There are 25 million meetings per day in the U.S. They’re a necessary part of doing business. But let’s face it, they aren’t the most popular part of the workday. In fact, executives consider more than 67% of meetings to be failures. Much of this lack of success is due to poorly planned agendas, distractions from mobile devices, and information that isn’t clear. Another culprit; 92% of people admit to multitasking during meetings.

Whether you’re in the office or at the jobsite, you’re probably trying to do more with less. This puts extra pressure on meetings to be productive. Yet, managers often struggle to make meetings more inclusive and effective, and at the same time engage staff with increasingly shorter attention spans due to instant gratification afforded by technology.

More and more, companies are starting to see the value in ditching their whiteboards and replacing them with large, interactive touch-screen computers to elevate meetings and make them a collaborative process. These are dynamic, full feature touch-screens powered by an internal computer. They provide a place for creative collaboration as well as the instant gratification that tech savvy staff craves.

How SmartScreens made our meetings more productive

In fact, we use our own SKYSITE SmartScreens daily. With over 170 locations scattered across the states, as well as international locations, our challenge was how to connect our teams, keep interest during conference calls and elicit feedback to accelerate consensus.

One of our main benefits of SmartScreens is enhanced video conferencing. This allows our teams across the globe to connect with each other. More than a voice on a conference call, video conferencing allows teams to see each other in their work environment. This visual cannot be underestimated. When coworkers aren’t anonymous it allows teams to build connections, see reactions and get non-verbal feedback. This, in turn, fosters better and more productive teamwork. And, being on video keeps people honest and focused on the meeting, not multitasking on email or other projects.

We’ve also improved our meetings by collaborating directly on SmartScreens. Team members can walk right up to the screen and begin to make notes, add markups and draw with a simple touch. They can additionally show and point to exactly what they are talking about, allowing us to work collectively, in real-time, with our remote colleagues. If their work or information is on a tablet or phone, they can use screen mirroring to project on the SmartScreen. And everyone is invited to screen share their projects, even remote attendees. We connect, collaborate, share and save our work, even though we’re not in the same location. This effectively eliminates the time-consuming back and forth of email coordination or online documents that can fall prey to:

• Important documents or notes accidentally written over,
• Confusing document permissions,
• Collaboration and file sharing norms not clearly defined,
• File duplication and users unsure of which is the correct version.

Using SmartScreens in the AEC industry

SmartScreens aren’t just for the office, the AEC industry is increasingly finding them a more valuable tool. At the jobsite, they can be used to easily view plans and assignments during a daily huddle. Updated documents can be marked up and saved in full view of workers, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Additionally, a General Contractor can have a meeting, in the office or field, where the architect and owner are visible to review and markup plans. Once again, everyone has the same information and is in sync.

More tips for productive meetings

While we’ve seen greater productivity using SmartScreens, there are other steps you can take to ensure your meeting is effective and not a time waster. Here are our top tips for getting the most out of your meeting:

1. Always have a clear agenda.
2. Don’t be a slide reader or lecture, you’ll bore your listeners.
3. Encourage collaboration, questions and feedback.
4. Capture decisions, action items and next steps. Make sure everyone understands these.
5. Engage virtual attendees with questions, kudos or preassigned tasks.
6. Don’t give handouts, they distract people from the discussion.
7. Replace messy whiteboards with a SKYSITE SmartScreen.

Preparation and participation make or break a meeting’s success. By using technology and following these tips you can capture decisions, action items and next steps, ensuring everyone knows what’s expected next.

Check out our SmartScreen infographic for more information on meetings

As we wind down 2018, it’s fun to take a moment to catch our breath and look at what 2019 holds for us. Last year’s list of trends, focused on exciting advances in construction technology; robotics, drones, ioT, etc. While tech is still trending up, this year’s spotlight is on trends driven by people and the environment.

What we’re excited for in 2019

 Repurposing old buildings

While restoring old building isn’t new, there is a growing trend to take more care to repurpose historic and iconic buildings. Gone are the days when “old” buildings would be razed to make way for new, more modern buildings. Now, we’re seeing more exhaustive exploration and creativity being used to find ways to save the buildings, before tearing them down becomes an option.

