A Look at the Top Blogs of 2019

Back in early 2018, we saw an opportunity to leverage what was then our Viewpoint Surveyor blog and turn it into a vehicle to deliver significant construction thought leadership and technology best practices content to the industry at large. We saw an immediate impact, as readership of this blog space grew dramatically and our readers began telling us how much they enjoyed the blog topics we were producing.

This year, we revamped the blog again, making it easier to read and navigate, bringing into viewpoint.com as part of our site navigation and renaming it the Viewpoint Construction Technology Blog. Again the results were well-received as readership has continued to grow. This blog has also received some nice accolades, being recognized by industry associations and publications as one of the top industry blogs to read.

As a company well-invested in both our clients’ and the construction industry’s success, we’re proud that we can provide a regular cadence of worthwhile news, information, best practices, perspectives from industry leaders and clients, and even some tongue-in-cheek, entertaining reads. We’re excited to bring you even more valuable insights into industry topics in 2020. As we get ready to turn the calendar to a new year — and decade, we wanted to share with you a recap of our 10 most popular blogs of 2019.

Safety has become one of the most vital issues in construction, and especially in the wake of the past few years where high-profile accidents and safety incidents across the globe have put construction safety practices under the microscope. So, when safety leaders like Encore Electric (a Viewpoint client that netted 2019 honors from the AGC and Willis Towers Watson as the safest contractor in America) speak, folks listen. In this blog, Winning with Safety, Encore VP Marlin Linder and Director of Health and Safety Jack Cain shared their company’s safety strategies and their own perspective on what it means to have a culture of safety.

As the construction industry continues to modernize, more and more contractors are moving their operations and business management to the cloud. Like most businesses across the globe are finding, the cloud is transforming how we live and work. In construction that means having real-time access to data, lower IT footprints and headaches, streamlined work and productivity and much more. This blog — One Dozen Reasons Contractors are Moving to Cloud-Based Construction Software — gives readers a full rundown of the benefits.

Data breaches and cyber attacks are becoming a common occurrence that every company has to deal with at some point (no matter if you’re in the cloud or on premise). So, it’s important to stay on top of best practices and strategies to keep your company’s data and ability to work safe. In this blog — Why It’s Critical to Have a Sound Cybersecurity Strategy — we broke down those best practices from an industry expert, including some of the key threats to look for and steps your company can take to provide greater cybersecurity across the organization.

Earlier this year, Viewpoint teamed up with Dodge Data & Analytics to conduct an extensive industry survey and report on how the construction industry collects, stores, analyzes and utilizes the data produced on projects. The resulting report, “Improving Performance with Project Data” became one of the industry’s most-read reports in 2019. This blog — The Impact of Technology on Construction Data — was posted as the report was released and highlights some of the key findings of the study.

As business technologies grow across all industries and younger, more data-informed professionals enter the construction workspace, contractors are diving deeper into their data by deploying business intelligence solutions in construction that fuel real-time analytics. This blog — The Rise of Business Intelligence in Construction — looks at this new data transformation, and how contractors are reaping the benefits.

Originally published as a live blog during Viewpoint’s 2019 Collaborate Conference, this blog has now turned into our 2019 Collaborate Conference in Review. See a quick video recap of the show, along with highlights from keynote presentations, in-depth looks at many of Collaborate’s breakout and panel sessions on a variety of industry topics, client and attendee awards, networking fun and much more. If you’ve never been to Collaborate, check out what you’ve been missing!

Proving again that data in construction is a hot topic, this blog — The Construction Industry is Poised for a Data Transformation — was another one of our most popular this year. This blog looked a little deeper at some of the stats in the aforementioned Dodge Data & Analytics/Viewpoint report, Improving Performance with Project Data to spot noteworthy construction data trends and where technology is playing a larger role. This blog also highlights the new Viewpoint Analytics solution, a new data platform providing self-service reporting and predictive analytical capabilities to contractors.

Arguably the biggest issue the construction industry is facing today is the lack of skilled labor. Contractors are having to adapt their approach to recruiting, as younger generations are not as quick to jump to construction career paths. This blog — 5 Ways to Help Your Organization Overcome the Construction Labor Shortage — breaks down five key tips that leading contractors are using to bridge the qualified labor gap.

From weather to labor issues to miscommunications and beyond, there are a multitude of reasons for costly delays on construction projects. In this blog — What Causes Project Delays? — we looked at six common culprits for project delays, why they happen and how technology is helping solve these challenges.

And now for our most popular blog! Cue the music … no, seriously, this is about music. Originally dating back to a 2017 idea, we were inspired musically and decided to pass that inspiration along to our readers, with this fun little post about songs with construction-related themes: 20 Songs about Construction. We posted a similar blog in 2018 as well and of course, it spurred significant debate over which song was everyone’s favorite. We were inundated with comments and emails. This year, we revised the list with some of our favorites and a definitive list of our clients’ and readers’ picks!

We want to say a special thanks to readers like you for making the Viewpoint Construction Technology Blog a rousing success in 2019. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to subscribe to stay on top of the latest trends and industry news in 2020 and beyond. Or, visit viewpoint.com to learn how leading-edge technologies can help grow your construction operations.