Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

Sharepoint

Customize Construction Viz to YOUR Unique Needs

Construction Viz |

The one thing that absolutely never changed in my 25 years in the construction industry is change. New technologies and processes are released regularly to help reduce costs, manage scope, and improve scheduling, but unfortunately, the construction industry is the least receptive industry to technology changes. This is why it's critical to deliver IT solutions that are easy to use and customizable for your unique needs. It is also why the implementation needs to consider technology gaps and/or resistance within construction organizations. Check out this article on how Construction Viz can meet you where you work and how you work.

When we started Lydon Solutions, we specifically focused on building custom solutions in Microsoft SharePoint to address the needs of each construction client. We knew that every organization, project, and project manager manages projects differently, so our solutions needed to be as flexible to changes as possible.

So, when we built Construction Viz as an enterprise construction management platform for Microsoft 365, one of our goals was to provide an out-of-the-box solution that could also be further customized to the client's unique needs now and well into the future.

Construction Viz is All About Customizable Solutions

We approach customization in Construction Viz from several areas:

The Construction Viz Hub

The Construction Viz Hub is your control center. You can turn apps on and off and further configure them as needed in the Hub.

We also implemented Hub Profiles that can create unique experiences (apps, theming, and features) that you can target to specific users like contractors or owners.

Modular Components in Construction Viz

We built our apps using a component-based structure where each component performs a specific function.

For example, if you need a document attachment component to upload your files into an RFI form, we can turn on the document uploader to add files to an RFI form. Or, if you need the ability to upload images in a thumbnail view to a Daily Report, we could turn on the image uploader component.

Over the years, we have built an extensive catalog of unique components to deliver unique client-specific apps by combining multiple components into custom solutions.

Construction Viz Configuration Settings

We provide administrative settings that clients can configure for their specific projects and add unique permissions.

Also, administrators can manage one project per site or many projects per site, with Construction Viz accommodating either option from the settings.

Metadata Files

We built Construction Viz with the ability to branch our product code base with unique metadata code files by a client or even by a project. These metadata files allow us to add new fields, apps, or whatever a client needs in Construction Viz.

While the metadata files can be unique to each client, they still receive regular product updates as part of the release process. This flexibility built into Construction Viz’s handling of metadata is a forward-thinking and dynamic approach to building unique solutions.

Microsoft 365 Extensibility

Since Construction Viz deploys to a client's Microsoft 365, they can further enhance the features, such as building their own Power BI reports and embedding them into Construction Viz or building a Power Automate workflow and adding it to one of our form apps. We'll get into some of these details in a future post on this topic.

Construciton Viz File Manager

For organizations that want to tiptoe into some of the apps but still want to keep using SharePoint document libraries with folders, we built the Construction Viz File Manager app. The File Manager app lets you perform most of the critical functions you would do in SharePoint right inside Construction Viz without having to navigate to the underlying SharePoint site.

Why Construction Viz?

Read more about what sets Construction Viz apart from the competition in our new blog series:

Construction Viz Adapts to Your Unique Requirements

If your organization needs ultimate flexibility in your construction management solution, it's tough to beat Construction Viz.

We believe in rapid development and add features for our clients almost weekly, unlike other products where you hope to make it into their next six-month development release.

Keep an eye on this series of articles, where we will elaborate on the benefits of Construction Viz over other construction management platforms on the market.

To find out more about what Construction Viz can provide, or if you are new to Microsoft 365 and need help setting it up or delivering solutions in the Microsoft ecosystem, you can request a free one-hour consultation or demo below.

Get a Free Consultation

Get Just the Apps You Need with Construction Viz

Construction Viz |

Frustrated with having to pay for a bloated construction project management system that you only use a fraction of? With Construction Viz, you can select and only pay for the apps you need. Isn’t it about time the consumer has the choice of what they want to use and pay for?

Many of the larger construction project management systems focus on getting clients bought into their ecosystem, forcing their way of managing projects, and charging excessive fees for a bloated system.

The reality is that every organization, project, and project manager manages projects differently; there is no one-size-fits-all. Also, many organizations already have several software packages that they use for specific purposes to help manage projects. They don’t want to have to do double entry, confuse users with multiple systems, and might need only a handful of tools to fill in the gaps.

