Using a purpose-made solution to upload, share, and revise construction project documentation is vital for project success, says Trimble Viewpoint
It’s not uncommon for contractors and owners to use document-sharing systems that come free with an existing piece of software or can be downloaded – many of these systems are popular across various business types. They can be valuable tools for enterprise-level document storage, sharing, and version control within a team, but they have limitations for collaboration among wider project team members.
Let’s look at the differences and similarities between generic documentation management systems and Viewpoint For Projects (VFP) and highlight how a solution designed for contractors helps to manage, organise, and share documents, drawings, and data more collaboratively.
About Viewpoint For Projects
Trimble Viewpoint’s Viewpoint For Projects is a common data environment designed specifically for the construction industry. It is a cloud-based solution accessed via a web browser. Viewpoint For Projects combines construction documentation management with powerful workflows, permissions and revision tools—meaning each project member sees the latest versions of relevant documents and eliminates the noise.
Benefits
- Streamlined documentation management
- A single source of construction data truth
- Easy-to-use interface to manage complex construction workflows
- ISO19650 metadata and classification
- Custom field
- Leading-edge data security protections
Construction project documentation and management capabilities
A single construction project can contain hundreds, sometimes thousands, of files. Keeping everyone on the latest version of each file, as well as limiting access to certain project areas, can be tricky. This is often a challenge with systems not purpose-built for the unique construction requirements. Viewpoint For Projects is preconfigured to how construction works—which means your IT team doesn’t have to build the costly infrastructure.
Ease of use and administration
To get the most out of any solution, onboarding must be simple, the system must be easy to maintain, and ongoing support should be available from the solution provider. Business and personnel changes can often mean a change in how the system is working, but this shouldn’t be a hefty infrastructure cost. Choosing to have the system hosted by Trimble Viewpoint saves all the hassle, and your customer success manager will regularly meet with you to ensure the system is working just how you’d like.
Security measures
Contractors must track and retain more information than ever, which must be available years after projects finish. Paired with recent upticks of data security breaches, ensuring data security is vital. That’s why we take protecting your construction data seriously and consistently earn top certifications from many bodies, including G-Cloud and Cyber Essentials, to ensure your data—and your business—is secure.
Document management versus a common data environment
Whilst generic document management platforms can be comprehensive file-sharing systems, they lack the industry knowledge and preconfigured structure for construction projects. You might feel that your current system isn’t quite good enough, but it’s a cheap system and will do for now.
But think: one costly mistake from working from a document that may be outdated makes a purpose-built common data environment like Viewpoint For Projects worth it.
Your next project deserves a solution specifically designed for the job. To find out more, get in touch with a member of the Viewpoint team at uksales@viewpoint.com
