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You are a professional of the building industry and you need help to manage your job site schedules? You would like to optimize the follow-up of your job site to better communicate with your collaborators? A project manager has already asked you which specialized software you need for your job site schedule and you didn't know what to answer? Don't panic, you've come to the right place to learn more about this increasingly topical subject. After having explained what a schedule of job site consists of and its advantages, we are going to present you the 5 best tools to help you to realize an effective schedule of job site .
First of all, what is a job site schedule? Don't be mistaken, a job site schedule is not simply a calendar or a diary on which to note the dates of delivery of materials. The job site planning allows an overall view of the operations in the form of a table showing the progress of the work and the various deadlines. It will facilitate the team work by offering a good visibility of the tasks of each trade concerned, or of each member of the team according to the case.
A computerized schedule of job site can be easily modified, shared with collaborators and allows to keep a traceability of the various milestones.
By visualizing in a simple and immediate way the sequence of interventions, it allows to make the comparison between the forecasted deadlines, the upcoming deadlines and the progress of job site in real time. We all know that the respect of deadlines is essential and must be one of the priority objectives of any project manager. First of all, it allows to satisfy the client of the work. Moreover, it is what allows a job site at lower cost and consequently a better profitability for the company. Everyone benefits from this and it gives a good reputation to the craftsmen and building contractors.
To achieve a good follow-up of job site, there are tools, more or less specialized software, which will help you to realize this planning of job site. We are going to present you the 5 best tools to help you in this process, and give you the main characteristics and advantages of each.
This way, you will have all the information you need to make an informed choice about the application that will really help you. Relieved of this concern, you will be able to better concentrate on the essential thanks to a tangible saving of time.
Even though it is not a specialized construction application, Microsoft's spreadsheet offers many advantages. It is very widespread and is now available for free for online use. It is very flexible, it can be configured almost infinitely and can be easily upgraded. It is easy to learn and there are several tutorials on the internet to train yourself. Its operation is not necessarily the most intuitive but it remains a good basic tool but with countless features. Its only disadvantage is that at the beginning, you will have to take time to create a customized schedule for job site .
Google Sheets works very similarly to Excel. It is still a free spreadsheet and as the name suggests, it is a Google product. You will be able to install it in GoogleDrive without any problem. Your job site schedule will then be accessible for shared use with your employees. This is an advantage if your company already uses this free drive. Another advantage of Google Sheets is the fine-tuned access management and easy parameterization. Three different levels are allowed: simple reading, without the possibility of commenting or making changes to the file, the authorization to add comments and the additional ability to modify the schedule.
With Dispatcher, we leave the free tools behind and enter the world of specialized construction applications for an efficient and time-saving job site planning. Moreover, the interface is much more user-friendly and pleasant to use than a simple spreadsheet. It also offers many additional possibilities, in particular by integrating a financial follow-up, in addition to a planning by activity. Tasks assigned to subcontractors can be differentiated for a better productivity analysis.
Although not specifically focused on the construction industry, Visual Planning is a planning tool for all types of businesses. Its handling is intuitive and fast, so learning is easy. A permissions management system ensures that only the users concerned receive the necessary information, which avoids overwhelming all the participants with useless information. Visual Planning integrates with Google and Microsoft calendars as well as with the most popular clouds such as Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox to share documents with your colleagues. It also exchanges data with the most common management software such as Sage Gestion. A good tool when you are looking for integration with other applications, which is its strong point.
A good and efficient planning management has an important economic impact. It frees up time and rationalizes the monitoring of job site by limiting the impact of hazards on deadlines. Indeed, by offering an immediate visibility of the points of friction, their identification makes it possible to bring corrective actions as soon as possible. This reduces the risk of exceeding the work acceptance date. Moreover, reactivity also contributes to the company's good reputation. In the construction industry, word of mouth is crucial and will generate, in the long term, new orders. This is why the job site planning, in particular its elaboration, is crucial to eliminate or limit delays on deadlines and thus increase profitability.
For a planning that is simple to set up, easily scalable and that can be shared with other trades if necessary, the planning of job site through an application brings a real plus. Moreover, if we refer to the opinions of the customers and to the notoriety of these ones, all plebiscite this new way of working by underlining essentially the saving of time, and at the level of the brand image of the company, the use of the digital tools brings a pledge of seriousness. So many good reasons to adopt a software for the elaboration of an efficient job site planning.
After this overview of the best tools for job site planning, if you have been convinced to try the experience, here are a few tips to conclude. First of all, of course, evaluate the budget you can or want to spend on this acquisition. Then, ask yourself the right questions: a free tool with the main functions or a more expensive software that will go beyond simple planning? Do you want to have an application only for construction site planning or a suite capable of retrieving data for other purposes? In short, you will have understood, the judicious choice is only made after a phase of reflection to identify your needs. Once this step is accomplished, go on the internet to watch the demonstration videos. Then, if necessary, contact us for a personalized demo and give yourself the time you need to make the right decision, that of a tool that will meet your expectations.