The old standard operating procedure to demolish “outdated” buildings for new developments has been rethought for cultural (historic) and environmental impact, and now these beauties are being given new life, with impressive and marketable results. In California, there is even a new trend to give old motor lodges new life as boutique hotels.

Our current favorite example is the Spruce Goose hangar being turned into offices for Google. Even more impressive than the dramatic results, was the fact that salvaged materials were incorporated back into the design of the space and even used in the office furniture.

This trend caught our eye not only for sustainability and historic aspect of saving iconic buildings, but also for the creativity used to turn “everything old is new again.”

Women in Construction

More women entering traditionally male dominated fields is a timely trend, reinforced by the recent, historic election in which a record number of women were elected to congress. Women entering the construction industry has especially taken off in the last couple years. It’s not just more women filling jobs, now there is access to more educational programs and events to encourage participation, provide training and offer support. We’ve even seen an all-female crew prove there are no gender boundaries to construction.

This is an important trend to finally start to bridge the gender gap, and it may even impact the ongoing labor shortage. However, it’s still not without challenges. While perceptions are changing, women still face discrimination and harassment. But with special apprenticeship programs, networking and mentorships becoming more readily available, the door for women in construction has opened wider.

Lean Construction

Recently, we participated in the 20^th Annual Lean Construction Congress, held by the Lean Construction Institute (LCI). What struck us most was that attendees were there for education on how to improve their business; it was definitely not a boondoggle to Orlando for participants. This dedication to lean education emphasized the growing industry interest and commitment to implementing its practices.

Lean principles have been practiced in manufacturing since Toyota developed the approach after World War II. Yet, the construction industry has been slow to adopt the practice. According to the LCI, construction efficiency has decreased while all other (non-farm) labor efficiency has doubled.

But that is changing. Based on methodology of maximizing value while reducing waste of materials, time and effort, lean construction focuses on the whole process to remove waste and create continuous improvement. This leads to higher quality, lower cost projects. With rising material costs and the continuing labor shortage this trend to work more productivity while eliminating waste is right on time. Additionally, construction project management software, like SKYSITE, can be part of solution to implement lean principles.

Sustainable building becomes more attainable

Once the domain of companies with grand visions and deep pockets (like the Apple Park), constructing a sustainable building was often out of budgetary reach for many.

But that is beginning to change. According to the World Green Building Trends 2018 report 47% of those surveyed expect more than 60% of their projects to be green by 2021. What is causing the change? While there is still a perception that sustainable building materials and fixtures are more expensive, the costs have steadily been coming down due to increased demand, allowing sustainable products to be incorporate more and more into everyday design.

Other factors driving demand include increased corporate social responsibility, client demands, creating healthier buildings and, of course, environmental regulations. Green buildings also often have unique design features that not only provide beautiful aesthetics, but aim to improve the environment, making them attractive to tenants.

While obstacles to sustainable building still exist; including perceived costs, hassle to obtain certifications, and lack of incentives, the increases show “going green” continues to gain momentum.

What we’re over

Amazon HQ2

We admit, in the beginning, we bought into the hype surrounding the Amazon HQ2 search. But the search dragged on for 14-months as they sifted through 238 proposals from cities across North America. During the search, there was endless speculation of which cities could land the prestigious project, with predictions including Boston, Philadelphia and Nashville. A short list of 20 finalist cities was announced in January of 2018, yet the search continued until November.  Throughout the search, there were endless articles analyzing every move, eventually leading to media oversaturation. Interest waned and despite all the build-up, the final announcement seemed anti-climactic.

Even now, post HQ2 decision, the media attention analyzing every detail keeps on going and going. Rarely does a day go by that there isn’t at least one article in my newsfeed about the projects. This overexposure has landed it on top of our list.

Labor shortage

This is a serious issue, with 80% of 2,500 construction firms recently surveyed, reporting difficulty finding qualified labor.  We’re over this, not because we don’t take it seriously, we do. But, we’re optimistic that in 2019 some of the initiatives being implemented will begin to make a dent in the crisis. From training, to recruiting, to more women joining the industry, we hope 2019 will see more positive news for construction labor.

