8 DOCUMENT CONTROL MUST-HAVES FOR CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION
8 MUST-HAVES
5
INTEGRATED EMAIL REPOSITORY
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.
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.
6
ADAPTABLE WORKFLOWS
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.
It’s important that the system allows organizations to align workflows to their best practices.