Those familiar with the construction submittal process know that it can be a slow, arduous process. Approvals can sometimes take weeks, even months depending on the content, quality, and accuracy of the submittal package. So how do you speed up such a critical aspect of every construction project? We have 6 tips & tricks to help you gain quicker approvals and get your materials on site sooner.

1. Kickoff your project with a specification review

Designers often use a standardized set of specifications that they take with them from one project to the next rather than investing numerous hours creating new specifications. As a result, there are often requirements that don’t apply to your specific project. We suggest scheduling a review of the specifications with the design team and owner’s rep to review the project’s submittal requirements. Bring your submittal log with you, and you’ll be surprised to see how many submittal packages aren’t needed.

2. Hold a “Quality Meeting” with your subcontractors

Establishing expectations is critical to managing subcontractors, especially any that you haven’t worked with before. By scheduling a one-time quality meeting with each of your subcontractors, you can clearly communicate the process, quality, and formatting that you expect for your project’s submittals. After all, each contractor assembles submittals in their own way and standardizing this process will save you and the design team review time.

3. If you receive partial approvals, resubmit the entire package

As construction schedules continue to get condensed, the need for quicker submittal approvals increases. This is why partial submittal approvals are becoming more and more common. The next time you come across a partial approval, we suggest resubmitting the entire submittal package and indicating which portion of that submittal has already been approved. You can do this by indicating the approved pages in the transmittal, table of contents, or make a note on each approved page. Allowing the reviewer to observe the entire submittal package will give them the whole picture, not a piecemealed one.

4. Establish a weekly Submittal review with the design team

Reviewing RFI and submittal logs in your OAC meetings is great, but it doesn’t allow you to discuss the documents in detail. By establishing a weekly RFI/Submittal review with the design team, you’re devoting time to review these documents together, which will result in faster approvals. The review is where questions can be asked and answered instantaneously and get validation that everyone has looked at the submittal package. One key note is to make sure that during this meeting everyone is devoting their time specifically to reviewing and discussing these documents, not answering emails!

5. Invest your time on the front end

We wanted to leave you with one age-old recommendation. The more time you spend reviewing the first round of submittals, the less work you will have later on. Everyone knows it, but sometimes with our time crunched schedules we don’t perform as an in-depth review as we should. This only causes more trouble later on, and leads to several rounds of resubmittals which ultimately delay approvals. Set aside some time to review the submittal package with your subcontractor before submitting to the design team, and not only will you better understand what is being submitted, but you will probably catch some errors too!

6. Use technology

Of course our biggest tip is to use SKYSITE’s electronic submittal tool. You’ll speed up the approval process and eliminate the need for analog stamps, cover and transmittal pages, and 3^rd party software. Find out more about saving time and improving workflow with SKYSITE submittals here.

Throughout the ages, there have been numerous architectural marvels and wonders. From the Sydney Opera House to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, architecture has intrigued and enthralled us. But, for every masterpiece, there is an epic fail.

The most famous example of architecture gone bad is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Beloved by tourists, this bell tower has been tilting since construction began. Not counting this obvious example, we dive into five of our favorite failures, and a couple honorable mentions, to see if they could have been saved.

John Hancock Tower

The tallest building in Boston, the John Hancock Tower, acts as a navigational landmark for many. This 60-story building was completed in 1976 and was the winner of the prestigious National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1977. However, the building has a dubious past.

The Embarrassing Failure:

This building makes our list for it’s glass window panes falling out and crashing onto the pavement below. In January 1973 over 60 windows fell due to a windstorm. This led to all the windows being replaced by plywood, a very unattractive look to Bostonians who often joked about the building calling it the “Plywood Palace.” Eventually, all 10,000 windows were replaced at a cost of $5 million.

The building’s troubles didn’t end there. Skyscrapers are meant to sway to absorb strong gusts of wind, though the sway is not detectable by the building’s residents. The Hancock, however, swayed so dramatically that it gave the occupants of its upper floors motion sickness. The issue was eventually fixed much to the relief of the workers.

Honorable mention in the Glass Falling Category: CNA Center, Chicago. This building make HM not only because it also had large glass windows falling, but mostly because it is painted bright red.

 The Lotus Riverside

The Lotus Riverside is a complex of 11 apartment buildings in Shanghai. In June 2009, with half of the units already sold, workers arrived to work one morning to find one of the buildings had fallen flat on its side. What remains most intriguing fact is that it remained mostly intact.

The Embarrassing Failure:

Unfortunately, there was one fatality. However, when it collapsed, the building just missed falling onto an adjacent building, which would have created a devastating domino effect. Pressure to meet deadlines and errors in construction procedures, most notably the excavation for an underground parking garage, led to the project’s demise. Eventually, six officials of the real estate firm responsible were found guilty of numerous charges related to the collapse.

Ray and Maria Stata Center, MIT

This building, which houses MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Labs, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy and the Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems, opened to much fanfare in 2004. Designed by an award winning architect Frank Gehry, it received acclaim for its daring design of random curves and angles, and was said to defy the laws of physics.

The Embarrassing Failure:

Three years after it opened, the honeymoon was over. MIT filed a negligence suit claiming design flaws had major structural issues leading to leaks, cracks, drainage backups, mold and even dangerous icicles in the winter. Eventually, MIT spent more than $1.5 million on repairs.