Extreme building

While these elements of new buildings, such as the newly opened Mahanakhon SkyWalk, may be exciting and offer a thrill at first, the novelty quickly wears off and they fade away. But what price are we paying for the novelty and quick thrill of glass slides, massive waterfalls, glass bottom, cantilevered pools, etc.? What danger were workers placed in when building? What resources are being wasted? These unique design features may have a “cool” factor, but what value do they actually provide? While edgy design will always have its place, we’re over designs that go way over the top to create a buzz.

It doesn’t seem like the pace of news stories about the labor shortage in the construction industry will be slowing down anytime soon. As the volume has ramped up, we’ve written about the labor shortage from the perspective of positive trends that have come out of it, as well as how to attract talented workers.

But what about keeping the valued workers you already employ? How do you keep your workforce from jumping to a competitor? With fierce competition, financial compensation isn’t enough to keep employees from looking for greener pastures, they also want opportunities to use their skills and abilities.

What this boils down to is job satisfaction and keeping your staff happy. Improving these factors has the additional benefit of increasing productivity. In fact, one study found that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees.

Keeping employees happy seems like an obvious, easy-to-implement initiative, yet too many companies focus on what they do, not who is doing the work. They may talk about increasing employee satisfaction, but they fail to “walk the walk.”

So, how do you increase employee happiness? We compiled our top seven ways to build happiness among your team:

Thank and recognize employees for doing good work

It’s important not to take workers for granted. A verbal thanks, kind note or email expressing appreciation for good work can go a long way. Recognition in front of peers for great work or a superior effort goes even further. As an added bonus, public acknowledgement will reveal to other employees what types of initiatives are most appreciated by company management.

Share the big picture with employees

Provide clear and frequent communication about company direction and happenings. Knowing the “big picture” makes employees more aware of how their work helps achieve company initiatives or specific project goals, and how their performance directly impacts the results. This drives satisfaction and prompts your staff to not only take pride in their work, but in the company as well.

Provide tools for success

People need to continue to develop professionally to remain engaged and productive. Making training opportunities available so employees can improve their skills also makes it possible for your company to grow from within and remain competitive.

Be open and available

Get out and get to know your employees. Listen to them and encourage them to share ideas and feedback. Because they are involved in projects on a day-to-day basis, they may see things that you miss. This can lead to a suggestion for a new process, tool or solution. By inviting input, you open the door to the possibility of incorporating creative solutions that improve how work gets done and increase the profitability of your company.

Create a career path

Employees will leave a job they believe is a dead-end in terms of career growth opportunities. By having career path planning discussions and providing opportunities for professional development and training you pave the way for employees to move up the corporate ladder. Not only does this increase job satisfaction and happiness, it allows your company to grow from within and remain competitive.

Develop your management skills

It’s no secret that bad managers make employees feel unmotivated and under-appreciated, leading to diminished performance. You can’t pay someone a lot of money, then treat them poorly, and expect them to do their jobs well. Invest in and work with your management team to ensure they have the leadership skills and knowledge to effectively engage with employees, inspire high levels of performance and treat employees with respect.

Stay up to date with the latest tools, technology and trends

Technology is changing how projects get done. To remain competitive, it’s important not to fall behind the curve. The benefits of using tech include efficiency, better time management and less errors. Currently, wearable tech, drones and construction document management software are being used extensively; but 3D printing, autonomous vehicles, and robotics are slowly making their way on to job sites. And, because of its “cool” factor, tech has the added benefit of helping you attract younger workers.

As the industry grapples with the labor shortage, remember, if someone is happy in their work, takes pride in doing it well, and feels valued, they are less likely to search for greener pastures and you retain valuable employees.

Being flexible is key in the construction industry. Each project is in a new location, the team is composed of new members, and you face unique challenges and requirements. You must be willing to try new things such as installing from 3D models, cutting-edge building techniques or progressive scheduling methods.

But not everything needs to change from project to project. Often times, one of the only constants between projects is the technology that you take with you. After all, learning a new construction technology is only one more thing to worry about.

To take a technology from one project to the next, it is critical that you pick a versatile solution. Implementing technology is supposed to make your life easier, so don’t choose a solution that will dictate your processes for you. An adaptable solution will leave you with the time to focus on the other more important project tasks.

