Smartphones and tablets have solidified their role as field tools, both in construction and property maintenance. These modern tools help project parties obtain and analyse large amounts of data electronically, without delays. The transparency of these technologies has also facilitated quality control and increased information transparency throughout the project life cycle.
Mobile tools speed up information flow and allow every employee to carry project assets with them. Though conditions at work sites are often demanding, software suppliers have learned to optimise the right features for end users, making information management more efficient than ever before.
New tools and advanced mobile technology solutions speed up information flow in the project environment. The role of the software supplier in all this is to ensure a constant data flow to all project parties. However, the readable data must also be clean and easy to understand for end users, so as to prevent users from being overwhelmed by the constant flow of information. Otherwise the focus of the information may end up being lost and users may even end up abandoning useful technology due to inadequate or outdated usability.
Here are our recommendations to project organisations for improving information flow at the worksite:
- Deploy new technology
- Identify challenges related to resistance to change
- Understand the challenges and problems faced by users
- Choose easy-to-use software – for all project parties
- Ensure online accessibility and offline support
- Prioritise work tasks electronically
- Allow progress monitoring and ensure the transparency of project data for all parties
- Ensure reporting and lower the learning curve in construction projects
Implementing new technologies in an organisation may prove challenging, and internal resistance to change is common. In order for users to respond positively and embrace the product in different project stages, the new software must not only fulfil the requirements set by the work, but also be easy to learn. The technology used has a major impact on how readily users accept new software. Users expect modern work management software to be as easy to use as the social media services that they use in their spare time. As such, mobile work management applications should be so easy to use that new users can adopt the technology immediately, preferably within a few seconds.
There are still numerous users who work at several locations or worksites and experience constant problems with their Internet connections. This should not be the case, as information systems should also be robust enough to support these types of problem situations, where the digital flow of information is interrupted.
Nowadays, notes can be saved directly on the device used without an Internet connection and synchronised to a cloud service as soon as the device is able to re-connect to the Internet. The combining of large masses of data in the cloud can be challenging for software suppliers, but with high-quality information models, project management information can be effectively linked in one place. Software designed in an user-oriented manner not only makes project work agile, but also increases information transparency between all parties.
SokoPro mobile application
The SokoPro mobile application is the ideal solution for construction sites. The application allows all the information used to be saved automatically and archived in different project stages, thus eliminating the need to fill out papers manually.
The SokoPro application is currently available for Android and iOS devices
Users can log in to the SokoPro mobile add-on at https://m.sokopro.fi/
Features
- Carry all plans with you, whether at the worksite or the office
- TR and MVR indicators
- Order copies of the latest revisions directly from the worksite
- Single Sign on (SSO)