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How Construction Viz Streamlines Email Approvals

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Construction Viz enables your team to get more done with the tools they already know and use most. In this post, we’ll share how stakeholders can view and respond to approval workflows directly within Microsoft Outlook – all without needing to sign into any other construction project management platform.

Your construction project team already spends a lot of their day working in Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook. One of our goals with Construction Viz is empowering project teams to keep using their Microsoft products instead of having to learn a new Project Management Information System (PMIS). Our recently introduced Construction Viz Cost Report app is an example of this philosophy in action. In our blog post introducing the new app, we explained how the tool enables cost engineers to use their preferred software, Excel, while automatically importing cost data into Microsoft SharePoint for viewing and reporting by other team members.

Read on to learn how Construction Viz can let you leverage Microsoft Outlook to collect input and approval from team members via email without requiring users to sign into anything else.

The Problems with Typical Approval Workflows

Before talking about what Construction Viz can do, let’s review how other platforms handle the approval workflow.

Most construction project management systems on the market send an email to designated users when an approval workflow is triggered. This email has some basic information captured from the workflow and a link to view the entire item being submitted for approval directly in the project management system. To proceed, the user needs to sign in to the software platform that generated the email.

The above process is probably familiar and may seem simple enough, but it includes multiple assumptions, including that the user receiving the email:

  1. Has an active account in the project system.
  2. Can sign in to the system from the device they are currently using.
  3. Remembers their password.
  4. Is trained and familiar with the system.
  5. Knows how to navigate the system to provide their response to the correct record.

As you can see, each of those assumptions puts the burden on the end-user. If any of those assumptions turn out to be incorrect, the approval process stops dead in its tracks.

With Construction Viz, we threw out all these assumptions and designed something better.

Construction Viz Simplifies Approval Workflow Emails

We have worked with and analyzed the workflows of numerous construction companies over the years. As a result, we’ve seen that most team members who review and approve records do not need to use the construction project management system for any other reason. So why make them log in every time they need to respond to an approval request?

Knowing the above, we designed Construction Viz to streamline the review and approval process. We built a workflow using Microsoft Power Automate to email approval requests to project team members, even if they don’t have a Construction Viz or Microsoft 365 account.

Microsoft Power Automate workflow example

The email generated by Construction Viz has all the necessary information and attachments required to approve the record, as well as a linked lightweight Microsoft Form that the recipient can use to respond to the request. There is no need for them to sign into Construction Viz or any other system. The approver can review and make updates directly in the included form, and Microsoft Power Automate automatically pushes those updates back to Construction Viz. For the recipient, it could not be simpler to respond to the request, no matter what device they are using.

Construction Viz email approval form

Taking Approvals to the Next Level

Construction Viz streamlines the approval workflow process and enables team members to do more with email, a tool they regularly use throughout the day.

But what if users are not even in Outlook at all? Could Construction Viz display approval request forms in any application, or even in the notification area of a user’s mobile device? We think that would be a great feature. Stay tuned for more details on what we have planned next to do just that.

Get Construction Viz for your Team

Construction Viz is a web-based construction project management solution that you can deploy into Microsoft 365 and SharePoint. There are many advantages to this deployment model, such as having your data stay with you in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Also, you can leverage the full power of Microsoft 365 application services with Construction Viz, all with the same Microsoft user credentials.

If you need help setting up your construction projects in Microsoft 365, visit LydonSolutions.com, where you can find out more on our Microsoft 365 Managed Services and submit a no-obligation consultation request. If you prefer a turnkey, enterprise-ready project management software solution, contact us today for a free demo.

Your Flows, Your PMIS: Power Automate & Construction Viz

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Power Automate is a Microsoft 365 service that automates time-consuming business tasks and processes. It makes it practical and simple for line-of-business users to build workflows across applications and services. Most PMIS systems on the market have their own proprietary workflow functionality, but what makes Microsoft’s Power Automate unique, is that it is a stand-alone service that can integrate with both Microsoft 365 as well as external applications.

Being that Construction Viz can be deployed into Microsoft 365, we deeply integrated Power Automate into our application so you can build, deploy, and support your flows from within the Construction Viz hub directly inside your Microsoft 365 tenant. With Microsoft’s free, on-premises data gateway, you can also connect Power Automate flows (as well as other Power Platform services) to line-of-business systems behind your corporate firewall. In fact, we have leveraged the Gateway to connect client’s Microsoft 365 environments to our hosted Construction Viz service offering which opens up a wide array of possibilities.

Power Automate

We make it easier than ever to add your own manual triggers and configurable buttons that allow users to link their flows and add it to any app.

So, What Could You do with Power Automate and Construction Viz?

Send out Construction Viz Action Items for review that will update one or more Microsoft 365 applications at one time from a single workflow. This is triggered by using a button you can add to the Action Item form. So not only will the alert notification display as an action item in a user’s ball-in-court, but it can also update:

• Microsoft To Do – as a task
• Outlook – as an email approval request, a task or event
• Planner – as an event
• Teams – as a post
• Excel – as an action item in a Worksheet

Why is this important? Because every company or employee might manage their work in different Microsoft 365 applications. For some users, it’s Excel. For others, it might be Outlook, and so on. With Power Automate, you can configure the workflow around how you work and what applications in Microsoft 365 you use frequently.

Other Power Automate workflows can include:

• Creating PDFs from Construction Viz forms as well as attachments
• Extracting data from Excel to use in Construction Viz apps
• Emailing alerts from Power BI dashboards embedded in Construction Viz

To get you started, we have built a set of Power Automate workflows that work with Construction Viz and can be imported into your Microsoft 365 tenant. Once imported, you can modify as needed to create the solution that works best for your organization.

Get Started with Power Automate

Get the most out of Microsoft 365 by combining Construction Viz with Power Automate to create unparalleled solutions.

To find out more, schedule a free demo of Construction Viz. If you need help with Microsoft 365 setup for your construction organization, check out our managed services at Lydon Solutions.

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

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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:

  1. A cost engineer saves their Excel cost report into a SharePoint document library where they can continue making regular updates.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

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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.