5 Reasons Why You Should Integrate Your Construction Tech Stack

Picture this—you’re a project manager on a big commercial construction project. Much of your time is spent preparing timelines, checking in with various stakeholders, and managing the project’s resources such as labor, materials, and equipment. You made a slight schedule adjustment on a Friday before the project kickoff scheduled for Monday morning. However, email was the only way to notify people of the schedule change because your project management software isn't connected to your company’s instant messaging app.  

You start to panic, wondering what will happen if everyone doesn’t receive the message in time and you don’t have enough labor for the job, or the budget is misallocated for this scheduling change.  

Unfortunately, this may be a very real scenario for many workers in the construction industry, regardless of their roles. The reality of how we work today is that we have many applications at our fingertips, all claiming to solve our everyday workplace obstacles. Whether it’s software for project management, payroll, data systems, or something else, it can be hard to identify which tools you need and how they will integrate with your current tech stack.  

Integrating your software applications saves your team time and resources and makes your life a little easier. And who doesn’t want that? In this blog post, we’ll explore five reasons why integrating your construction tech stack will take your organization from siloed to streamlined. 

Keep Your Teams Aligned 
An integrated tech stack keeps cross-functional teams connected with centralized information. Having a single source of truth means that anyone can view updates and stay in the know on projects at any time, ensuring people are not at a disadvantage working in siloed teams. Plus, having an integrated tech stack means updates are made in real-time so that you never miss a beat, no matter what time zones your colleagues are in or their cell coverage. 

For example, if you want to know the status of your latest commercial construction project, you can simply log into your software via single sign-on and see for yourself. Then, you can provide a link to the project and send it to stakeholders via your company’s messaging application like Teams or Slack. No more having to message the project manager, and wait (and wait) for a response. 

Better Collaboration 
An integrated tech stack will undoubtedly improve company-wide communication. Good communication is key, especially in construction. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry holds the highest number of fatal work-related injuries. Smooth collaboration isn’t just nice to have, it’s vital. 

Let’s say one of your projects has a last-minute modification to the schedule, and the subcontractors need to be updated immediately before they arrive on site the next day. Can you trust that your update will reach everyone in time?  

There are serious hazards if you have too many or too few people on the job. You want to ensure that all your mission-critical data, like blueprints, photos, notes, approvals, etc., is housed in one central place that is easily accessible.  

At hh2, we understand the necessity of good collaboration, which is why we provide a simple solution to integrating the tools you need and use most. 

Support Off-Site and Remote Teams 
If you have off-site and remote teams, an integrated tech stack is an important part of helping them feel connected and well-equipped to do their job as smoothly as possible. The pandemic amplified the amount of people who began working hybrid or remote, and it also uncovered the importance of being flexible and adaptable. One way to do this is to become a digital-first organization, keeping information updated and available for your employees to access anywhere, at any time. 

Slack, a popular messaging app used by many businesses around the world, defines digital-first as “creating an agile organization where technology and culture work together to improve processes, maximize efficiencies, and offer unparalleled customer experience.” 

We recognize that a total digital transformation is a big undertaking, but having an integrated tech stack is a great place to start when prioritizing your workers and giving them access to everything they need to be efficient and successful. This will also make them happier, increase productivity, and better support your teams that don’t all work and collaborate in a traditional office setting. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder 
When it comes to being productive and efficient, integrating your construction tech stack will help you and your team's work smarter, not harder. Before doing so, we recommend evaluating your current tech stack. Are your apps connected? If not, are you able to integrate them? Consider how much these solutions cost and if you are getting a satisfactory return on investment (ROI).  

In addition, if your company already uses several similar solutions, review them to identify overlaps and consolidate the tech stack to save money and improve visibility. Let’s say you are using two different project management software tools. Consider the cost, usability, whether it integrates seamlessly, and employee feedback when determining which tool is the best for your needs. Then consolidate to one software. Doing so will also reduce errors and minimize redundancy.  

Improve Visibility 
At hh2, we understand that life happens. Just because team members are on vacation, or stakeholders miss an important meeting due to being in different time zones, doesn’t mean those employees shouldn’t be informed of what’s going on with the status of a project.  

Construction projects have a lot of moving parts and people on the job site, including the finance team, suppliers, project owners, and more. Having an integrated tech stack will help give everyone visibility into which projects are currently in progress, what’s been completed, and which projects are coming down the pipeline. Creating one, single source of truth will help eliminate bottlenecks because everyone will have access to the tools and information that they need to do their jobs well.  

To do this, organizations need applications that are adaptable and transparent through every stage of the project from design to build. Keeping your people front and center when choosing software applications will ensure that they are better aligned, able to collaborate with ease, and more productive. 

Connect your field teams and the office with hh2’s iPaaS 
hh2’s iPaaS connects the most popular construction management tools, like Procore and Autodesk, with common construction ERPs, like Sage Intact, Sage 100 Contractor, and Sage 300 CRE. If you’re interested in unlocking the full power of your tech stack today, book a demo with us and we’ll show you how we can seamlessly integrate your tech stack to get the most out of what you already have.