One example of this is SKYSITE’s recently released custom indexing functionality. Upon uploading new drawings into SKYSITE, you can now easily select the location of the title block on your drawings. Just click on the document thumbnail, select whether you would like to crop by sheet number or sheet description, drag a rectangle around that area, and select “Apply”. It’s that quick and easy.

This allows SKYSITE’s advanced OCR (Optical character recognition) technology to more accurately extract critical drawing information such as sheet name, sheet description, and drawing discipline. You will even be able to select a different title block location for each drawing or select it once and apply it to the remainder of your set.

In addition, you can specify whether the text in the title block is running vertically or horizontally across the sheet. All of these enhancements provide your team with the flexibility to upload any kind of drawing into SKYSITE and still save time indexing your documents.

Let’s face it, all construction drawings are different, and each design team likes to add their own twist to the title block. Uploading, organizing and managing your plans is already a tedious process and automating the process through customizable OCR only improves your workflow. This will allow you to focus your attention on more critical processes with your documents, such as distributing them for constructability reviews or pushing out updates to your field team in real time, and worry less about indexing them.

A lot has been written in facilities publications lately about the importance of workspaces, how they are evolving and current trends. Peruse any FM website or magazine and you’re likely to read about how an improved workplace experience can increase employee satisfaction and productivity.

One evolving trend is the “open office” concept. These spaces, popular since the early 2000’s, were initially rolled out as a truly open office (no walls, dividers, etc.), where employees were encouraged to work from home if they needed privacy or quiet. While that concept is still being incorporated into today’s office design, the direction now is to bring all the talent back together under one roof. This change was brought about after employers realized face-to-face interaction leads to more creative collaboration and productivity. To accommodate everyone being together in an open workspace, the course has changed to include space for privacy and quiet.

In fact, SKYSITE is an example of successful implementation of this modified open workspace concept. We recently moved to a space that incorporates several of today’s trends for improving teamwork, comfort and productivity.

However, it wasn’t a straightforward project. Relocating offices and designing a space that works for everyone proved to be a complicated and challenging undertaking. Considering the needs of the company as a whole, divisions within, and specific individuals requires impeccable organization and attention to detail. Our move was even more complicated because we were combining two locations with different office cultures.

Segmented spaces weren’t efficient

Located in Silicon Valley, the previous spaces were both traditional, functional offices, however, very different. One facility had an unfriendly, segmented layout that discouraged casual interaction and team collaboration. Staff was located on two different sides of the floor, separated by a large space that included a demo room and conference room, creating separation and isolation. The poor layout of the facility hindered organic communication and the comradery of the full SKYSITE team.

The second location, also traditional, with offices, high-walled cubicles and a couple conference rooms, had long since run out of space. While this was due to the company’s growth and success over the last few years, employees were sharing small offices, which forced communication, but didn’t spark creative collaboration. Adding to the issue was a choppy layout that kept groups isolated from easy interaction with each other.

These factors, plus the approximately 50-mile distance between the two locations, made the decision to relocate easy.

The perfect location

Once the decision was made to combine and move offices, it was clear to our CEO, Suri Suriyakumar, that this would be an opportunity to not only bring two disparate offices together, but to create a environment that would facilitate progressive and collaborative work. Suri’s goal was to inspire creativity and synergy, while creating a comfortable, flexible and inspirational space.

Starting with the location, care was taken to choose a site where people would want to be. Every aspect of the location, building and property management was vetted. Our new location was chosen partly for being in the middle between the two-previous offices, but also for its conveniences and a relaxing park-like setting.

While the business park provides the standard amenities; meeting facilities, food trucks, security, it also provides several specialty amenities designed to reduce stress and improve comfort. These luxuries include friendly commuter programs, lakeside dining, healthy eating options, a bike share program, and even gas delivered to your car while you work.

Once the physical location was chosen, it was time to concentrate on the interior space.

Beginning with the question of how employee workspaces would be configured; by function, by previous location, by division, the team began to plan the new space. Meeting rooms, common areas and private phone rooms, as well as often overlooked areas such as storage, were also thought out and planned.

