Contractors and Business Intelligence: How They are Related

1. Contractors and Business Intelligence: How They are Related

2. The construction sector gathers a huge volume of data and effectively analyzes it to reduce risk, lower costs and lead to higher profit margins. However, the lack of effective tools is a big drawback to analyze data which ultimately burns the hands of contractors. The lack of technology solutions in the construction business had caused serious problems in the past, including the failure to make critical decisions as data was absent on the table. This made contractors take a close look at business intelligence. Despite data available, sometimes contractors failed to read it properly because the proper tools were not there. Fortunately, now things have improved.

3. What exactly is business intelligence? In simple language, business intelligence is collecting a huge volume of data produced through construction and project management software and sorting and analyzing it to make informed business decisions. The advantages of business intelligence in the construction industry are many including increased efficiency and improved productivity. Business intelligence makes a comparison of data possible and by sharing data in real-time, everyone can access it at the same time, cutting downtime.

4. Business intelligence bring contractors to the driver’s seat The technology solutions in the construction industry have brought tremendous advantages to contractors. From in-depth reports to dashboards, creative charts, graphs, and even geographical mapping of data, business intelligence software puts contractors in the driver’s seat and takes away the headache of trying to manually make sense of the mountains of construction data. It gives contractors a competitive edge and optimizes cost containment, risk management, and collaboration to improve margins

5. Helps contractors gain a global view of the present and past projects When contractors employ business intelligence in the construction industry, contractors get a better idea of their business operations and can gather a detailed understanding of their business to uncover areas ripe for improvement. Earlier, contractors had to depend upon their guts to make business decisions but now a better and clear idea about the business is available.

6. Real-time data betters efficiency and margin Earlier, many project managers had no idea of what was happening at project sites or maybe too late to know the activities. But now with real-time data available, it becomes easy to discover problems or bottlenecks and addresses them immediately, before they diminish margins.

7. Contractors receive standardized reporting Earlier, project managers often used their own software (with the consent of companies) and there were heavy disparities in reporting, due to which other stakeholders had difficulty in understanding them, ultimately delaying strategic decisions. Unnecessary blame games were common in team meetings, affecting the cordial work atmosphere. But with business intelligence, reporting has become standardized and decision-making has become easier. Resources are better managed

8. The proper management of resources is crucial for enhanced profit margin. However, many organizations fail to properly manage resources and this seriously impacts the profits. When you use business intelligence, resources are better managed and proper scheduling take place, which ultimately avoid break downs and job stops, track worker licenses, insurance and certifications and flag unsafe or poorly performing workers or equipment.

9. Better monitoring of risk When you mismanage risk related to safety, contracts, defects, costing and slowdowns, it seriously impacts the profit margin. With business intelligence in construction industry, contractors can track contract requirements, legal restrictions and safety issues by project, as well as analyze safety incidents with real-time data. They can also hand over complete building data to owners and analyze suppliers of defective material to make better decisions.

10. The construction industry is ever changing and contractors need to augment their skills to catch up with time. When you have business intelligence in constructionindustry, you are well-positioned to better manage their organizational risk. The more serious you are about construction processes and innovative building strategies; you will end up bringing more wealth to the company coffers. And that’s an intelligent business decision. So the question here is – ‘are you ready for that?’

11. Thank You