3 Important Reasons Why Some Say Construction Management Software (Sometimes) Doesn’t Work

You have the opportunity to be around many managers of your calibre and you’ve definitely heard them say that they tried a certain construction management software and that it doesn’t work. I have heard them, too. These are just some of those things:

• The software blew things up between the team…
• It failed to keep track on the construction progress…
• Created extra work and…

You just LOST another important client. Sometimes people don’t search for other solutions because they always have “more important” thing to handle at that moment. You will just keep losing money, time, important clients and nerves. What’s the problem? Why does your software sometimes work and sometimes it doesn’t? In order to clear this up, I did a research. What I’ve learned is that the fault is not in the software (well, 95% of the time). I’ll explain.

Weak Leadership

For the whole system to be successful you need to have strong leadership. No change comes easy. When you deploy a new software and ask your people to change how they work, they won’t do it. It takes strong leadership to make sure the change will occur.
Let’s put it like this. Your company got new software since you want to automate most of the manual work. Then, you ask fifty people to change and adapt to a whole new working environment/methodology. If you leave things there, there is a big chance this software won’t work. Your job is to educate and motivate them. The most important is to create an environment in which they will actually do what they were asked. Only strong leadership will make your employees embrace the new system. This is the biggest factor for success or failure.

Making Things Complex and Confusing

Keep it simple. You are not reinventing the wheel. The software products today are really powerful and robust. People often say teach me everything and I will figure out how this works. Don’t do that.
They won’t listen and as a matter of fact, they won’t remember most of the things. Instead of making them go for the sharks, teach them how to catch a fish first. “Catch” one or two problems that you want to solve with this software and implement those! Get it going, do work and celebrate the success! This will make the team embrace the new system. They will look forward to expanding its use and be up for the challenge. It’s a win-win!

Not Having Entitlement and Ownership

Make your people part of the change management. Getting a software that’s collaborative and lets you manage and track the progress of the construction project, is only the beginning. You need a person who is very passionate about new systems and the whole process. He or she needs to be a “gold medalist” to help those who need the extra guidance. This person will always be there to “push” those who are drifting behind with the active usage i.e. going back to their routines. His or her working time should depend on the scope of the projects and he or she needs to have her own system adoption. Identify this person in your team, give him/her full ownership and resources and he/she will be up for the new challenge.

Have you heard of other reasons why others complain about their automation and software usage? To prevent the unpreparedness of your team and organisation, you should begin at improving your team management skills. After that, proceed to this guide on adopting a project management software. For a bigger scope on construction site productivity, download the free ebook.