The floorplan falls into place

The space we selected had terrific natural light provided by large windows that outlined the floor. To make the best use of the exterior windows, it was decided all employee workspaces would be on the perimeter, while conference rooms, meeting areas, phone rooms, etc., were placed more to the center of the design. Our new HQ was beginning to materialize; the vision becoming a reality.

As the architect worked on the final phases of the space, the marketing team began the task of designing the environment to support Suri’s vision.  Envisioning the workspace as a complete experience, the team set out to meet the following requirements that the design:

1. align with our brand,
2. relate to our industry,
3. foster inspiration and productivity,
4. be visually appealing and energetic.

The results

What emerged is an open space that stimulates conversation, yet provides privacy when needed. From the moment you walk in, you understand that this is meant to be a collaborative, creative environment.

While the open floor plan didn’t appeal to many employees at first, the team hit a home run with workspaces that check all the right boxes. After much research into productive environments and feedback as to what staff needed, our workspaces turned out to be far from ordinary cubicles. The shorter height of the cube walls encourages easy conversation and provides lots of natural light while the soft sides dampen sound and still allow for privacy. The desk set-ups are ergonomic and feature motorized stand-up desks.

The staff was grouped by function, mixing the two offices to foster interaction. This better integrated complimentary groups (i.e. sales & marketing) for more effective collaboration and brainstorming. The executive team is also in open cubicles, providing easy access and interaction that has already proved beneficial.

The open floor plan extended to collaboration areas. Comfortable seating that can accommodate groups of two to ten are sprinkled around the space for easy conversations.   However, with so much openness, it was important to ensure plenty of private areas to be free from distractions during meetings and phone conversations. No fewer than 14 conference, meeting and phone rooms, with varying seating arrangements, are strategically placed so everyone has easy access to a private space when needed. To aid in brainstorming and collaboration, conference rooms are equipped with SKYSITE SmartScreens, state of the art call terminals, and full wall white boards.

More than just workspaces, the marketing team designed a space that tells a story. Viewing the entire space as an artist’s canvas, they incorporated imagery from our industry into every area. From naming and decorating conference rooms after notable buildings, to unique imagery representing construction workers, facility managers and other building industry professionals, to a building inspiration wall that depicts how we are influenced by structures and how they touch us. The story of our company, our industry and our team is everywhere.

Lastly, they made sure we were comfortable and could have some fun. An open kitchen and dining area and a smaller “café” area ensure there is room to congregate to talk about work or something else. A training area doubles as a video game den, and is currently our ping-pong tournament space.

We’re already benefitting

Change isn’t always easy, but by incorporating what’s meaningful in our work life, telling a story and providing room to laugh, we can now be included in the lexicon of successful office moves.

In the short time that we have been in our new office space, we already see the benefits. We collaborate face-to-face regularly now and have gotten to know each other far better than before. This has strengthened teams, built trusting relationships and increased team work. It has also provided the executive staff more opportunities to be involved, not only with projects, but with people.

The best part is we can look around and say, “this is by us, for us.”

This Labor Day, as we pay tribute to the contributions and achievements of all workers, it’s hard not to reflect on all that has recently been written lately about the current labor shortage in construction. According to the USG Corp. and Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index, 91% of large and small contractors experienced trouble recruiting skilled workers in the first quarter of this year and 90% are concerned about worker skill levels.

The labor shortage brings with it many negative side effects, notably driving up the cost of projects. Timelines are also getting pushed back and contractors are having difficulty completing projects due to lack of skilled labor. And, the effects are trickling down as contractors are now seeing shortages of electricians, carpenters and other subcontractors. The situation has even lead to to some subs not bidding on a job because they couldn’t guarantee enough labor for the project.

There’s even a dark side of the labor shortage with some unscrupulous companies cutting corners when hiring and overlooking skill requirements. To stay competitive, some employers have turned a blind eye to drug use and loosened drug testing policies. However, while these tactics may seemingly work in the short term, the lack of training and experience eventually puts workers in dangerous situations and increases injuries and liability.

Throughout the labor shortage, however, there has been an emergence of positive solutions. As we salute workers, let’s take time to look at some of the encouraging developments that have come out of the labor shortage.