Pick Only the Apps You Need with Construction Viz

We built Construction Viz to be as flexible as possible, so organizations don’t feel boxed in. If you only need a Daily Report app, you can pay for that app only. If you need more in the future, you can add more Construction Viz apps at any time. Also, if you don’t like how out-of-the-box apps work or need a new app, we can build custom apps or tailor our apps to your unique needs.

Construction Viz allows you to select from over 40 industry-standard construction forms and a total of 50 construction apps, including:

Construction Viz - Construction Forms

Action Items
Contract Change Directive
Change Order Request
Daily Report
Document Binder
Invoice
Meeting Minutes
NCR/NCN
Notice
Outage Request
Commitment
Change Order
Permit

Punch List Items
Quality Assurance Inspection
RFI
Request for Proposal
Risk
Safety Incident
Safety Inspection
Service Request
Submittal
Substantial Completion
Transmittal
Work Order

Construction Viz – Construction Apps

Drawings
Specifications
Cost Reports
File Manager
Forms
GIS Maps

Payment
P6
Planner
Tracker
Scheduler
Task Manager

You can check out our app catalog here.

Why Construction Viz?

Read more about what sets Construction Viz apart from the competition in our new blog series:

If you are already using Microsoft 365 and either need a complete enterprise construction management solution or just a couple of apps, Construction Viz might be the best option. Keep an eye on this series of articles, where we will elaborate on the benefits of Construction Viz over other construction management platforms on the market. You can request a free demo below.

Get a Free Consultation

How Do You Capture Meeting Minutes in Microsoft 365?

Forms |

Construction Viz Meeting Minutes App

One of the most basic needs of a construction project is an effective way to document meeting minutes and their associated action items. For those using Microsoft 365, you've probably experimented with several options, from simple Word documents to building Power Apps. With the Construction Viz Meeting Minutes form app, we did all of the heavy lifting so you could hit the ground running. Check out this article to find out more.

When you think about what makes up a solid meeting minutes tool, you need a way to capture attendees, agenda topics, and action items. Also, the tool needs the ability to print, search, and send minutes to team members. In Microsoft 365, to deliver a meeting minutes solution, you will need to string together several applications to meet these minimum requirements. With Construction Viz, we have considered all these areas and more with our Meeting Minutes app, and if that's the only app you need, that's the only app you pay for!

The Meeting Minutes form is one of over forty form apps available in Construction Viz, but it's also one of those must-have apps to add to your toolbox.

Key Components of the Meeting Minutes App

Construction Viz apps are comprised of targeted code widgets called components that perform a specific function, can be turned on or off, and allow customization as needed. The Meeting Minutes app includes the following components out of the box:

  • Meeting Logistics. Capture the start day/time and location of the meeting.
  • Attendees. Include all users and non-users in attendance.
  • Agenda and Minutes. Create as many agenda items as needed, including minutes associated with the agenda item.
  • Document Attachments. Upload as many files as needed and capture metadata to organize your files.
  • Link Attachments. Add links to internal or external locations.
  • Include as many reviewers as needed to ensure the forms are complete and ready to be distributed.
  • Send off emails to groups and users with links to the form.

Embedded Apps

  • Action Items can be created while in a meeting minutes form and are automatically linked to the Action Item app so you never lose track of where the action item was assigned.
  • Ability to automatically carry open action items into subsequent meetings. Avoid having to re-type the action items in every meeting by including them from the menu when duplicating a form.

Reporting

  • Print to PDF one or many forms. It also includes an option to include document attachments automatically converted to PDF from Office files.
  • Dashboards display by form status with drill-downs to filtered views.
  • Ability to insert Power BI reports. You can add your own dashboards to Construction Viz by copying and pasting a Power BI report URL into the Dashboard settings.

Workflow

  • Add one or more reviewers on the fly so they can receive emails and notifications.
  • Automatically email reviewers. Upon add, email can be sent off to reviewers automatically.
  • Add Power Automate workflows. You can add your own Power Automate workflows to the app settings.

