CU1811

INDUSTRYcomment
Reconciliations (CVR) to determine the
financial status of project progress
against budget. A customer recently
described how, before they used
Chalkstring, their QSs spent at least two
days every month finding, managing
and manipulating data from various
spreadsheets to create monthly CVRs.
Not only was this highly inefficient but
information was out of date the next day
- all it took was for someone to order
more materials or maybe update site
progress, and there was no way of
knowing the health of the project until
the next CVR had been compiled the
following month. In this day and age
don't you expect more control and
visibility than that?
THE IMPACT OF SPREADSHEETS
ON PROJECTS
Current methods of working - whether
using only spreadsheets or a hybrid of
software and spreadsheets combinedcan
have massive detrimental impacts
on project delivery resulting in:
Inefficiency - unnecessary time spent
creating, collating, re-keying and
transferring information.
Lack of control - without real-time
information having true control of a
project is difficult, even more so when
spreadsheets are not audited.
Complexity - hard to understand,
personalised spreadsheets make it
difficult to check and share data in a
meaningful way.
Risk - human mistakes arise when rekeying
data and the potential to
duplicate errors expose projects to
further risk.
Compromised decision making - a
lack of real-time visibility of project
performance reduces capacity to make
informed decisions when needed.
INTRODUCING THE INTEGRATED
SOLUTION
However, there is a solution to the
spreadsheet conundrum - and it's
integrated project cost control software
like Chalkstring.
Developed specifically for specialist
contractors, Chalkstring offers a single
platform through which the whole
project team can manage the entire
project, from tender enquiry through to
final account. It streamlines activities
that have typically been spreadsheet
based, like estimating, supplier
management, value engineering and
variation orders, and it automates
manual processes, such as
procurement, progress and valuations,
applications for payment and
subcontract labour payments.
Chalkstring's integrated approach
eliminates the need for multiple
complex spreadsheets, with all project
data available from within a single
cloud-based system. This unique
approach has been proven to increase
margins, reduce waste and improve
visibility of project performance.
Integrated software can provides the
project team with everything they need
to run the project efficiently, and
management with the real-time insight
into key financial metrics, at any stage
of construction.
GET AHEAD OF YOUR
COMPETITION
Potentially containing costly errors,
inefficient at best and effectively
creating isolated silos of project data,
many construction contractors have
now started to question whether
spreadsheets are really the right tool. In
terms of technology adoption, we are
now into the 'early majority' phase of
adoption where integrated cost control
solutions are no longer new and have
been tried and tested by many
businesses before you. That said, given
that 69% of construction business are
behind the curve, those who harness
technology now will get ahead of their
competition, giving themselves a true
competitive advantage. Isn't that worth
taking a look at?
www.chalkstring.com
November/December 2018 21