Forms

Transitioning from InfoPath to Construction Viz

Forms | February 23, 2021

Microsoft will end support for its Infopath 2013 offering in July 2026. Here is why Construction Viz is an ideal form and project management solution for construction organizations looking to transition away from Microsoft Infopath.

Microsoft released Infopath in 2003 as a standalone forms-creation and data-gathering application, and it quickly became the de facto form development tool for Microsoft SharePoint. The application, which empowered end-users to develop robust forms without needing to be an IT developer, quickly grew in popularity. With a lot of research and trial and error, you can build quite powerful forms that can also be extended with custom code, if needed.

As of 2013, Microsoft InfoPath has not received any software enhancements. Microsoft has moved in a different technology direction with the release of Power Apps and Forms, which better fit its Microsoft 365 cloud platform. Although InfoPath remains in heavy use today, Microsoft has indicated it will end support for the application in July 2026. While that date might seem far off, construction organizations need to start looking at transitioning to other form technologies.

You might assume that Microsoft Power Apps and Forms would be your organization's best bet moving forward. But a web-based form is not just an electronic version of a piece of paper. To deliver a form solution, you have to assess the business need from a 360-degree perspective. That means considering permissions, reporting, integrations, attachments, metadata, offline capability, logs, search, workflows, UI/UX, deployment, and backups. These areas must work together seamlessly to deliver an end-to-end construction solution that does not disrupt the business process, is easy to configure and implement, and can be supported and customized.

This is why our Construction Viz form apps are an ideal solution for construction organizations looking to transition from Microsoft Infopath.

The Construction Viz Form apps

We designed our lineup of Construction Viz form apps based on our over 11 years of developing forms in InfoPath for the construction industry. Our goal was to remove any complexity in delivering forms and ensure that we had all of the bases covered from permissions to workflow in a turnkey solution. 

Each Construction Viz form is an app that can be licensed individually and deployed quickly into Microsoft 365 and SharePoint. The forms are pre-built with construction-specific fields and features but are still customizable by an administrator without coding or the need to be an IT pro. And while the forms are all standalone solutions, you can combine them to take advantage of additional features like cross-linking between related records, unified notifications and reminders, streamlined workflows, and more.

Best of all, Construction Viz fully integrates with Microsoft 365, so if you already have solutions built in the Power Platform, Teams, or SharePoint, you can leverage them alongside our apps to create a truly customized solution for your organization.

Construction Viz Forms lineup

Action Items

Change Order Request

Daily Report

Document Binder

Meeting Minutes

NCR/NCN

Notice

Pay App Suite: Commitment

Meeting Minutes

Pay App Suite: Pay Application

Punch List Items

Quality Assurance Inspection

Request for Information

Request for Proposal

Risk

Safety Incident

Safety Inspection

Service Request

Submittal

Substantial Completion

Transmittal

Work Order

Custom Forms

Download our catalog of Construction Viz construction form apps

Need a Construction Form and Project Management Solution?

Construction Viz is a turnkey and flexible construction project management solution powered by Microsoft 365 and SharePoint. The platform includes everything you need to manage your construction projects—document management, dashboards, reports, forms, workflows, and more— all in one place. The solution is available in the cloud, on-premise, or as à la carte apps for Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft 365. Contact us for a free demo and consultation.

If you need help setting up Microsoft 365 for your construction organization, check out our managed services at LydonSolutions.com.

Cost Engineers Rejoice – You Can Keep Using Excel for Cost Management

Forms | July 20, 2020

One thing has never changed in my 20+ years in project controls: cost engineers want to manage cost in Excel. It doesn’t matter to them how many fancy enterprise cost management systems there are on the market. Excel is like that special blanket from childhood – it is familiar, dependable, and nothing else can replace it. We get it, which is why we have designed the Construction Viz Cost Report app to integrate deeply with Excel for cost management.

I can understand why, if you are a cost engineer, you prefer to stick with Excel. Your spreadsheet is yours and yours alone. It has your very own custom columns to check formulas, worksheets for data dumps, macros for updates and reporting, comments on variances, and so on. Most importantly, you can use it to generate a cost report the way you want. And so, at the end of the month, you’ll take all that data from your Excel file and re-enter it into that enterprise cost management system your organization mandates to satisfy the corporate reporting requirement. You’ll do this even though it is a time-consuming process and riddled with the potential for clerical errors.

With Construction Viz, we set about creating a better solution that lets cost engineers stick with what they know while ensuring that managers have the dashboards and reports they need.

Designing the Ideal Cost Management Workflow with Construction Viz

When we started designing the cost management application for Construction Viz, we knew we needed to meet cost engineers where they prefer to work, and this is in Excel.

