Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

Document Control

Construction Viz Feature: Enhanced Metadata Management with Dynamic Relational Matrices

Document Control |

Document management is at the core of any Project Management Information System (PMIS), and being able to save and find documents easily is essential for effective records management.

Most content management systems, including out-of-the-box Microsoft SharePoint, offer basic metadata capabilities. Metadata is informational "tags" or "keywords" that you add to a record when saving or editing a document. It is a superior alternative to using folders to organize your documents,  allowing you to search and find records quickly and easily.  Assigning metadata can be as easy as filling in a text field or selecting values from a choice field when you upload documents. Unfortunately, setting metadata to hundreds or even thousands of assets or projects could require an entire team of document control specialists to manage, make sure they are all in sync with the latest revisions, or even find the documents during project closeout.

To simplify the process on both the front and back end, we introduced a new technology in Construction Viz we call dynamic relational matrices (DRM). It sounds complex, but it significantly enhances how you can assign metadata to organize your project documents.

How dynamic relational matrices work in Construction Viz

Construction Viz's DRM lets you assign a one-to-many (e.g., you can assign document X to project 1, 2, and 3) or many-to-many (e.g., you can assign document Y and Z to projects 4, 5, and 6) relationship between documents and metadata.

So, instead of going to each document's properties view and assigning metadata document by document, which is time-consuming and error-prone, you can now do this in a single step from the document drop-off menu. When you upload a document, Construction Viz provides the ability to perform a query of all possible related data and select the associated metadata without ever leaving the drop-off menu.

Construction Viz Project Tracker app example

We built this dynamic relational matrix functionality into our Project Tracker app, enabling you to manage a portfolio of thousands of projects and all their related activities. We've seen huge gains in productivity in the areas of permit management, environmental mitigation plans, work plans, closeout checklists, contracts, and inspection reports that were uploaded and assigned to thousands of projects, all at the same time.

Here's an example of how it works using a transmission utility program as an example:

  1. Start by dragging and dropping as many documents as needed into the Project Tracker app drop-off menu. Next, query any project IDs you would like to relate to the document (in our transmission utility program example, these would be towers). You can search and filter on project type, city, county, and more. Once you filter the project list, you can select one or thousands of projects and click apply and save to create the relationship. The example image below has four selected projects.
CV-and-DRM_1
  1. All the projects (towers) you selected in step one are related to the documents you uploaded. Any one of those projects (towers) will reference the same document(s) when a team member searches on that project or document. As you can see below, there are four towers associated with the sample1 document. This many-to-one relationship ensures that there is only one version of the document(s) in Construction Viz but endless related metadata.
CV-and-DRM_2

Get a demo of Construction Viz today

Construction Viz is an enterprise Project Management Information System (PMIS) built by construction professionals for construction professionals. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation and demo today to learn how Construction Viz can help your team better manage your construction projects.

Construction Viz App Spotlight: Document Binder

Document Control |

The Construction Viz Document Binder app makes it easy to organize and find related construction project documents, images, and videos with features such as automated metadata, permissions, dashboards, reporting, workflow routing, and more.  

Most companies that use Microsoft SharePoint for documents store them in folders. They then rely on the folder and file names as a simple form of metadata for the organization. While folders seem like the most logical and quick way to organize documents, doing so comes with drawbacks:

  • Locating documents in a folder structure can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially if you use the native SharePoint UI to navigate document libraries.
  • The more folder levels used to organize your documents, the longer the URL, which impacts saving and sharing files in SharePoint.
  • You could try adding metadata directly to your documents to make it easier to search and find what you need. However, it is often challenging to get users to add metadata consistently. And if you need to re-classify documents stored in folders, now you must laboriously copy and paste between folders!
  • Finally, the folder method provides limited functionality out of the box, so you are out of luck if you want to use other features such as reviews, emails, permissions, dashboards, and reporting.

The bottom line is that you need more than just a simple folder structure to store and share project information with your teams.

Enter the Construction Viz Document Binder app

With the Construction Viz Document Binder form app, we built a way to easily group related documents while including a ton of functionality and flexibility currently lacking in your standard SharePoint document library folder structure.

The document binder app could not be simpler to use. You create a document binder form, fill out a few key fields, and drag and drop documents into it. The app automatically tags the form metadata to the attached documents, allowing you to quickly search by form or attachment.

