Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

Sharepoint

Project Time Tracking in the Construction Viz Task Manager

Project Management Tools |

Outside of when the task was completed, how many hours it took to perform it is the second most asked question. Project Managers need to know the level of effort to compare it against estimated hours, add hours to billing, check efficiencies, or manage labor utilization. Accurate construction project time tracking is thus essential to every project.

With the Construction Viz Task Manager, we continue to extend the functionality so that everything you need to manage a task is included in the application, including time tracking.

Construction Project Time Tracking

Everything in project management, and life in general, comes down to managing a series of tasks. Effectively managing the who, what, when, where, and why of tasks can lead to a successful project.

We see task management as a cornerstone of project management, which is why, with Construction Viz, we are beefing up resource management features so that you can manage tasks how you want to manage them. One of those critical features is detailed construction project time tracking.

Key Features of the Construction Viz Task Manager App

The Construction Viz Task Manager might seem familiar to those who use Microsoft Planner and MS Project for the Web. But we designed the app for construction projects with the ability to customize it to your unique processes.

The Construction Viz Task Manager’s new Time-Tracking component can be activated in a task and works with the Schedule component. Resources and hours can be assigned daily based on a task’s scheduled start and finish dates.

The interface is simple but powerful under the hood. Add resources, the description of work, hours, and the specific day in a weekly or monthly view. Records are saved to SharePoint lists, so the data is always available for you to create your own Power BI reports.

And, because Construction Viz utilizes your Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online lists and libraries, you can rest assured that the data securely resides in your Microsoft 365 tenant.

The Construction Viz Task Manager is one of many applications that round out a suite of apps to help you manage your projects. If you want to learn more, use the form below to request a demo.

If you are not ready for an enterprise construction management solution but need help with Microsoft 365, you can request a free one-hour consultation here.

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SharePoint Importing Made Easy with the Construction Viz Mass Importer

Project Management |

Importing SharePoint and Construction Viz records has never been easier!

Uploading more than one record with metadata (columns) into Microsoft SharePoint is a manual process that can be fraught with unknown errors. What if you could simply drop off an Excel file with your data, have the system notify you of any issues in detail, and then seamlessly update a SharePoint library with a push of a button? It sounds too good to be true. Our R&D team has built the new Construction Viz Mass Importer app for Microsoft 365 to make your life easier. Check out this article to find out more.

The New Construction Mass Importer for Microsoft 365

If you have tried to upload multiple records into a SharePoint library containing columns (metadata), you know how error-prone and time-consuming the process can be. While Microsoft provides an out-of-the-box Excel import tool for SharePoint lists, it only works in creating the initial list, and it can create issues with column field types.

Because Construction Viz utilizes Microsoft SharePoint as the data source, ensuring all of your data is safe in your Microsoft 365 tenant, we wanted to build a tool that you could use to upload Excel file data into SharePoint libraries easily.

Version 1.0 of the app imports data into SharePoint lists, where Construction Viz stores data for apps such as Drawings and Specifications. Future versions of the Mass Importer app will include any list or library in the SharePoint site. Beyond just importing the records from an Excel file, we added many features we have never seen in any other construction management software tool for importing records.

Features of the Construction Viz Mass Importer

The unique features of the Construction Viz Mass Importer app include:

Format embedded into Excel templates

Field formats (dates, currency, numbers, etc.), single and multi-select lookup values, and choice values are embedded automatically into the Excel import template. This feature reduces errors and ensures the correct format is always used when importing records.

Web-based spreadsheet for changes

When imported, Excel files are displayed in an interactive spreadsheet where further changes can be made and saved before updating. Other systems require the user to return to the imported Excel file, make the changes, and re-import.

Robust error handling

The exact error messages are displayed in the Spreadsheet component so you can see the issues live and make the changes before saving. Other systems only tell you which column didn’t import. Our tool tells you the exact cell and what specifically needs to be fixed.

Archive of imports

All Excel files imported are saved to a SharePoint document library for archiving purposes. So, if you need to go back and see the Excel file you used previously, you can pull it up with the date and who imported the file.

More Construction Project Management Tools Coming for Microsoft 365

Keep an eye on this space for future releases, where we will continue to extend the Mass Importer functionality for Construction Viz and SharePoint.

If you are looking for a construction management Microsoft 365-based solution where your data stays with you and you only pay for the apps you need, check out Construction Viz and request a demo.

