The IPM Blog

This is the second post in The Workflow Series, which shows how workflows can enhance and automate different areas of IPM to suit your business processes better. Of course, due to the nature of workflows, you can decide how and where you use workflows, so these are only examples in an almost infinite list of possibilities.

Last week, I outlined the use of workflows in the creation of forecast tracking reports, used to track the changes to your forecast to complete figures as the project progresses. This week I’m going to talk about how workflows can help you ensure meeting minute items are followed up and actioned on time.

Do you find yourself, after every meeting with architects, subcontractors, general contractors and the like, constantly chasing up attendees to ensure they have actioned the items on the agenda they are responsible for? Or setting yourself countless outlook reminders and scribbling on post it notes in the hope that nothing will slip through the cracks?

Well, you will be pleased to know that as this is a blog about solutions, there is an easier way to manage your meeting minute items. And, you guessed it, the answer lies with Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflows. In other examples we have shown you of workflows, they have been set to run on demand or when part of a record is changed. But workflows can also be created when a record is created. This is perfect in the case of meeting minute items, as it means that each time you create a meeting minute item, a workflow can kick off and constantly run in the background. One way you can use this is to have the workflow regularly check today’s date against the due date on the meeting minute item. If the due date rolls around and the item has not yet been actioned, the workflow can then automatically send an email reminder to you, and the person responsible for the item. So all you have to do is create the workflow and add your meeting minute items into IPM as you normally would, and it will do the rest for you. No more chasing people up, setting countless outlook reminders or scribbled post it notes.

We have plenty more tips and ideas for workflow uses, so keep checking back for more in The Workflow Series.

I know it’s human nature to hang onto things we’ve outgrown or no longer have use for. Be it some emotional connection we have to the tattered pair of jeans that no longer fit, or the fact we’re just too lazy to change mobile phone providers or switch from the energy supplier who is clearly charging too much. We’ve all been guilty of it at some point.

But many construction companies also tend to hang onto the software they have used for years, despite the fact that it may no longer fit the size of the business and type of work they are doing, or that it hasn’t kept pace with the changing nature of the industry. But in this economy it makes no sense to stick to software that could ultimately be costing you time and money.

So how can you tell you’ve outgrown your project management software and that it’s time to part ways? Here are five telltale signs...

1. Loss of productivity
Many older style applications require employees to enter the same information more than once, which ultimately leads to a loss of productivity. You should be able to integrate your project management software with your accounting system to avoid duplicating data, as well as giving you accurate reporting of costs with one version of the truth. If not, you are unnecessarily paying employees to do the same job twice.

2. Inflexible software
There are so many developments in software nowadays, such as workflows, that there should be no reason for a software application to dictate the way you run your business. If you can’t add customisations to your software and choose how you interact with it, it could be costing you time and money by hindering your efficiency.

3. Inability to access data remotely and from a central database
The nature of construction means there are times you need to access data when you are not in the office. If your current solution is to save information in spreadsheets on your laptop, there is a better way. Software that can be used in a web browser is far more efficient, and IPM’s central database means you can access the same information as everyone in your office. If there is no access to the internet, simply use it in offline mode and it will automatically sync up to the main database when internet access is restored.

4. Inability to provide accurate, real time reporting
It’s no good finding out at the end of the month that your project spend has overrun by 40%. You need to be able to access that information quickly and easily and with up-to-the-minute accuracy. Only solutions with accurate and easy to use reporting facilities can give you this information when you need it.

5. The software is not user friendly
If your employees still can’t find their way around your current software solution and are spending countless hours on menial tasks to get the right information in the right place, and then can’t find that information again later, your software is not user friendly. Software with a simple and familiar look and feel throughout, and that takes less time to do more work is definitely in order.

If you recognise these symptoms in your own organisation’s current software solution and would like to see how IPM cures them, please don’t hesitate to contact IPM Global for a free demo.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the power of workflows in customising and automating your project management software. Well this got me thinking about all the nifty ways IPM can use workflows to better suit your project management needs, and I decided it was time for a blog series to show you how a few of them work. So, welcome to the first post in The Workflow Series.

I will start off with showing how workflows have helped develop quite a new feature of IPM, the forecast tracking report. Not long ago, IPM developed the enhanced forecasting tool in the Job Tasks Progress screen. This easy to use tool enables you to continually update detailed forecast to complete information for each job task as the job progresses. However, we found that once the forecast was updated, the original forecast was overridden with the new one.

Was there a way to view what your forecast to complete was three months ago and compare it to now? With workflows, the answer is yes. We added a forecast tracking report to the Job and Job Task forms, which is created by a workflow. Now you can decide how you want the workflow to run.

As an example, we created a workflow that would run every time the forecast to complete figure in the Job Tasks Progress screen was changed. When the forecast is updated, the workflow runs in the background and creates a forecast tacking report to show you what the forecast looked like before it was updated. Now each time the forecast is changed, a forecast tracking report is created in the Job and Job Task forms and they will soon develop into a comprehensive and searchable tracking log for all the forecast updates on the project. This way you can compare what your forecast looked like three months ago to how it looks now.

Of course, the nature of workflows means you can choose how you want them to work. Instead of automatically creating the forecast tracking report, you could set the workflow to run on demand, so it only creates the reports when you want it to. Workflows are also simple to create if you have the appropriate security access level, so you are in control without the need for external consultants.

This is just one way IPM is utilising workflows, so stay tuned for more in the Workflow series...

We’re very pleased to let you know that the December issue of the Civil Contractors Federation magazine, the EMCC has featured a story about IPM.

The story focuses on the development of IPM and how we came to create a product to fill a gap in the market. It’s an interesting read and gives you a bit of a behind the scenes look at the development of IPM. It also shows just why we are different from other project management solutions out there.

The article can be found on the Earthmover and Civil Contractor magazine website and we hope you can take a few minutes to check it out.

Thanks also must go to the EMCC for featuring us.

I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we wish our current software solution would do something slightly differently, or go that extra mile. How many times have you thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if it did this’, or ‘If only it could just do that’. These may be small changes that we are willing to look past. Or if they are changes that are desperately needed, perhaps management might shell out a few thousand dollars for some extra software development work to incorporate them.

But what if your software had the power to let you make some of these changes yourself? Impossible, you say. Well that’s where the power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM workflows comes in. Workflows are simple sets of rules that can automate your processes and use of the software and, if you have the appropriate security, can be created by you, the end user.

As IPM is built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, these workflows can also be applied throughout the use of IPM. If you’re a user with system administrator rights you can create any type of workflow you like and it can be used on IPM records created by all users in your organisation. And even if you don’t have system administrator rights, you can still create your own workflows to use on the documents you create yourself. So workflows effectively become a great tool for streamlining the processes of the organisation as a whole, as well as individual users.

But how do they work exactly? Workflows are a simple set of rules that can be created by users and set up to run either on demand, when a document is created or changed, or as part of another workflow. For example, you may wish to set up a workflow to automatically create a Variation (Change Order) from a Variation Request (Change Request) once the request is approved. Or you may like a workflow to generate an email reminder when the due date for a Meeting Minute Item is approaching. Basically you can set a workflow up to do almost anything, you just set the rules and tell it what you want it to do.

Workflows are also great for increasing the productivity of your staff as they automate your processes and eliminate employees spending time entering excess data. And they are free and easy to create.

IPM is one of the few project management solutions that has access to these smart features, as other solutions just don’t have this kind of functionality. And as I mentioned before, to get a simple workflow process incorporated into other solutions could cost you thousands in development costs.

If you want to find out more about the power of workflows, don't hesitate to contact us for a free demo.