Concept to Closeout and Beyond
The right tool for the job.
As an Owner, you’re always looking for a way to get the job done correctly, get it done quickly, and ultimately make your job less stressful.
You need a tailor-made, configurable, and robust application that manages more than just the construction phase in order to achieve those goals.
It’s tempting to look at contractor software because it’s seemingly cheap and used at the construction site. However, it won’t provide what you need in all phases of your project.
Built for Owners
When searching for Owner-focused project management software, you should look for a proven track record of success and security.
After more than two decades of helping Owners, Projectmates recommends working with software that uses single-tenant private cloud servers to give you better performance and higher levels of security over the multi-tenant cloud solutions used by most contractor software providers.
Powerful reporting tools should also be top of mind during your search. A real-time report on schedule or financial data can quickly clue you into what’s working and what’s not. Ad-hoc reports and integrations with BI software further enhance an Owner’s capabilities to react faster to any project issues.
As an Owner, You Need More
Owners simply require more from construction management software.
You need to be able to easily set up multiple schedules for numerous projects. Everyone on your team should be able to access their specific schedule from anywhere on any device. To deliver on time, access to project schedules should never be far away.
Contractor software has limited schedule capabilities that focus on a contractor’s needs over yours as the Owner.
Owner-focused project management software is also commonly used to resolve disputes as its data is the central source of truth. RFIs, submittals, daily field reports, meeting minutes, site visits, and custom apps are locked down and made non-editable once finalized, creating clear-cut audit trails.
Contractor software may allow many of these items to be re-opened once they’ve been closed which reduces record integrity and creates stressful audits.
Managing multiple project budgets is another Owner function that should be easily handled in software. Your PMIS should give you the ability to oversee as many contracts, PCOs, and COs as needed per project.
Unique to Projectmates
Another tool any Owner should have in their proverbial software tool belt is the ability to manage capital planning and capital construction projects in one platform.
A program-level capital planning tool helps Owners effectively organize and plan for current and future needs. Planners can allocate funding to capital projects by fiscal year and project phase, establish a project intake process and execution plan, and track multiple funding sources and costs in real time.
It also bridges the gap between planners and project managers by rolling up commitments and actuals as projects are being executed.
Look, it makes sense that GCs prefer using contractor-focused software – we actually support contractors using software that’s designed specifically for their needs. However, instead of forcing Owners to use software that doesn’t meet their needs, we believe Owners should be able to harness information coming from contractor software and use it to their advantage.
To help with that, there’s a tool built into the software specifically to bridge that gap: The Projectmates Connector.
In one click, contractors can quickly import all RFIs and submittals into Projectmates along with any attachments. The connector reduces double-data entry, avoids duplication errors, and allows your GC to continue using their own software while you as the Owner gain the project transparency you need.
Unfortunately, many Owners have been led to think that contractor software provides all the project data you need. As you can see, it can’t.
So stop trying to force contractor software to do a job it wasn’t designed to do. With Projectmates’ owner-focused construction project management software, you’ll have the power to manage your construction projects with confidence and ease.
Schedule a demo today to see the positive difference owner-focused software will make on your construction program.
