Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

construction management apps

Improve Project Efficiency with New Schedule Views for Construction Viz

Forms |

Construction forms such as submittals, RFIs, and daily reports are tightly integrated with project schedules but can get lost among the hundreds or thousands of potential activities. To manage forms effectively, it’s not enough to just see them included in a weekly schedule report. It is essential to evaluate inquiries promptly and efficiently in real-time to address any possible schedule disruptions.

These inquiries may include the following:

  • Did the contractor adhere to the contractual obligations by submitting their documents on time?
  • Was the review of Requests for Information (RFIs) conducted within the agreed-upon deadlines?
  • Were the daily inspections conducted as scheduled?

You need a simple and quick way to answer these questions and more in your construction project management software solution. The problem is that the typical form logs found in most PMISs allow you to sort and filter on due dates, but it lacks form-specific Gantt chart views to manage deliverables.

Our new form view feature for Construction Viz solves this shortcoming.

Construction Viz gives you a clear view of your form data

With the new Construction Viz schedule views, you can visualize any of our apps in a traditional Gantt chart view accessible from within the app itself. Now, you have the best of both worlds, the detailed analysis of form data in interactive logs and a Gantt chart focused specifically on the form.

Construction Viz System Outage Request app All Items List (“Form Log”) View
Construction Viz System Outage Request app with new schedule view

Construction Viz Scheduler view sample

Customizable form-specific schedules

You can further tailor Construction Viz’s new schedule views for a specific form. For example, baseline vs. the current schedule, resources assignment, and critical path could be added to the submittal form app while not adding those features to the daily report app. And you can roll up schedule data captured in each form app into an overall master schedule.

The new schedule view keeps team leads and members focused on meeting their specific deliverable dates using an intuitive and interactive Gantt chart.

Find out more about Construction Viz features and apps for Microsoft 365 here.

The new Construction Viz Questionnaire component provides even more choice

Project Management Tools |

In construction, questionnaires are essential for gathering qualitative and quantitative information on a project. As a project manager, you want your field team to use questionnaires to report on various construction activities including, but not limited to, job site safety, project progress, quality control, identification of issues and defects, and adherence to specification and contractual requirements.

For those using Construction Viz, you may already be familiar with our standard Area of Work (AOW) component which allows you to create ad hoc questions in the Daily Report or Inspection forms. Field personnel respond to the AOW questions through set yes, no, and N/A response fields. While the functionality of the AOW component has worked great for documenting and reporting on field activities and project progress, we wanted to give our clients even more flexibility when creating unique questionnaires.

Area of Work (AOW) Component

Introducing the new customized “Questionnaire” component, for any Construction Viz form!

The new “Questionnaire” component expands on our standard AOW component in multiple ways:

  • Custom Deployment. Your customized “Questionnaire” component is deployed per your requirements. Name your component and choose from various response field types that will be available in questionnaires within your component, including:
    • Text fields. Capture open-ended responses.
    • Standardize responses and minimize data input.
    • Date fields. Capture key dates, such as start and/or completion dates, delivery dates.
    • Number fields. Restrict responses to numerical values to track various measurable data such as quantities, hours, cost, etc.
  • Dynamic Component Configuration. You can create multiple questionnaires within your custom component, and have full control over configuration:
    • Component Configuration. As the project progresses, you can create new, or hide old, questionnaires, and re-order the questionnaires within the component so the questions are responded to in a logical sequence of project activities, etc.
    • Questionnaire Configuration. For each questionnaire, restrict how field personnel respond to your questions by selecting from the available response field types, and configure the order of the active columns and individual questions in which they appear within the questionnaire.

New Questionnaire Component

More than one customized “Questionnaire” component can be deployed within any Construction Viz form, and each component can be uniquely customized and configured, giving you endless possibilities for gathering the information you need manage your project.

The customized “Questionnaire” component is just one of many dynamic components we have available for Construction Viz. Let us customize your construction management experience. Check out our Construction Viz features page to learn more about what’s possible. And you can schedule a consultation and demo to discover how Construction Viz can enhance your project management workflows.

Training Made Easy with Construction Viz and Microsoft Stream

Collaboration |

If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft Stream, in a nutshell, it’s a video management service included with your Microsoft 365 subscription. To find out more, you can check out a prior post, “Microsoft 365 Stream for your Construction Videos.”