Investing in women

While there is still a lot of work to be done to dispel the notion that the labor crisis can only be solved by attracting young men, noticeable strides have been made recently. Currently, only 9% of construction and trade labor is filled by women compared to 47% for all other industries. However, more and more companies are setting up programs to provide scholarships and train women in the trades. There has also been an increase in events and recruitment targeted toward women, with some even targeting girls in school, which could help make construction a more desirable career path.

Embracing the aging workforce

While it is still important to recruit a new workforce for construction, the value that older workers provide can not be overlooked. Especially in these testing times, when non-skilled candidates are the only option to hire, the benefits of retaining the aging workers are immense, starting with their institutional knowledge. Specifically, older employees are steady and reliable, highly-experienced and skilled, loyal, task-oriented, and willing to mentor younger employees. The plus for employers is, many in this group don’t plan to retire right-away, keeping them in the workforce. And savvy businesses are retaining their knowledge.

Realizing tech’s advantages

As technology, such as construction document management software, has slowly been adopted by the construction industry, there had always been an underlying fear that it would replace human jobs; for example the emergence of robotics. However, as drones, 3-D printing, robotics, autonomous vehicles and other technologies are slowly being used on job-sites, it has become clear that skilled operators are needed to manage these new technologies. So, while one task may be accomplished by tech, it still needs a skilled human operator to manage it. And, tech has the added “cool factor” advantage that may help attract the younger, more tech focused workforce.

Check out the infographic on how technology can ease the pain of labor shortage.

Timing is right for a career in the trades

With the labor shortage showing no signs of slowing down, now is the time for people interested in the trades. Because their skills are necessary, and there are fewer with those skills, there is now more appreciation for the trades. And, this translates into higher wages due to supply and demand. Currently the demand for skilled trades is high, and they can command a premium.  In addition, due to the small talent pool, many firms have increased salaries to retain talent and, with less internal competition, there is often a path to further your career.

The labor shortage is a frequent subject in industry reporting. However, through the pain, there has been some creative thinking and positive outcomes. As we celebrate Labor Day, let’s acknowledge these advancements and encourage more out-of-the-box solutions.

These days, facilities managers are constantly balancing doing more with fewer resources. However, with the growing acceptance of using mobile devices and apps to manage facility maintenance, the ability to meet higher expectations for productivity with shrinking staff and budgets can now be met.

In the last few years, using mobile devices for day-to-day activities in facilities has been gaining traction. This is due largely to the fact that, as a facility manager, you need to be able to effectively multitask on-the-fly to manage the growing workload, especially when out in the field. Using mobile devices with facility management software helps teams meet expectations and empowers them with the information they need in their pocket.

Here are 5 ways apps make your job easier:

Find information fast in emergencies

Easy access to critical information and documentation is essential to reducing silos in facility maintenance. And, the ability to find that information fast in an emergency is crucial. Imagine your office has flooded due to a burst pipe. Knowing where the pipe’s shut off valve is located is key to avoiding a catastrophe. With the information safe in an app, you can search and find the shut-off with a few taps, text the closest person, and crisis is averted. By not having to search for the document in a room full of paper, you saved not only time, but money that won’t have to go to repairs.

By keeping your critical facility information in a centralized document management solution, you have the power to instantly find information in all types of emergencies and keep damage to a minimum.

Increase productivity

One the biggest perks of going mobile is you can manage your facilities responsibilities and communicate with your team from anywhere on the campus or another location in real-time. Having the information at your fingertips saves you hours of searching through piles of documents or running across town or campus to find a certain document and gives you more time to complete your projects.

In addition, your team automatically stays in sync, meaning everyone is on the same page. Even if you work offline, your files will sync once you’re connected. With an app, you can view a doc from anywhere, mark it up, share and everyone’s up-to-date with what must be done.

Improve your tenant experience

Mobile facilities apps not only empower field personnel and technicians, they now allow tenants to put in repair requests directly in an app. This enables work tickets to reach facilities personnel faster. These maintenance requests can then be easily tracked by your tenants and closed upon issue resolution. Having a smart facility management solution in place, not only increases productivity of your facility personnel, so they can move on the next job, but also improves the tenant experience by getting quicker resolution to the issue. After all, a leaking pipe or a broken-down AC unit directly affects your tenant’s comfort and productivity. In addition, these apps can help you manage, schedule and budget for planned maintenance, eliminating problems before they become an issue for your tenant.

