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3 simple tips for your Civil Engineering business to get better control on your organisational processes

How technology can help improve efficiency and control

Civil engineering projects are often described as high-visibility public sector works and, by nature, they are large and complex. There are many moving parts in a project and having a real-time visibility and control are essential for successful project delivery, on time and within budget.

From estimating through planning and allocation of resources to ensuring quick exchange and simple analysis of data – by digitising your processes your business can work more efficiently so that you can meet your projected margins. But where do you start and what can be digitised? In this blog we will talk about 3 of the most important digital solutions from which your civil engineering business will benefit.

Tip 1. Utilise plant and equipment efficiently

It is essential to have total visibility over your plant and equipment – availability, costs, locations, bookings, billings, status and related resources so that you can ensure optimal utilisation. There are a number of solutions out there that can support you to manage your plant and equipment. When looking for the right partner, take a look at solutions with seamless integration to an end-to-end ERP solution allowing you to buy an asset, register it as plant, capture purchase costs, record depreciation and set up costs, record key data, safety information, barcodes and locations. Then use it in project, process plant requests, allocate it managing the on-hire and off-hire process and posting costs.

Tip 2. Stay on top of overall resource planning

How do you stay on top of your resource planning? Bringing together the materials, plant and people a project needs, and all at the right time is crucial for project success. Businesses often need to build a personalised, graphical presentation of resource plans that suits specific roles. This is now possible through digital tools and you can also view schedules based on progress, resources, dates, projects, tasks or clients. Furthermore, it is recommended that you go for a complete planning solution that fully integrates to or is part of your end-to-end ERP system so that you have visibility in real time and can make adjustments when necessary.

Would you like to know more about the possible financial benefits for your business when you digitise? Read all about it in the blog ‘How can you achieve better visibility and project control through technology’?

Tip 3. Get your estimating right before the start 

Estimating is crucial to creating an accurate budget, which in turn is used as a guide to rolling out the project. Inaccurate estimating based on assumptions and hasty conclusions or lack of overview often mean that you may not be able to achieve the margins you were hoping to. Adopting an ERP solution with a flexible and powerful estimating tool allows you to quickly gain insight into the real costs of a project. This means you will have the right quotation ready for a tender in no time.

Choose an integrated software solution

There are a few digital solutions out there that you can adopt to improve the efficiency and control of your civil engineering business. Would you like to know more about what other tools you could use to optimise your processes? Download the whitepaper “5 most common challenges in civil engineering projects and how to overcome them through technology”.

Download whitepaper

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About the author

Paul Broderick | Paul has developed a keen eye for seeing specific customer requirements and recommending solutions to deliver business benefits and returns-on-investment. In the last three years Paul has focused this experience and knowledge specifically on the Construction industry, where digitisation is now the hot topic in IT, which has evolved and matured to become most relevant in today’s construction industry.