-day workload with our Construction Viz product for Microsoft 365 so you can focus on what's important, delivering the project on time and within budget. You can request a demo of Construction Viz here, or if you need help with Microsoft 365, you can click here for a free one-hour consultation with our Microsoft technology experts. 

Linked apps, where have you been?

Forms |

The new linked apps feature in Construction Viz allows creating any form within another form, like an action item within a meeting minute form or a change request in a risk form. Find out how this new feature can save time and improve your overall document control processes.

A need based on common real-world scenarios

If you think about the evolution of a change on a project, it might start with an issue, move to risk, get added to an RFI, and finally move to a change request to implement the change. Typically, these are all separate forms, but they are all part of an interrelated process to document and disposition a project change.

Taking a step back and looking at the entire change process, each form builds on the prior, from inception to implementation. Additional details, further justification, subsequent approvals, etc., are added at each stage of the change lifecycle.

If you can relate these separate processes together, project teams can streamline the process and build an audit trail to support the justification of the change.

Enter Construction Viz’s linked apps

With the new Construction Viz connected apps feature, you can create one or more form apps within another. For example, if you are filling out a risk form and want to generate a related change request, you can add the change request form linked component to the risk form settings.

When a user completes a risk form, the new component will show a window into the change request app where they can create one or more change requests without ever leaving the risk form. And the change request will automatically link back to the risk form and vice versa.

This functionality can be added to any form, creating a one-to-many relationship so that an entire process can be automatically related.

Linked apps are just one of the many features we have added to Construction Viz to enhance information management on a project further. You can request a demo of Construction here.

Not ready to move to an enterprise construction management system or need help with Microsoft 365? You can request a free 1-hour Microsoft 365 consultation request with our experts here.

Construction Viz for Microsoft 365 Product Demo
Webinar - September 7, 2023, 11:00 AM PST
Participate in this interactive session to share your challenges and learn more about Construction Viz for Microsoft 365.
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