Control costs with IoT

It’s a daily challenge to maintain a balance between the comfort of tenants and the operating cost requirements of building owners. However, with IoT enabled devices you can easily track, locate and access assets such as HVAC, lighting, smart meters, security and alarms, smoke detectors, ventilators and more without needing to be physically present. It also gives you the big picture of how they are performing and working together. The IoT serves as a central network that not only provides data, but can alert you when a system isn’t operating properly and offers programmable or manual control over the assets, even allowing you to adjust on the fly, thereby improving the tenant experience and increasing efficiency.

Bank your knowledge base

There is a tendency among facilities staff to hoard critical building knowledge, often simply committing it to memory. When the FM retires, or moves on, management is often clueless to where their facility information is located. One of the more impactful ways FM apps can improve your ability to perform your job is to become a repository for “tribal knowledge.” Facility document management software gives you a secure, accessible repository to transfer this specialized knowledge to, ensuring critical information learned over the years remains with your building.

For most Facilities Managers time is a precious resource and you’re often pulled in several directions at once. By choosing the right facilities management app, you can more efficiently manage requests, save time and increase your productivity.

Did you miss our webcast, “Getting Started with Email Management for Project and Teams”? On August 1^st, the SKYSITE team provided insights into one of our recent additions: Email Management. This new feature addresses the countless times you’ve found yourself spending time searching for an email with important project details. Perhaps something regarding the budget or a timeline. For better or worse, email is the way most of us send information. The problem is easily finding it when you need it.

Why do you need email management? Consider the time spent reading and answering emails. According to a 2017 study done by Carleton University, while in the office, workers spend one-third of their time reading and answering emails. When working from home, that time increases to 50 percent. And, of those emails, 30 percent are neither urgent nor important.

That’s why SKYSITE added Email Management to its feature portfolio. Now, you can store, track, sync and search your team’s project email in one place, along with all the other project documents you need and use.

Working on a project demands a lot of communication and collaboration. With so many parties involved and different designers working on different pieces of a project, it can make keeping everyone in sync a challenge.

In the On-Demand webcast, which includes a demo, you’ll learn how email management creates a single source of truth for your projects, keeps project communications and information safe and secure, and provides mobile access even when you’re out in the field.

Length of video: 40 minutes

Recently, you may have seen our feedback request when you logged in to SKYSITE. We take your feedback seriously. In fact, some of our most popular features came from the feedback that you provide. In fact, our latest release, launched June 16^th, is comprised of three features that were requested from many of you.

Email Management*

Our first, big, new feature is Email Management. We heard from lots of you that have been looking for a way to track and archive all the emails associated with a project. We agree, having all the emails in one safe place will help keep your project on track, document project discussions, create better accountability, and reduce errors due to lost or miscommunications.

Email management allows you to have an email archive associated with each project. You can use our new Outlook add-in and setup a project specific email address (like myprojectname@skysiteprojects.com). It’s easy to do and all your synced email is archived and easily searchable.

You’ll have all the project email stored in a safe and organized place. Even better, it comes with powerful search and filtering options that allow you to find specific information in a snap.

 *Available with SKYSITE’s Enterprise package.

Print Cart

We’re all trying to use less paper, but sometimes you just really need a print. That’s why we made it super easy to order prints directly from SKYSITE to over 170 global locations. Are you in an office in San Francisco, but your project is in Ohio? No problem. Order from California and print and deliver in Ohio, or even Beijing, or London.

We’ve made our print cart intuitive, similar to other online shopping carts. All you have to do is select a file, add it to the print cart, and confirm your order. Instead of ordering one print at a time, you can add all the files you need to your cart, specify print and delivery instructions and checkout when you’re ready. You can even print documents from multiple projects in the same order. Our print locations are all over, and provide professional, wide and narrow format printing services for almost any kind of document, just in case you need a print.

