Making Email Work Better for Construction Projects
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While technology and software has advanced dramatically over the past few years and more and more construction professionals are taking their work mobile, email is still a large part of contractors’ communication and collaboration process. The reliance on email isn’t just an internal issue. Many subcontractors, vendors, material providers, architects, owners and others involved with projects also still rely on email as a chief form of communication.
But think about your own email inbox for a moment. How many unread messages do you have? How much spam and unwanted messages must you filter through — even after the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted? How well do you archive the countless important messages you do have, and how easy is it for you to find a particular email, or a piece of data you know was emailed to you when you need it?
Viewpoint’s UK team realized this and began working with Mail Manager, a spin-off from Arup’s software business to provide enterprise-strength integration between our Viewpoint For Projects construction collaboration and management solution and the industry-dominant Microsoft Outlook application.
“Email is the key workhorse in just about every organisation but managing business-critical emails — particularly when working as part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-company project team — can be a challenge, for the individual, for their employer and for the project,” said Ben Wallbank, Viewpoint’s EMEA BIM strategy and partnerships manager.
Bringing Email into Project Collaboration
Viewpoint For Projects, a cloud-based document control and information management solution for construction projects, already provides some basic integration with Outlook. However, the Mail Manager integration significantly enhances users’ experiences. With the combined solution, users can apply sophisticated keyword searches based on the actual text inside email and attachments.
“Commercially sensitive project information is often left in email inboxes. Mail Manager is an Outlook add-in which utilises artificial Intelligence to help automate the filing and searching of emails. Our integration with Viewpoint means Contractors can have all of their information in one place,” said Mail Manager, CEO Stuart Rowe. “The Mail Manager search allows users to search 1 million emails in less than two seconds, saving on average 4 hours per person per week.”
Streamlining Collaboration and Communication
Integrating email into project management and collaboration software is just another way Viewpoint is simplifying processes for contractors. With powerful document collaboration software like Viewpoint Team, intuitive mobile field solutions like Viewpoint Field View and modeling collaboration software like BIM Manager, Viewpoint gives contractors a comprehensive suite of solutions for the entire organisation.
These solutions, in addition to providing critical visibility into and control over projects, transform how projects are typically done. By bringing everyone on the project team together and using the same set of data across integrated solutions, contractors can work better together — in real time — boosting productivity and profitability across the board.
For more information, connect with us and see how your organisation could benefit.
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