When it comes to general contractors and payment applications, “technology” and “collaboration” may not be the first words that come to mind. As the construction industry continues to innovate, we’ve found that technology solutions are doing more than just make certain processes easier. Below we highlight four ways we’ve seen innovative technology platforms influence team collaboration and overall success.
1. Single Source of Truth
Something that tends to slow teams down is when there is more than one version of a single document. We’ve all been there – you receive a spreadsheet and need to make edits, so you save a new version and make your changes. Once the spreadsheet passes through several hands, we now suddenly have 5 or 10 versions of the same document. At this point it’s impossible to tell which version is the “right” one. Not to mention the mess that occurs when you are emailing these documents back and forth, so they’re not being saved in a central location for easy access.
For Dome Construction, a large general contractor out of California, their manual process made it nearly impossible to determine a single source of truth. All of their subcontractors would email their applications for payment into one person, and then their project managers would have to get involved to try to make sense of each invoice. The web of communication was nearly impossible to track effectively.
This is where a platform like GCPay is so impactful for easy team collaboration. GCPay provides a collaborative location where the most up-to-date information is stored and available. All your contact and billing data is saved in a single place in GCPay and matches what you see in your ERP system. There is no need to make edits to a spreadsheet and re-upload, nor do you have to go digging for that exact lien waiver template. GCPay helped Dome Construction speed up their process time and data reliability.
2. Supply Chain Transparency
Clear, easy communication with your supply chain is paramount to running a successful business. And even if you have solid relationships and open lines of communication already set up, this is often a bottle neck that takes up valuable time and resources for your internal team. To preserve these internal resources, many GCs are relying on transparency rather than back-and-forth communication.
A construction technology platform should offer this transparency so that GCs can easily communicate with their supply chain without ever opening their email or picking up their phone.
One of the reasons Dome Construction adopted GCPay for their pay app processing is because of the transparency offered for their subcontractors. Subs who submit they AFPs can easily see feedback and assessments along the way without needing to get in contact with Dome’s AP team. With GCPay, companies like Dome can assess, approve, request information and more from within the platform.
3. Better Communication
Technology helps improve communication by easing some of the pressure your team may be experiencing. As deadlines loom and work piles up, it can be natural for team members to put their head down in an effort to get everything done. It can be dangerous for your team to work in isolation like this and can make them feel shut off from one another.
Tech is never meant to replace your team’s communication with one another, but it can help streamline their workflow. The Accounts Payable team at Dome Construction, for example, is thrilled that they never have to chase down an email thread to find the right contract information. Rather than relying on documents coming in via snail mail or fax machines, the information needed is all in one place on their GCPay portal. This serves as a single point of reference for teams when they do come together to collaborate.
4. Time saving
Last but certainly not least, we know running your business smoothly has a lot to do with saving time and resources whenever possible. Though it may seem daunting to incorporate new tech – especially at a time like this – doing so can have a massive impact on your team’s time.
The Dome Construction team is thrilled to be saving so much time for their accounting and project teams. “What used to take days now takes literally zero time because it’s already done in the platform,” their Billing Supervisor tells us. General contractors who switch to GCPay save an average of 50% of their accounting team’s time once they get up and running. Think of what your team could accomplish with that many additional labor hours!
We are excited to see many contractors adopting technology and making big strides in their collaboration as a result. We truly believe technology is the future of our industry. But, we also believe we are only as agile as our slowest process. Now more than ever, it’s important to consider leaving manual, paper-based processes in the past. If you’d like to read the Dome Construction case study in its entirety, click here.