Stream home page
Stream home page

Stream isn’t just another file drop-off application. It is designed to manage videos specifically. The real value of Stream is the ability to aggregate and share all of your videos into a central location accessible from your Microsoft 365 login.

How can I use Construction Viz and Microsoft Stream to help with training project teams?

Construction Viz is an enterprise construction PMIS that can be deployed into a Microsoft 365 tenant. It allows you to leverage all Microsoft 365 services using your same Microsoft 365 credentials.

On-demand training videos can be made available as part of a Construction Viz deployment. With Stream, Construction Viz training videos can be easily uploaded and shared across Microsoft 365 Groups and Users, including guest users. Further, these videos can be accessed from within any Construction Viz Hub.

Construction Viz Links App with link to a Stream training session
Construction Viz Links App with link to a Stream training session

Want to create training videos and add them to Microsoft Stream, but you are not a videographer? Not a problem.

Microsoft has recently provided the ability to publish PowerPoint presentations directly to Stream. So, if you are a PowerPoint guru, you can easily make robust training videos from your existing presentations.

PowerPoint Publish to Stream menu
PowerPoint Publish to Stream menu

Sounds promising, but we like to use surveys and quizzes to test learning objectives.

You can add surveys and quizzes to Stream videos using Microsoft Forms. Survey results are automatically tabulated and made available within the Forms app in Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Forms quiz added to Stream training
Microsoft Forms quiz added to Stream training

What if we like to schedule and provide both in-person and virtual live training sessions?

You can live stream events in Stream! These events can be added to user calendars, and the recordings can be available for future on-demand training.

So, if you want to do video training, check out Microsoft Stream.

If you are looking for a project management information system (PMIS) that uses Microsoft 365, request a Construction Viz demo.

Construction Viz Dynamic Profiles Lets You Create Targeted User Experiences

News |

One of the many challenges to implementing an enterprise construction Project Management Information System (PMIS) is getting the entire project team to use the system. With Construction Viz dynamic profiles, we made it so every user can have their own unique system experience, as simple or complex as needed.

How do dynamic profiles work in Construction Viz?

As a construction project owner, you might want to make two different instances of the Construction Viz interface: one for your internal team members with access to all of the project’s applications and a second for your contractor with access to only some applications. You would start by creating a new owner profile, customize the interface with your logo, project title, and a unique color scheme. Then you select all the applications you want to be activated for the owner profile.

Dynamic profile for the owner with 26 apps selected for a project
Dynamic profile for the owner with 26 apps selected for a project

Once you complete the owner profile, you next create a new contractor profile (customizing the interface with their logo, project title, and a unique color scheme), selecting only the specific project applications you want to be active for them.

Dynamic profile for Initech contractor with only three applications selected: Dashboards, RFIs, and Submittals for the same project
Dynamic profile for Initech contractor with only three applications selected: Dashboards, RFIs, and Submittals for the same project

You can further customize each profile by choosing what components (e.g., Initial Reviews, Attachments, Mapping, Images) to enable or disable within each activated application. Dynamic profiles let you target exactly what you need your team members to do in Construction Viz and create a truly custom experience depending on who is logging into your project.

Dynamic profile for Initech contractor with the RFI Initial Review by owner component disabled
Dynamic profile for Initech contractor with the RFI Initial Review by owner component disabled

With configurable dynamic profiles, you can change the entire user experience for every team member depending on their role, assignments, organization, department, or company.

How are Construction Viz dynamic profiles different than permissions?

Our dynamic profiles feature is unique because it works hand in hand with permissions. So, while you might create a dynamic profile for a contractor activating specific apps and components for them, you can still use permissions to assign team members with read or write access to content.

How can I find out more?

Construction Viz is the only enterprise-scale construction management solution for Microsoft 365. You can find out more about what makes Construction Viz different than its competitors and the available apps. To schedule a demo, click here.

Introducing Construction Viz Enterprise Submittal Form

Forms |

Submittals are staples on every construction project as a standard communication tool between contractors and the owner, construction manager (CM), or general contractor (GC) for contractual deliverables. The submittal process involves contractors completing a submittal form with the necessary metadata like project name and package, attaching the required documents, and sending it to the owner/CM/GC for review and approval. It’s a pretty straightforward process, but larger organizations have more stringent compliance, reporting, and scheduling requirements for adhering to a contractual submittal register.

We are excited to announce a new Construction Viz Submittal Enterprise Form, a variant of our standard Submittal Form, to address this need. The new enterprise form extends our lineup of existing construction project form apps.