Other

  • Duplicate forms so you can reuse form templates, minimizing data entry.
  • Saved views to create project and personal views.
  • Document attachment view so you can find attached files independent of the meeting minutes.
  • File flyout menu so you can update attached document metadata (Title, revision, date, etc.) in an easy-to-use form.
  • My Action Required Toggle so you can filter any forms in your queue that need your attention.
  • Notifications Center indicates meeting minutes and action items in your cue.
  • Project-specific form numbering is available if more than one project is managed in the deployment of Construction Viz.
  • Export any app grids to Excel.
  • Permission controls by contractor already integrated into the app.
  • Availability to add Construction Viz to a Microsoft Team.
  • Data is stored in client Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online, so it's securely available 24x7

Whew. That's an exhaustive list, and I’m sure I left off a bunch of features, but you get the picture😊.

While there are many considerations for rolling your own meeting minutes tool in Microsoft 365, there is no right or wrong. It always comes down to time and money. Would you want to spend your time building the solution or leveraging one that is ready-made but can still be customized? Either way, Lydon Solutions is here to help. You can request a free one-hour consultation here or a demo of the Construction Viz meeting minutes app below.

Get a Free Consultation

Overwhelmed with Project Documents? Construction Viz Can Help

Project Management Tools |

So you moved to Microsoft 365 to manage your project documents - well done! SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive are all great products for organizing projects, but they can create an even worse nightmare if not used correctly.

With Construction Viz for Microsoft 365, we feel your pain and are here to help clean up the mess and get the project managers back to doing what they do best: managing projects.

Managing Construction Project Documents

Let's face it: managing project documents can be challenging, even if you have a document control specialist and are using Microsoft 365.

You need to consider many factors and the downside of going it alone when managing your documents:

  • Metadata. Metadata helps you organize and find data. You can add columns or folders to organize your files better, but it requires upfront planning and setup by the entire team.
  • Approvals. Most documents go through some approval process. Are you going to create a Power Automate workflow for approvals? Most likely, no.
  • Supporting documentation for forms. When you create or submit forms such as an RFI or submittal, you fill out a cover sheet (the form) and attach the relevant files. You must decide where to store those files and how to reference them. If you are unfamiliar with Microsoft 365, this might pose a challenge.
  • Revisions. Documents such as drawings go through revisions. How can you ensure the team is working on the latest revision but still has access to all prior revisions? Other records, such as RFIs, go through revisions; how will you handle form revisions?
  • Views. Once you upload all your files, you need a way for everyone to find and search for the documents. Are you going to create these views? What if a user seeks a specific file in a project? If you are using folders, making users hunt and peck through layers of folders is inefficient. You could create and configure a search hub, which can be complex and time-consuming.

You get the picture. There is a lot of upfront planning, and you must understand how to use Microsoft 365 effectively to manage your documents.

Construction Viz Simplifies Project Document Management

With Construction Viz, we have you covered. We thought through all the above challenges and provided even more functionality, so you don't have to worry about any of the upfront planning and complex administration.

Some of the great features of Construction Viz include:

✔ Metadata assignment. Metadata is automatically assigned and stored in SharePoint when you save a form or document.

✔ Electronic approvals on everything. Construction Viz allows as many approvals as you would like with any app and even includes e-signature approvals. You get ball-in-court reporting and automatic notifications of tasks due so you can stay on top of your workload. You can have automatic approval emails sent, or you can select a person or group to send emails with all of the email history captured in app-specific logs.

✔ Data resides securely in your SharePoint. All documents are organized and stored securely in your SharePoint lists and libraries, so you know where your data is at all times and have access to it 24x7.

✔ Controlled revision management. Forms and documents have revision management features so that you can easily replicate, track, report, and access the latest revision and all previous revisions with a simple toggle.

✔ Custom Views. Every Construction Viz app has a predefined set of views so that you can take action quickly. Also, you can copy, edit, and create custom views for more in-depth analytics.

Construction Viz lets you get back to spending time constructing projects and less time administering them.

Want to organize your project documents in Microsoft 365? Use the form below to request a demo of Construction Viz. If you're not ready for an enterprise construction management solution but still need help organizing your files, request a free one-hour consultation at LydonSolutions.com.

Get a Free Consultation

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.

Get a Free Consultation

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.