Success Pillar: Technology
Success Pillar: Technology
Monday, December 19, 2022
In this webinar series, e-Builder elaborates on the importance of the 5-Pillars of Success found in prospering organizations. In many instances, the most challenging of these pillars for organizations to adopt is implementation of technology.
This episode focuses on how organizations leverage technology to achieve goals and drive successful change - now and into the future. The panel discussion explores topics such as:
- Developing efficient and productive by standardizing processes
- Becoming more organized by centralizing document management
- Increasing stakeholder trust by providing more timely and accurate reporting
- Managing risk within a project by increasing visibility to project activity
- Minimizing wasted resources by driving collaboration and communication
Watch the full Technology Success Pillar Webinar
“The degree to which your organization uses technology - If your organization does not have the ability to leverage technology, your initiative will fail.”
The two guests representing organizations who were highly successful at technology implementation are Tina Pearson and Melissa Polito. Tina is a technology administrator at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Tina has over 30 years experience in Information Technology (IT) and firmly believes that the implementation of technology into an organization will drive productivity. Tina and the team at SMU supports a current budget of nearly $160 million. Similarly, Melissa Polito is a technology administrator at Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN). ALCOSAN has been using e-Builder as their construction project management software since 2018, and manages a CIP annual budget of $150 million for 35-50 projects.
Roadmap to a successful implementation
Implementation of technology is typically a phased and iterative approach that happens over time. Events such as organizational change, new leadership, or new opportunities are typically what sparks the change to digital transformation with e-Builder. Organizations are seeking a means of being more organized with their data and reporting - for better decision making to manage risk, and to use resources more efficiently.
When starting to look at what it would take to implement a cloud-based construction program management solution, Tina at SMU suggests “determining what's priority, moving forward with that, and then doing a timeline of when those things would be implemented.”
“You kind of have to be disruptive in that you're pushing the envelope a little bit and say, “Hey, did you know you could do it this way?” Sometimes it falls flat, it doesn't work, and they don't adopt the new technology, but other times you have a huge groundswell and big change happens. I’m the person to kind of keep bringing those things up and prompting people to embrace working faster and smarter.”
- Melissa Polito, Allegheny County Sanitary Authority
Melissa at ALCOSAN recalls the iterative approach they used prior to technology implementation and the importance of bringing in the people who will be using the program - “because it's never perfect and technology's changing all the time” and “new features” are being introduced, she suggests getting feedback from stakeholders, refining the strategy, and iterating the plan until it works for your organization. It’s important to not miss any implications of technology implementation.
Best practices
The teams describe their e-Builder implementation best practices, and are summarized here:
- Don’t let perfection get in the way of success. Know that the implementation process is iterative, and plan for that approach.
- Collaboration and communication is key to a successful implementation. Get all the teams involved for feedback and to help leadership understand the implications of the conversion to a cloud-based construction program management solution.
- Sometimes it’s best to get the ball rolling. Technology experts doing the implementation aren’t typically the construction management experts. Beginning a process in e-Builder for the construction subject matter experts (SMEs) to review usually gets their attention, feedback started, and implementation moving.
- Don’t waste resources. Test all of the workflows, and then fix whatever comes up to make the process as efficient as possible.
Getting stakeholder buy-in
The technology implementation experts agree that showing the team what the implementation will do for them helps obtain stakeholder buy-in, doing product demonstrations for the stakeholders showcases program capabilities and allows potential users to understand what is possible. Explaining the ROI in terms of the cost reduction helps garner support from leadership. ROI is achieved when events such as double entry and human error are eliminated and when processes take minutes instead of days. When leadership is on board, this promotes faster adoption of the technology.
Drive success with technology aligned with your organizational needs - e-Builder can support you in digital adoption of construction project management software.
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