At the same time, we also needed a way for management to have real-time visibility to cost data across all projects, meaning that critical data could not stay locked away in Excel until someone re-entered it in a shared system.

So, we set about designing a solution that allows cost engineers to work in Excel while automating the flow of data to the Construction Viz portal for viewing and reporting.

Construction Viz Cost Report App and Excel

Based on the above, we created the Construction Viz Cost Report app. With our new app, the workflow is:

A cost engineer saves their Excel cost report into a SharePoint document library where they can continue making regular updates.
The Cost Report app, using the magic of a Power Automate workflow, then automatically grabs the critical data from the Excel file and makes the cost information available via an updated SharePoint list for all stakeholders to see.
Next, we designed the Cost Report app to talk to the SharePoint List to provide analysis across projects and programs in a web-based and easy-to-use UI.
Finally, the Cost Report app leverages Power BI to access the SharePoint List data, enabling robust dashboard views and reporting as needed.

The Construction Viz Cost Report app gives each team member what they want. Cost engineers get to keep working in Excel with their familiar spreadsheet tools. Management gets real-time access to cost data for reporting.

Introducing the Construction Viz Cost Report app

Advantages of the Construction Viz Cost Report App

The Construction Viz Cost Report app provides the following advantages over a traditional enterprise cost management system:

Excel as the foundation. Cost engineers can keep using their own Excel cost report as the data source.
Automated workflow. The workflow launches with a click and runs automatically.
Support for multiple spreadsheets. The app can pull data from multiple spreadsheets.
Efficiency and accuracy. No more redundant and error-prone manual data entry into two systems.
Real-time reporting and dashboards. The Cost Report app provides management with up-to-date cost information for easy analysis and reporting across projects and programs.
SharePoint & Microsoft 365 under the hood. Because Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft 365 power the Cost Report and other Construction Viz apps we offer, your organizations can be confident that you are using best-in-class technologies built on industry-leading enterprise software platforms.

Read more about the robust capabilities of our Cost Report app.

Learn More About Construction Viz

Contact us for a free consultation about how Construction Viz, integrated with Microsoft 365, can help you manage your construction projects.

Need help with Microsoft 365? Learn about Lydon Solution's full lineup of Microsoft 365 Managed Services.

Construction Viz – Application for Payment

Forms | May 26, 2020

The Application for Payment is a formal document that details a contractor’s request for payment and should identify the work completed and materials received or installed during a specified time period. The entire process can be rather complex since it must consider the original commitment and approved change order values, work completed, and overall approval process, all the while lineup with, and output to, the standard AIA G702/G703 reports that support the final invoice to the client.

Throughout my years in Project Controls, I’ve seen many different approaches for processing payment applications. Most of these solutions were entered into a Project Management Information System (PMIS), rather than in Microsoft Excel. In my experience, the pay app processes and tools were extremely cumbersome because some, if not all, of the steps were done manually via hard copy or through email, links to the project or payment schedule were not included with the application, and there was a lack of details in the tracking templates to know where the pay application was in the process at any given point in time.

When we decided to build-out Application for Payment functionality in Construction Viz, we wanted to address some of the shortfalls identified with other software products, as well as enhance the overall usability for project team members.

As a result, we built four separate forms—Commitment, Change Order Request, Change Order, and Pay Application—that integrate with one another for a comprehensive approach from committing scope to making a progress payment.

Key features include:

All forms and functionality can be accessed on any device with a modern browser; and since Construction Viz is a Progressive Web App, it can be made available offline without having to install an app on your device.
All four forms can be customized to your processes and deployed into your on-premise SharePoint or Microsoft 365.
In addition to the 4 forms being integrated with one another, they can also be integrated with our other applications such as the Scheduler and Project Tracker.
Each form is tracked at a line item level of detail, in a Schedule of Value (SOV) format by WBS, Cost Code, Work Order, Account and/or Line Item.
Each form can be independently routed for review and approval.
Only approved forms impact the overall summary rollup which provides a status of all payments.
Since a Change Order Request is purely a field request and does not commit costs, contractors can leverage current commitment information to quickly add change request line details, or can create new change request line details, without impacting the PO.
Retention can be identified on the Commitment level and automatically withheld on each Pay Application.
Both the standard AIA G702 and G703 reports can be generated from any Pay App form.

Find out more about all of our tools to help you manage your projects in SharePoint and Microsoft 365, or visit LydonSolutions.com to submit a free consultation for services to get you on the right track with your PMIS.

Construction Viz Punch List: A Mobile Solution for Construction

Forms | January 30, 2020

The Construction Viz Punch List App is a mobile-friendly solution for construction project management. It is used to identify open issues in the field that may still need to be completed by a contractor.

