What Does 2021 Look Like for Project Businesses?

For many businesses, 2020 has been a year of trying to stay afloat and survive. But the fact is, if you aren’t looking ahead and planning for 2021, you’re already behind.

While digital solutions have emerged as game changers for many industries looking to improve their business processes, project-based companies have only started to embrace these new innovations. Previously, and unfortunately still today, project businesses adopted point solutions to address their basic needs one-at-a-time.

However, the challenge of integrating these point solutions became evident as it was time consuming and costly. Now, many companies are searching for integrated systems that more specifically meet their needs.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project industry is taking major strides moving toward integrated platforms to ensure the safety of their workers and increase productivity and profitability. According a McKinsey article about the next chapter in construction technology, this trend will continue to accelerate.

“We expect that the continuing COVID-19 pandemic will drive a net acceleration in the use of technology and the construction industry will continue its transformation from a highly complex, fragmented, and project-based industry to a more standardized, consolidated, and integrated one.”

Project Silos Lead to Inadequate Communication and Poor Performance

One of the main reasons why many stakeholders including project planners, project controllers, general account managers, procurement officers, etc., are unable to collaborate effectively is because they are operating in different tools and using different information. In this disjointed environment, how can any effective communication or project governance program be implemented?

These individual stakeholders have different versions of project information and operate within their own silos, making it difficult for them to collaborate and have a shared opinion of where the project is at.

Project businesses need a solution that has everyone working from one comprehensive, integrated platform. It’s about giving key stakeholders the tools and having them work from one source of truth. Of course, this not only ensures more effective communication and collaboration between key players, but ultimately ensures better outcomes for your projects.

The project industry has recognized the burden of having individual point solutions, and has started to shift their demands for integrated, all-in-one platforms.

“These investment trends, coupled with end users’ frustration with integrating the proverbial sea of point solutions, have driven a clear shift toward the development and launch of integrated platforms rather than point solutions,” according to the report.

How to Hit the Ground Running in 2021

Project businesses have non-standard business practices, making it difficult to use traditional ERP and project management solutions to manage their business processes. However, there’s a solution that standardizes processes and data to automate and accelerate production.

Project Business Automation (PBA) is an all-in-one business management solution for project-based companies now recognized by leading analysts. By integrating all the project functionality normally managed in multiple applications and tools inside one, end-to-end business system, project businesses can gain unprecedented automation and real-time insight into the status of their projects. Now executives and project managers don’t have to wait weeks or months to get reports, because everything is available in real time.

Adopting PBA is the only way to deliver more projects on time and within budget. There’s no other solution out there that gives you total control over your business and allows you to manage your projects proactively.

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