Features of the Construction Viz Submittal Enterprise Form app

So how is the enterprise version different from our standard Submittal form app?

With the Submittal Enterprise form, we placed the submittal register at the center of the process while making it even easier for a contractor to fill out. The new Submittal Enterprise form boasts the following enhancements.

New submittal register

  • Robust, customizable register: Enter as many contractual submittal register items as needed into a configurable grid with all the metadata you need for each project.
  • Permission controlled: Only users with the correct permissions can update the register. Similarly, contractors can only view and select register items within a submittal form that you permit them to access.
  • Monitor due dates: The form app enables tracking and monitoring submittal due dates and re-occurring instances, such as monthly schedule submissions or weekly reports, for compliance.
  • Extensibility: You can customize the form to support other applications as needed, such as enabling the submittal register component to plan daily inspections or track custom specifications.
Enhancements to the submittal form
Enhancements to the submittal form
  • Easy creation: Contractors only need to select a few fields in a submittal to auto-populate the rest of the form from the register, minimizing training, reducing data entry, and ensuring data integrity throughout the process.
  • Helpful tooltips: Tooltips are available to display only the submittal register packages assigned to each contractor, further reducing errors when creating a submittal.
EnterpriseSubmittal_2

The Construction Viz Submittal Enterprise form is available as a single application or bundled in a suite of Microsoft 365 applications to fit your organization’s specific needs. While Construction Viz delivers out-of-the-box applications to get you started right away, all of our applications are further customizable as needed by the client and project. Learn more with a demo and consultation today.

New Image Markup Feature for Construction Viz

Forms |

Our latest Construction Viz feature lets project team members mark up images on any device with or without internet access.

Adding images to a daily report, safety incident, or punchlist is critical to documenting work completed in the field and identifying any issues for potential corrective action. Construction Viz makes the process simple, enabling users to take photos with any device, with or without an internet connection, and attach images directly to the form. Our Media Map Component automatically plots the image and the location where it was taken on a geospatial map and adds this information to the form. Users can easily add comments, waypoints, and even measurements as a layer to the media map.

And because Construction Viz is a progressive web app (PWA), this is all done without users ever installing an app on their devices.

But what about marking up the images?  Our users told us that marking up images would be a handy feature and make Construction Viz's data capture even better. We listened. Read on to learn about his useful new capability.

Construction Viz image markup feature

We expanded our Image Uploader Component for construction forms based on user feedback to add image markup capability and further simplify the entire process. Here is how it works:

  • After users upload images, the app displays them in interactive cards. Adding metadata such as title or description can be done in a couple of clicks.
  • The user can expand the photos from thumbnails to a full-screen mode to draw directly onto the image canvas.
  • The markup tool lets users pick from a palette of pen colors, complete with erasing and undo functionality.

The updated Image Uploader Component can be enabled in any one of our apps or can be added to a custom app as needed.

This new functionality enhances the entire data collection and documentation experience by extending what's possible for field workers. Also, since Construction Viz stores all of the data to your Microsoft 365 SharePoint, your project information is available for further reporting and workflow using the Power Platform.

The image markup tool is one of many features that we have built into Construction Viz. For an overview of the other powerful capabilities built into Construction Viz, check out our features page.

Construction Viz image markup feature

We expanded our Image Uploader Component for construction forms based on user feedback to add image markup capability and further simplify the entire process. Here is how it works:

  • After users upload images, the app displays them in interactive cards. Adding metadata such as title or description can be done in a couple of clicks.
  • The user can expand the photos from thumbnails to a full-screen mode to draw directly onto the image canvas.
  • The markup tool lets users pick from a palette of pen colors, complete with erasing and undo functionality.

The updated Image Uploader Component can be enabled in any one of our apps or can be added to a custom app as needed.

This new functionality enhances the entire data collection and documentation experience by extending what's possible for field workers. Also, since Construction Viz stores all of the data to your Microsoft 365 SharePoint, your project information is available for further reporting and workflow using the Power Platform.

The image markup tool is one of many features that we have built into Construction Viz. For an overview of the other powerful capabilities built into Construction Viz, check out our features page.

Construction Viz Media Map Component

Image-Mark-Up_1

Construction Viz Media Map Component

Image-Mark-Up_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. We value our client's feedback and are always looking for the most efficient ways to get the job done.

Contact us for a no-obligation consultation and demo today to learn how Construction Viz can help your team better manage your construction projects.