Watch our latest video to see how you can streamline the process of tracking issues without an internet connection and from any modern browser.

Key Features of the Construction Viz Punch List App

• Track issue status: Ensure that items are assigned, scheduled, and completed on-time.
• No internet? No problem: Edit forms without an internet connection, and then sync changes when you’re back online.
• Easy upload from your mobile phone: Upload as many documents, images, and videos as you need.
• Geospatial location mapping: Geospacially view images and videos using Media Map.
• Manage email distribution lists: Keep stakeholders and team members informed when changes and updates are made.

Learn more about our user-friendly, highly-configurable tracking solution for construction project management. Contact us today to schedule your free demo and consultation.

Introducing No-App, Offline Forms for Construction Viz (Video)

Forms | November 21, 2019

Forms are an essential part of your construction project workflow. Construction Viz Form Apps let you and your team complete digital forms anywhere, on any device and even without an internet connection.

Watch our latest video to see how you can streamline your construction project workflows even when you're offline with our no-app, offline forms for Construction Viz.

Key Features of Our No-App, Offline Forms

No app to install: Get full access to your construction project forms right in your browser on any modern device.
No internet? No problem: You can edit forms without a internet connection, and then sync changes when you're back online. This allows for continuous access with the ability to make changes even in the field.
Full-featured construction management forms: Our library of mobile-responsive construction project forms have built-in permissions, comments, workflows, and reminders.
Powered by technology you trust: Construction Viz is integrated with SharePoint and Office 365.

Discover Project Management Perfected with our complete suite of offline forms designed to help you manage your projects anytime, anywhere. Contact us today to schedule a demo and receive more information about Construction Viz Apps for Microsoft SharePoint & Office 365.

Managing Change in Your Construction Projects

Forms | November 18, 2019

Change is the one constant in construction, affecting all areas of the project lifecycle. Capturing those changes quickly and efficiently is imperative to avoid impacting the scope, schedule, and budget of your project.

We designed Construction Viz to ensure it is easy for organizations to identify, account for, and address critical changes. For example, our lineup of Construction Viz Form Apps includes everything you need for effective change management:

Mobile and offline support – You need to capture and document change-related issues quickly. Our mobile-responsive construction project forms allow you to collect data from any device wherever you are, even without an internet connection.
Streamlined workflow – Construction Viz improves your response efficiency to changes with powerful form components giving you the ability to attach files, create automated routing and approval, generate revisions, and capture schedule information.
End-to-end visibility – Keep stakeholders informed and ensure that your team is completing change mitigation tasks on-time with Construction Viz’s built-in dashboards and robust reporting tools.
Line-item tracking – You want to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks. All our project forms incorporate metadata, giving you line-item visibility of work breakdowns, cost codes, specifications, assets, and any other custom variables you need.

Project Change Management Features in Construction Viz Form Apps

Below is a snapshot of the out-of-the-box project change management features found in our Construction Viz Form Apps.

Risk Form App

Capturing and Prioritizing Risks and Opportunities that can Impact your Projects
Risks on a project can be a proactive indicator of upcoming changes. The Construction Viz Risk Form App enables you to capture and prioritize the probability, impact, and method of mitigation for potential risks. Integrated reports and dashboards display risks and opportunities, allowing you to track how these changes might affect your projects.

Request for Information Form App

Identifying Questions and Responses as Potential Project Changes
Sometimes change can originate from questions that arise during the lifecycle of a project. Our Construction Viz Request for Information (RFI) Form App is designed to highlight when questions or responses will impact a project’s cost or schedule. The final RFI form serves as historical supporting documentation for change order requests and change orders.

Change Order Request Form App

Efficient Handling of Change Order Requests

When a contractor identifies a necessary change, they must submit a formal request to the owner for review and approval before execution. The Construction Viz Change Order Request (COR) Form App simplifies this process, adding the ability to pull in the contractor’s commitments from their Schedule of Values (SOV). Having this information at their fingertips makes it quick and easy for the contractor to add existing line items from a commitment or propose new ones.

Pay Application Form App

Tracking and Accounting for Change Orders
Unlike a change order request, change orders are executed contractual commitments that add pending amounts to the SOV at a line-item-level of detail. Construction Viz streamlines this process, ensuring that once the owner approves a change order, the pending amounts will increase the commitment values and only then be available for payment via our Pay Application Form App.

Streamline Your Change Management Process with Construction Viz

Construction Viz takes the headaches out of change management for construction projects. Learn how Construction Viz can help your organization by contacting us today for a free demo and consultation.

Transitioning from InfoPath to Construction Viz