By Khalid Noor, 2020
The construction industry is an industry in which more technology is needed especially in the areas of fieldwork and cloud collaboration. A construction management project itself can be very heavily paper based in the management of that project. This makes it a lot harder than necessary in our age of technology to actually complete a project.
Construction software or more specifically construction management software is most simply a tool that utilised with the intended purpose of making the construction management process much smoother. It does this by bringing in all the relevant aspects of project management in building and construction into one platform where a manager and employees can collaborate.
These days there are more and more construction softwares coming into the market which signals there is an interest in these softwares. However, while being interested in these softwares one might be curious as to what is the cost? How much would a software like this actually cost?
There isn’t an exact answer to this, there are a range of construction software prices, however before talking about a construction management platform’s cost it is important to understand what is exactly contained within these platforms to be able to make a construction software’s cost a lot more clearer when discussed.
Many phases exist in construction management in the processes of completing a building or construction project. A plethora of planning and careful estimation can go into a project, especially a larger one. A good building software aims to streamline all the aspects in project management in an efficient way such as estimations, creating workflows, hazard and safety protocols, finance and accounting of the project, calendars and production schedules, and communication with team members. All these aspects are incorporated into the software in one place as tools to be used.
The first aspect of a construction management software to analyse is estimation. More specifically, estimation tools. This is an important part of the pre construction process. It is how contractors can submit a bid to the person they are seeking to win a project from. They must provide estimates of the cost that the builder will expect to incur for the construction of the project. Depending on the size of a company many different bids can be accepted and the right contractor can be chosen from that point.
A useful estimation tool is paramount to a construction software worth purchasing. It will enable builders and contractors to effectively estimate the cost of a project. It should be designed to streamline the process of creating cost estimates based on labour, materials and other factors in the project. On top of this create line-by-line estimates as well as quantity estimates of materials utilising pre-determined formulas and calculations in the process.
Quality and safety protocols is another interesting area sometimes included in building software. While not as common as an estimation tool in it’s inclusion in a software, explaining how this aspect may be included into a construction software will further help explain the more expensive side in the range construction software costs which will be explained later.
The quality and safety aspect of a building software will assess and manage as well as mitigate potential risks on construction sites. On top of this, constantly taking action to be aware of possible litigation issues in construction related to certain procedures that must be followed. Through extensive reporting it should aim to greatly reduce errors in a project’s design hence the mitigation of damage which if not spotted early enough will lead to major problems down the line.
Keeping track of defects, ensuring accountability and assigning responsibility to different people so issues are resolved and tracked are some of the things the quality and safety tools should aim to provide in a software. Creating comprehensive reports on project information that can be visualised and summarised effectively is also extremely useful and important to a project.
All of these aspects in quality and safety alone are rare to encounter in a construction software, hence it can only be inferred that this will affect a given construction software’s cost. However, it is something that will help a construction project stay on course and not get derailed.
Some other common tools to be encountered in construction software include workflows which aids construction management projects by standardisation processes. In a workflow who does what and when is detailed. Through the repeated use of construction software, these processes are repeated and hence can be standardised. This makes it a lot easier for the project management to spend less time delegating and more time on other tasks. Secure cloud file storage and uploads is another important aspect of construction software. A lot of documents are utilised in the construction process and having them digitised and able to be shared securely over the cloud with others can greatly increase collaboration.
Finally, the discussion of the different construction software prices. Having gained an understanding in the different aspects of a construction software and what aspects are common such as estimation tools and which ones like quality and safety protocols are not as common, and other varying aspects, a construction management tool’s costs can be explained.
So what is a construction software’s cost? It can range depending on the software. A construction management platform’s cost on the lower end of the range providing some basic project management tools such as estimation and planning will be roughly $50/month. This is to be expected of this price. However, a construction management tool’s cost on the higher end can be upto $800-$900/month for a select few users on the platform for a building software that includes everything in high quality. In fact the construction software price can become more expensive than this on the high end of the range for a given building software especially due to the fact that at this range the software is intended to work with large companies that can afford such large prices. The middle range of prices will range in the $100 to $300 range for a more complete software that can compete with the higher priced exclusive software’s inequality while providing a more affordable price.
A good construction software makes use of good project management functionality, estimate and financial/accounting tool functionality, job management, scheduling and planning and support functionalities and more. WunderBuild is a construction management software that aims to provide all of these functionalities and more to bring out the best outcomes for a project.
It is currently offering a free trial, visit here to try WunderBuild for free
