Why Construction Scheduling Needs Disruption

Outbuild's innovative platform is built for Construction with a connected Schedule and Lookahead and facilitates project team collaboration, prevents delays, and increases profits.

My Background

Let me start by saying that I am not living the role of the people that are spending much of their days working with Schedules. I am not a Scheduler, nor a Project Manager, nor a Superintendent.

Here's what I first understood of Scheduling: growing up as the son of a Builder father who spent a career building hospitals, I'd hear the term "Schedule" tossed around often. I tuned out most discussions pertaining to construction at the dinner table, but I gathered that schedules are important.

When I first started working for a GC out of college, as part of Barton Malow 's IT group, one of the early tasks I had was getting familiar with the various pieces of software the company used to help support and train internal users. I'd regularly update users' machines, support them when software wasn't working correctly, install new software, etc...

And here's the punchline: the scheduling software I encountered there, 12 years ago as I write this, is the same software you see used by most companies today.

This isn't calling out any particular one - throw anything at the wall, and they all functionally service as your run-of-the-mill CPM Schedule: Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, all the dozens of versions of both, the occasional "you'll never-take-away" hold-outs that needed Suretrak, and the list goes on.

As someone supporting users with this type of software, it was a nightmare: the amount of versions to keep up with, the fact you had to allocate user licenses (which were limited and only allowed to certain functional roles) and the sheer number of files they generated.

Aside from the license model, look at the way that Schedules get updated and archived:

1. Open Latest Version of Schedule
2. Save As to Reflect it being the New Version, Make Updates
3. Save that file somewhere as latest version & store it with the other files
4. Store that latest file on your system of record. Is it the latest version? Who's computer has the latest version? Who knows?!

This creates a digital File Cabinet, when repeated years at a construction company? That's a LOT of files.

And this is just the Master Schedule piece. Field Teams are using an entirely different approach to scheduling out work within the next 1-6 weeks, on a solution you may be familiar with, Microsoft Excel.

The point is, I saw this as a potential issue in 2012.

And it's only gotten worse.

The actual, indisputable fact is: Construction companies struggle with outdated software to manage contract schedules and field coordination.

The Shift from User Based Solutions to Cloud Based, Purpose-Built Solutions for Construction

One of the big takeaways toward the end of my time at Barton Malow was an observation on the way teams were set up and working together at the $400M Daytona International Speedway project. There was an emphasis on technology, the more specific for Construction the better, and the use of it to bring multiple generations together.

Seasoned, highly experienced Superintendents were paired with newly-graduated Project Managers and Project Engineers. And it worked incredibly well.

Later on in my career, beginning in 2015, I went on to work for Bluebeam , a fantastic and widely known purpose-built solution that would take the place of Adobe or other default PDF software in favor of a more modern, built-for-construction solution.

In my 7 year tenure there, I was exposed to quite a bit of other construction technology platforms, point solutions, trends, fads, service and software providers. I've had so many discussions with forward-thinking innovators, construction technologists, and learned so much during my time there.

And, I witnessed the rising trend of Cloud-Based solutions and was pleased to see that Construction has seemed to embrace it over Perpetual, User-Based License models.

I know this well, because Bluebeam had to go through it themselves. Transitioning people that are used to single-user license models is hard. But it's necessary.

I don't have to go into too much detail to highlight the benefits of using cloud-based solutions over traditional software where you had to take a physical (or digital) copy, and install it on your computer. We all know this.

At Bluebeam, we were obsessed with understanding end-user workflows. This is what makes the product so great. Everyone that worked at Bluebeam knew that the best way to continue to build upon its product was to get very familiar with how its customers (or potential customers not yet converted) are leveraging PDF software and built solutions that reduced clicks, saved users time, and reimagined how communication could be delivered using Markups.

Through this time you also saw the rise of solutions like PlanGrid, an Autodesk company , where, before it was acquired by Autodesk, it was a simple but promising solution using Cloud-based technology that could automatically read your drawings and with a little thing called iPads, it would revolutionize the way you accessed Field Drawings and other useful information from the jobsite.

And in my own career, I went on to work for arguably the most widely known and used Construction & Project Management platforms used today, Procore Technologies . I went ALL IN on cloud-based, SaaS (Software as a Service) providers!

While it was an incredible ride, I felt like my work wasn't done in the startup world. After Procore, I spent some time helping GreenLite in the Owner/Developer/CRE world taking some of my knowledge from the previous roles and applying it to the world of Construction Permitting.

But then I was brought back to passion I had from the first position I got out of college: helping and working directly with Builders.

This is what fires me up the most. Helping the people responsible for building projects use technology effectively: General Contractors. And it turned out, that scheduling thing, has a lot to do with how General Contractors make money.

Enter Outbuild

I recently read the book "The Advantage" from Patrick Lencioni . In his book, he says for companies to truly have an advantage they must have clarity on "Six Critical Questions"

1. Why do we exist?
2. How do we behave?
3. What do we do?
4. How will we succeed?
5. What is most important, right now?
6. Who must do what?

I loved putting Outbuild through these thought exercises and though I won't answer all 6, I will venture to answer the first one.

Why Outbuild Exists

Outbuild exists because Scheduling is long overdue for disruption. When you read that ~75% of Construction Projects are delayed, you have to wonder why this isn't the top of most Executives' priority lists for Operational Excellence.

We exist to put something better in the hands of Preconstruction teams, who are struggling to compete in this market with a bunch of other GC's that look just like them over razor-thin margins.

We exist to reduce the time it takes to create Schedules, to build upon existing ones, and to more easily adapt project teams to the ever-increasing challenges of maintaining strict timelines for successful project delivery, while also aiming to reduce the amount of claims and litigations plaguing our industry.

We exist to enable the incredible harmony that can happen when Project Managers and Superintendents are working in lock step together on a project. "The Superintendent's job is to drive the bus; the Project Manager's job is to keep the lights green"

We exist to prevent delays with tools like Roadblocks, which are created with the intention of identifying and documenting potential issues before they occur in the real world.

Outbuild is helping hundreds of GC's create a better bridge between Office and Field Schedules and saving hours of time every week by having a Schedule and Lookahead connected in the same platform.

With Outbuild, unlimited users can access, with user permissions you control.

Superintendents and Field Users can use our iPad App to see their Lookahead Schedule from the jobsite and update the Schedule's progress.

Operations Leaders and Executives can see all of their Project Schedules in their portfolio on one page, and easily see whether their Schedules are on or off track.

And if you're using Procore, Outbuild is Procore Technologies 's #1-recommended App Marketplace Integration for Scheduling.

If you like the sound of any of this, I encourage you to visit our website and take the simple step of signing up for our Free Trial or Request a Demo.

You just might find that you discovered something you've been looking for, for a long time, like me.

Collin