Change Order? What Change Order?
Constant Change in Construction
In the world of construction there is a never-ending process of change.Change is part of the construction business. But without a central, accessible source of up-to-date data, it comes at a cost. According to the FMI Construction Report, Harnessing the Data Advantage in Construction, bad data could cost over 16% of a construction company’s annual revenue. All because of inaccurate or missing data.
The High Cost of Poorly Managed Change Orders
Take change orders, for example. “Industry data suggests change orders account for 8% to 14% of capital construction projects. One study indicated that they led to project cost overruns of 11% to 15% on average, while they pushed work as much as 20% past scheduled completion dates.” (5 Steps To Improve Change Order Management, 2019)
If all the change orders aren’t documented accurately or if there is a later dispute because the order was only made verbally, the construction company bears the costs. And the costs involve both the change orders themselves and costs incurred for the resulting delays, as well as any indirect costs due to bad decisions made using the incomplete data.
Field Work: The Broader Data Challenge
And it’s not just change orders. It’s all aspects of field work. For example,
“Accurate live labor costs and task completion tracking allows companies to run real-time earned-value calculations regularly. You can keep track of precisely how much work has been completed on a project, and whether a team is operating over or under budget on a daily basis.” (Mike Merrill, How Analyzing Live Field Data Makes Construction Firms Stronger, 2021)
Better Data, Better Profits
To increase profitablity, construction companies need to have the right information, in the right place, at the right time and easily accessible to both office and field. And it needs to be an easy process, or it just won’t happen.
The Solution: Integrated Technology
Construction companies therefore need integrated technology. Integrated technology like Sage 100 Field Operations which allows information from the field (think change orders, POs, supporting documents and timesheets) to be shared and stored as easily as tapping a button on a phone.
Mike Pernai, Vice President of Sales at ETHOSystems explains:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrNgePs0D08[/embedyt]
