Project Business Automation: The Way Forward for Project-Based Companies

For many companies, working remotely and using new technologies has been a whole new experience. The fact is, while traditional industries such as retail and manufacturing have long embraced digitization, many other industries have remained stuck in their old ways, operating in a fragmented application landscape.

If there’s one good thing to come from this pandemic, it’s the fact that it has forced companies to venture outside familiar territory and search for solutions that give them more control and visibility into the status of their projects. While many companies have brought up the discussion of business changes and how to make processes more efficient, the sudden onset of the pandemic has definitely pushed them to take steps immediately.

A recent Building article discussed the recent digital transformation changes businesses have taken as a result of the pandemic.

“It made us appreciate that digital transformation is a wider concept than we had thought,” said Nick Cole, director of engineering consultant Robert Bird Group, in the article. “It goes beyond what we normally do as a core business. The past few months have made us more open-minded and think about it in a broader sense.”

Embracing Technology is the New Normal

Businesses that deliver projects to their customers or manage projects internally operate in a very fluid, high-risk environment that demands organizational agility. The more fluid your environment is, the more agile you have to be in order to react accordingly.

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According to Paul McNerny, director of UK building at Laing O’Rourke, when the pandemic hit, with many people working from home, the concern was how to ensure the connectivity across all teams remained effective.

Many companies used whatever digital capabilities already in place to manage their project business processes during the onset of the virus. However, for other companies, it was an opportunity to look at new technological innovations and solutions that might work in this new environment.

“Before the pandemic, there had been those who embraced technology readily and those who had said they’d do it tomorrow,” said Mark Beard, chair of Beard Construction, in the Building article. “It turned out that ‘tomorrow’ arrived very quickly. The so-called ‘laggards’ were often the ones who embraced it quickly.”

“Construction companies need to embrace construction ERP software and embrace new technology in order to move forward.”

One of the major challenges facing companies today is the lack of automation. This is a direct result of the fragmented application landscape they typically deploy to manage and operate their entire business. The lack of automation means someone needs to intervene and make that transition to integrate data from one point-solution to the next. The truth is that doesn’t happen, and what ends up happening is a significant reduction in the company’s ability to react to any issues that may arise. This goes back to the importance of having organizational agility.

Project Business Automation Enables Organizational Agility

Project businesses should be looking for a solution that provides the level of automation and visibility needed to be successful. If you’re depending on manual intervention, you’re putting the delivery of your projects at risk for being late and over budget.

Project Business Automation (PBA) is a new approach in solutions for companies who consider projects an important part of their business. It rejects the status quo of disparate, disconnected applications in favor or one comprehensive, integrated business system that automates data workflows and creates one source of truth for the entire company. Ultimately, this could save hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars per year. The only way to deliver more projects on time and within budget is to adopt a PBA solution that gives you complete control over your business and enables you to manage your projects proactively.

The article mentioned above said it perfectly, “That the industry will return to its old ways of doing business is now almost inconceivable, given so much has been learned about how things can be done more effectively.”

Download the Project Business Automation Blueprint to learn how PBA creates a streamlined, comprehensive system for project-based companies.