Think of the document binder form as a cover sheet for saving your project documents that also provides the following functionality:

  • Detailed metadata tracking lets you quickly find what you are looking for using the configurable grids or search
  • Responsiveness to any device on a modern browser with offline capability letting you get to your information where and when you want
  • Integration with Microsoft Office for the web lets you open, edit, and share documents in your browser
  • Automatic file name conflict resolution when uploading attachments to prevent overwriting files
  • Quick view for uploaded files by documents, images, and video
  • Revision management for each form and document
  • Ad hoc workflow approvals with ball-in-court approval indicators
  • Email to users and distribution lists with a history log for auditing
  • Permission management by the contractor and user-defined groups
  • Dashboards, reports, and notifications so you always know where a binder is in the approval process and who needs to take action
  • Archive in place, or if required, create an archive PDF for each binder using the Form Archiving Wizard
Doc-Binder_1
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Get Construction Viz for your organization

Construction Viz is about choice, and it is the only construction management platform designed around how you work and where you work.

Contact us today to learn more about our lineup of Construction Viz apps and how we can help you better manage your projects.

Construction Viz Avoids the Folder Nightmare with Automated Document Controls

Document Control |

Have you ever been part of a project that stores documents in an overly complicated file folder structure? You end up having to click through multiple levels of folders to get to a single item you need. Forget about moving that file to another location or even finding that document again in the future. Not very efficient.

The reality is, storing documents in a file folder structure can work well for a few scenarios, but there are some significant drawbacks across the enterprise, such as:

  • How do you best organize the folder structure – by project name, document type, or team?
  • What happens when a folder name changes? How does that affect related files, bookmarks, and overall searchability?
  • Do you use long folder names to be more descriptive? The resulting URL can become too lengthy, preventing you from sharing file links via email.
  • How do you effectively search the folders outside of using the filename?
  • Can anyone create a folder, and if so, how do you prevent duplication?

For the above reasons and many more, most project management organizations often employ document metadata instead of, or in addition to, folder structures. Metadata allows you to tag attributes about a document so you can search, filter, and group them based on that information.

However, effectively using metadata requires more upfront planning, additional user training, and, depending on your processes, adding manual tags based on where you save a file. All reasons why some organizations wind up falling back on file folders or do not consistently use metadata as their document controls team intends.

If you use Construction Viz, we have got you covered. That is because we added a built-in auto-tagging feature that takes the hassle out of metadata.

Construction Viz simplifies project metadata with auto-tagging

The Construction Viz auto-tagging feature automatically enriches your documents with contextual metadata. What about construction forms like RFIs, submittals, and daily reports that typically store images, drawings, documents, and other files? We built automated metadata tagging into the form apps to streamline metadata for the forms and file attachments.

So how does auto-tagging in Construction Viz work?

When attaching files (documents, images, and video) to a form, Construction Viz automatically saves the files to a SharePoint library and includes the form-specific metadata and any metadata added to the attachment. No additional metadata tagging by the user is required. Below are some example screenshots of this feature in action.

Daily report forms with project metadata tagged:

FolderNightmare_1

Daily report document attachments automatically tagged with project metadata:

FolderNightmare_2

Daily report image attachments auto-tagged with project metadata:

FolderNightmare_3

Benefits of the Construction Viz auto-tagging feature

The Construction Viz auto-tagging feature saves significant time for both the users and the document controls team. It ensures your organization's documents are stored with the proper metadata so you can find them in the future either by the associated form or by the attachment itself. For example, you can search for a specific image instead of finding the daily report that has the image as an attachment. Likewise, you can find a particular submittal package independent of the submittal form that has it as an attachment.

Also, since Construction Viz stores all the metadata with the lists and libraries in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, you can create custom SharePoint views, Power BI reports or export the raw data to Excel.

Manage your projects with Construction Viz and Microsoft 365

Construction Viz lets you manage your projects right in Microsoft 365 with familiar tools such as Excel and SharePoint – all optimized for your construction project teams' needs. To see our catalog of our available construction apps for Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, check out the Construction Viz apps page. You can submit a free consultation and demo request to learn more.

And head over to LydonSolutions.com for more information if you are interested in a customized construction project management solution using Microsoft 365.