The wrong document control software adds time and difficulty to every project, but the right one speeds workflows, slashes opportunity for error, and saves valuable time at every stage of construction. Throughout the requirement identification process, look for a solution that can adapt to different workflows and needs, boost team efficiency, and delivers the adaptability required to manage constantly shifting business demands. The key to project certainty is well vetted solutions and vendors.

The average construction professional spends 5.5 hours a week just searching for project documentation. While most document control solutions aim to improve that number, the most advanced systems can conservatively cut that in half. There are a variety of methods currently available to help organizations improve efficiency when searching for documents. Throughout the assessment period, organizations ought to determine if they would benefit from locating documents through one or more of the following: keyword search, filtering information using attributes, navigating documents through related links, or accessing files in a folder tree. Searching gets even easier when dynamic folders allowing users to go deeper than the standard folder trees in most systems. With dynamic folders, users can define entire populated folder hierarchies based purely on the attributes associated with each project item. Imagine, in a single click, switching a folder view to show every document organized by Discipline – Status – File Type, and with a second click to a folder tree customized to the specific organization.

Ensuring project documents have been properly reviewed and approved has traditionally been accomplished by email. Using email for review and approval inevitably results in delays, missed approvals, and a lack of historical record. The majority of document control systems available look to improve upon the review and approval process; the key is to select a system that will work with the organization’s current technology and accessibility requirements. Look for a system providing comprehensive workflow tools for initiating, reviewing (mark-up and commenting), approving, and distributing those documents. Will teams need their new project software to integrate with mark-up tools like Bluebeam? Does the organization require sequential and parallel approval processes? What if the project requires documents routed outside of the organization for review or approval, will that require additional setup or licensing costs to accommodate outside users/contributors? Most importantly, in order to increase accountability and ensure project items keep moving forward, organizations need a system that tracks exactly where in the review-and-approval workflow documents currently stand and keeps a record of every time that document has been touched.

One of the biggest problems on any project is ensuring the extended project team has access to the most recent documents. Project-driven organizations need a system that uses electronic transmittals and packages to distribute links to the latest documents and project items to the right people. Systems with the ability to deliver packages notify distributers when documents are updated and guides them through the distribution of any addendum. Also look to verify that every step of the process is auditable, so any debate as to whether someone received the latest document becomes irrelevant.

A typical project has thousands of associated email messages. Generally, these emails are separate from other project items, making it difficult to find and capture missing information. In order to achieve user adoption, the document control solution ought to serve as a central repository for capturing and accessing all the project emails in one place. From this central repository, users can create specific email templates to ensure all relevant information is captured and nothing falls through the cracks. If team members still prefer to use Microsoft Outlook, a document control system with an out-of-the-box Outlook plug-in will enable those users to send and review emails directly from their email while maintaining the benefits of rigorous document control practices.

Email-based construction workflows are fraught with inefficiency and delay. Another must-have feature worth evaluating is a system’s ability to design and manage project item workflows. The management, approval, and analysis of project RFIs, submittals, and other construction workflows can vary from project to project (and may even have multiple RFI workflows within a single project). It’s important that the system allows organizations to align workflows to their best practices. Does the system let users configure templates to capture and track the information their team needs to create, review, and respond to construction workflow forms? What about automated, discipline-centric workflows to streamline the approval process and ensure the correct reviewer is notified at the right time? Does the system provide a complete audit trail of events and actions for every project item workflow? All of these critical factors must be assessed when evaluating which system is the best fit for any construction organization, but become even more critical for complex projects.