Introducing the New Construction Viz Specification App

Specification Management |

The Construction Viz Specification app complements the Drawing app by providing a one-stop shop for storing and organizing contract requirements, managing revisions, and integrating specifications across our suite of Construction Viz form applications. If specification management is a focus area for your projects, read on to learn more about this exciting new tool.

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Key Features of the Construction Viz Specification App

Find the correct specification. Managing construction projects involves strict adherence to the contract drawings and specifications. Team members need to be able to quickly find the latest specifications and reference them in project correspondence. With the Specification app, we added a comprehensive set of metadata fields such as division, set, spec number, and release date to find what you are looking for easily.

Work off the latest revision. Revision management is a common issue in projects. We added our robust revision management functionality, allowing users always to see the latest revisions by default in the logs but can easily toggle to see all revisions.

Manage one set of specifications. More than one set of specifications can float around on projects, especially if uploaded to correspondence forms. To ensure a single source of truth for specifications, we built the Related Specifications Component that can be added to any form. With the Related Specifications Component, users can filter, assign, and download specifications within any form. This feature saves one set of specifications that can be easily referenced anywhere throughout the project.

View specifications your way. We know you want to search for specifications based on your specific criteria, so we included our saved views feature in the Construction Viz Specifications app. This feature enables you to create one or more views to help you quickly find what you need and have that view default every time you visit the specifications. You can read more about the saved views feature in this blog post.

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Lydon Solutions continues to build features and functionality to make construction management easier using the tools that everyone is familiar with, Microsoft 365. If you are looking for a turnkey construction management solution that can be further customized to your specific needs and deployed to your Microsoft 365 tenant, click this link to request a demo.

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. 

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.
Learn More

ChatGPT (Microsoft CoPilot) for Construction Viz

News |

Microsoft Build 2023 was filled with AI Copilot (ChatGPT) features across the entire Microsoft 365 and Windows ecosystem. There is no question that AI has arrived and will change how we work going forward.

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Times a changing with generative AI tools

“A recent report from Goldman Sachs estimates around 300 million jobs could be affected by generative AI, meaning 18% of work globally could be automated—with more advanced economies heavily impacted than emerging markets,” Jack Kelly via Forbes on March 31, 2023.

“The [Goldman Sachs] report also predicts two-thirds of jobs in the U.S. and Europe ‘are exposed to some degree of AI automation,’ and around a quarter of all jobs could be performed by AI entirely,” Adrianna Johnson via Forbes on March 30, 2023.

The impact of AI on construction

AI will have a significant impact on construction. The changes will be broad and far-reaching, from faster and more accurate designs to AI-controlled drones for mapping and inspections. AI will force organizations to change by adopting these cutting-edge technologies to compete in the world of tomorrow.

If you are on Microsoft 365 and Azure, you’re in luck. What once would take millions of dollars in R&D to develop AI models is now made available by Microsoft to integrate into your existing applications.

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Construction Viz and Copilot AI (ChatGPT)

Lydon Solutions is excited to announce that we have started exploring this game-changing technology made available to us in Microsoft 365. We aim to revolutionize construction management by integrating Copilot (ChatGPT) with Construction Viz. Since Construction Viz uses your Microsoft 365 SharePoint lists and libraries, Microsoft Copilot (ChatGPT) allows us to incorporate AI naturally into our product.

No other construction management solution can boast what we will be able to do with AI using your data delivered securely in your Microsoft 365 tenant.

The Construction Viz AI gameplan

In the coming months, we will enhance Clover, our AI assistant bot you can activate in the Construction Viz Hub.

Our team will expand Clover to leverage your data stored in your Microsoft 365 SharePoint online and allow you, through a common language, to analyze your construction project data. For example, we are exploring enabling real-time analyses using simple language, including:

  • Scope change management lifecycle—Scoping documents, risk management, RFIs, change requests, change orders, and more.
  • Smart scheduling—What if analysis, time impact analysis, and schedule development.
  • Inspection—Inspection data analysis for delays, issues, log of vendors on site, and progress and productivity
  • Task management—Generate reports on your tasks, overdue tasks, and plan for the day

These are only some areas we will consider as part of this initiative. AI is a brave new world, and Lydon Solutions will bring this technology to a construction project near you soon.

Subscribe to our newsletter from our website footer to stay in the loop on this AI journey! Also, you can request a demo of Construction viz for Microsoft 365 here.