Content management within large construction projects
Construction projects generate enormous and complex sets of documentation and communications. Effectively managing this vast amount of information to ensure that it is accurate and available to the appropriate members of the project is a complex yet essential task. Poor or missing information can lead to project delays, risk-prone and costly decisions, or even the complete failure of the project.
There are countless things that can wrong during a large-scale construction project, but almost all of them share the same root cause – the poor management of information and correspondence. The prevention of mistakes, delays and the overall decision-making process heavily relies on accurate and readily available information as well as timely communication between the numerous parties involved in the process.
With better information, any problem that arises during the construction process can be identified early on – both project design and control are crucially dependent upon accurate and timely information, as well as the ability to use this information effectively. At the same time, unorganised information presented to managers can result in confusion and paralysis of the decision-making process.
The diverse types of documentation and correspondence within a typical construction project
There are many types of data sets that are part of a typical large-scale construction project. During its lifecycle, these sets of information change, and some become obsolete due to unpredicted change in circumstances (e.g. changing third-party vendors), but overall these are the most typical types of information, documents & correspondence that could be found and tracked within a construction project:
- cash flow and procurement accounts for each organisation;
- intermediate analysis results during planning and design;
- design documents, including drawings and specifications;
- construction schedules and cost estimates;
- quality control and assurance records;
- chronological files of project correspondence and memorandum;
- construction field activity and inspection logs;
- legal contracts and regulatory documents.
As the construction project proceeds, the sets of data associated with each stage hold different value – for example, the structural analysis databases are not ordinarily used during construction or operation. However, they are necessary at the later stages in the project. In this case, archival information storage and retrieval become important. Even after the completion of construction, a historical record may be important for use during operation, to assess responsibilities in case of facility failures or for planning similar projects elsewhere.
The control and flow of information is also important for collaborative work environments, where many professionals are working on different aspects of a project and sharing information.
While there may be substantial costs due to inaccurate or missing information, there are also significant costs associated with the generation, storage, transfer, retrieval and other manipulation of information. In addition to the costs of clerical work and providing aids such as computers, the organisation and review of information require a great amount of the attention.
The most cost-effective solution for managing engineering project documentation and transmittals for OpenText Content Server users
Keeping track of and managing technical changes throughout the execution of large construction projects is time-consuming and poses numerous managerial challenges. If your organisation delivers large projects and uses OpenText Content Server as a primary Enterprise Content Management system, then ProjectVault Engineering Vault is the most cost-effective solution for improving project execution processes whilst reducing the associated risks and costs.
ProjectVault’s Engineering Vault enables organisations to streamline the collaborative processes surrounding capital project documentation and transmittals in a flexible and cost-effective manner. Designed to build upon your existing OpenText Content Server investment, Engineering Vault enables you to:
- Accurately plan the required documentation and identification of critical paths and document dependencies
- Reduce risk of inefficient/late engineering change tracking
- Efficiently share and exchange project documentation among multiple parties
- Provide a single point of truth – a repository for all project documents and information
- Flexible, industry-leading security, collaboration and workflow capabilities
- Support for large, globally distributed project teams
As an integral part of the OpenText Content Server, Engineering Vault ensures that project and technical documents are correctly managed throughout their lifecycle. If your organization delivers large construction projects, then Engineering Vault is the most cost-effective solution for improving management processes whilst reducing the associated risks and costs.