Open Submittal Workflow

This upgrade is for SKYSITE Projects users. One comment we heard in feedback is that you’d like to use your own submittal workflow. Now, submittals have an open workflow where you can freely pass the submittal to unlimited reviewers, in any order, after creating your submittal package. Simply choose the first reviewer and the team can then pass it along until it’s been viewed by everyone that needs to see it. You can create submittals with a few clicks and keep everything in one place. Your submittals will be easy to send, find, approve and manage. Of course, we still have our convenient submittal templates if you prefer more structure.

We think you’ll really like these new and updated features. If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Success Team:

Email: cst@e-arc.com
Phone: +1 720-588-4132

In the meantime, keep the feedback coming!

In today’s sustainability focused world, many organizations are trying to go paperless. There are plenty of options for document management systems (DMS) that not only cut waste but also help streamline business processes. As progressive businesses embrace technology, spending time and money on paper documents is increasingly looked down upon. Not only is there the risk of losing physical copies or damage, but somebody must file and manage them. And, that involves hours of sorting files, organizing for storage, and arranging and paying for storage. Not to mention the hours it takes to retrieve a file or document once it’s in storage.

With the growing acceptance and prevalence of tech in most industries, it makes sense that having your files stored in a cloud DMS is better than having them scattered in a storage unit. Document archiving solutions have been around for a few years now, and they’re getting more advanced and affordable. However, many are limited in capabilities and end up being a simple repository for your documents, you can’t easily search and manage them. If you are looking for a solution that does more than just house documents: one with out-of-the-box functionality, it is important to know what features you’re getting. Not all DMS are the same.

Here are 5 things generic storage solutions don’t offer:

Advanced Information Capture

Don’t just store your documents, make them smart and work for you. A DMS with advanced optical character recognition (OCR) will greatly help you find information inside documents and allow you to view files without special software. Look for a solution that can even read wide-format documents, such as blueprints.

Powerful search to save you time

How long would it take you to find a paper document stored in a box offsite? It could a couple days just for the box to be retrieved. Even searching through file cabinets in your office is a tremendous waste of time. In fact, the average employee spends around 2 – 3 hours a day searching for necessary information, including docs. That’s a large chunk of productive time taken from their workday.

When evaluating a DMS, make sure it has powerful search that scans and reads not only file and folder names, but one that can search and read text, drawings, scans, and even PDF and popular Microsoft® Office docs inside and out. Also look for tools that support hyperlinks to make navigating large sets of documents even easier. Getting to the information you need faster will boost productivity and save time. For ultimate search, an ideal solution would also include the capability to custom tag documents to make search even faster and easier.

Document retention and timely destruction

Not only are there legal risks of keeping a document too long, there’s the burden of storage and administration cost for maintaining documents. In many standard DMS systems, you have no way to set a retention policy. To appropriately manage sensitive documents, look for software that allows you to setup an automated retention policy to facilitate appropriate destruction of documents and keep you legally compliant. Choosing a DMS with automated retention policies, ensures you won’t need to worry about reminders on your calendar or scheduled destruction being missed due to employee turnover or retirement. This also eliminates the need to spend hours getting documents out of a warehouse for review prior to destruction.

Scalability

Many DMS have storage limits. That can cause companies to store some documents in the cloud, but still retain others in file cabinets or warehouses to keep under the data storage limits. This half & half solution creates challenges of remembering what doc is stored where. Look for a solution that is flexible and allows you to scale and grow your storage account as your business grows. Don’t fall for a system that won’t allow you to store everything you need. In the end, keeping all your documents in one place will be more economical and a huge time saver.

Advanced security

Keeping your data safe in the cloud and protected from hackers is an important consideration when evaluating software. Always choose a platform that has demonstrated a concern for security. Features such as 2-Step Verification, complex password requirements, and Single Sign-on are a good start. Even better, look for companies that have had their security validated by 3^rd party organizations like ISO/IEC Certification. Take the time to research the security and the company. Don’t settle for a basic model with basic security, the safety of your data depends on it.

Today, storing your information in the cloud has become a safe, secure alternative, but, your storage platform shouldn’t be generic. Select a platform that provides piece of mind with solid security, powerful and customizable search, with OCR, and mobile access.