Tropicana Field

The home of the MLB Tampa Bay Rays, located in St. Petersburg, Florida, is currently not only the last non-retractable domed stadium in Major League Baseball, but also considered small and bland. But what puts this on our list is the building’s ability to affect the game. To be specific, the unfortunate catwalks get in the way of balls..

The Embarrassing Failure:

Considering the fact that the venue was built to house a MLB team, including catwalks that hang directly over the outfield in the design is astonishing. Given that it’s baseball, one would think it’s important not to place obstacles in potential ball trajectories the obstruction has created interesting ground rules and affected the outcome of several games. Adding insult to injury is the rare occasion where a ball hits a light bulb, and glass rains down on the field. With all these issues, it’s no wonder The Trop landed in last place in the countdown of major league parks by USA Today in 2013.

Walkie Talkie Centre, London

An award winning skyscraper, 20 Fenchurch Street in the center of London, is also known as “Walkie Talkie Centre” due to its concave design. This 34-story building is the 6^th tallest building in London, however, since it’s design phase, it has faced controversy. In addition to concerns from heritage group (regarding the modern design), creating a slight wind tunnel effect and criticism of the sky garden, this one makes our list from the windows acting like a mirror and focusing sunlight onto local streets.

 The Embarrassing Failure:

The problem was so bad, it led to temperatures reaching up to 196° F, damaging cars and leading to scorched door mats of nearby buildings. One local newspaper even tested the old cliché to see if it heated the ground hot enough to fry an egg (it did). It’s no wonder that in 2015 it was awarded the Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building in the UK.

Honorable mention in the Overheated Reflector Category: the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, which had the same sunlight reflection issue that employees dubbed “Vdara Death Ray.” Not surprisingly it was designed by the same architect.

What could have saved these failures?

In hindsight, all these failures could have been prevented with proper design and planning, following construction techniques, specified materials reviewed and establishing open communication channels. While some have unique circumstances, like the corruption surrounding the Lotus Riverside, the other epic failures seem to fall into three categories: design (Tropicana Field), engineering (John Hancock Tower) and communication.

In the case of communication issues, both the Walkie Talkie Centre and Stata Center at MIT suffered from poor communication. In the case of the Walkie Talkie Centre, the architect has said that sun-louvres had been intended to prevent this problem, however, they were removed at some point during the planning process without discussion.

As for the Stata Center in MIT, despite its flaws, flaws in the design could have been corrected during construction with proper communication. The construction company claimed they had warned the architect of the design issues on numerous occasions. However, they were told to proceed with the original designs. Had there been open communication and collaboration, this failure could have been averted.

Could today’s technology have saved these epic architectural failures? Not all of them, given some of the circumstances (corruption, egos). However, in the cases of the Walkie Talkie and Stata Center, using construction project management software providing clearer communication, accountability and documents that are always up-to-date could have made a difference.

2017 was full of industry headlines touting the worker shortage, cities citing building booms, technology advancements and innovations that only a few years ago would seem the stuff of sci-fi movies (think exoskeletons). But, looking past the news cycle, how did the average construction worker fare?

Despite the worker shortage and innovative buildings and campus opening, wages for construction workers have begun to level off. According to research conducted by PAS, while they are expected to see an increase of 3.4%, it is still a sliver shy of the 3.6% seen in 2016.

However, this modest increase was not spread equally among all positions. For example positions such as superintendents, project engineers, project managers and specialized positions saw notable increases while other positions (such as clerical, admin, support) remained stagnant and saw little movement in compensation.

In addition, increases amongst the groups that saw higher raises were not equal across the board, with specialized positions (risk managers, safety directors) receiving a larger slice of pie than superintendents and senior managers.

What does this mean for 2018? As construction wages continue to level off and possibly languish, companies will still face the issue of filling positions during a worker shortage and combating the aging workforce that is looking towards retirement.

Constructions firms will need to get creative to meet these challenges and take steps to attract the right skilled talent by offering a total reward package. To be competitive, project management companies in construction industry will need to implement a well thought-out compensation plan to attract, retain and motivate key talent. These days, job seekers are looking past just monetary compensation and are looking for a complete package that offers:

1. Total compensation
2. Benefits
3. Work-life balance
4. Flexible working schedule
5. Training, career and personal growth opportunities

Not surprisingly, look for millennials to exert influence and drive these changes. Their push for flextime and cross training, along with better work-life balance, will likely continue to ripple through out the industry.

Apple Park, or the Spaceship, as Apple’s new headquarters in Cupertino, CA is commonly referred to, recently opened to much fanfare. Much has been written, good and bad, about Steve Job’s last passion project. Every detail of the flashy $5 billion project has been thought of, down to the custom-built door handles.

So, it’s no surprise that the campus has been designed to be uncommonly environmentally friendly. In fact, CEO Tim Cook boasts that it could be the “greenest building in the world.”

From the beginning, Steve Job’s dream campus, was built to reflect Apple’s values, both for technology and the environment. The project has converted a sea of asphalt into a 175-acre campus powered by 100% renewable energy with most of the power for the facilities coming from an on-site low carbon central plant. The building also features one of the largest solar installations in the world, nearly every inch of the roof will generate electricity.

But that’s just the beginning of the green initiatives for Apple Park, these are just some of the measures being implemented:

• The Spaceship is the world’s largest naturally ventilated building and won’t require heating or AC for nine months of the year.
• It contains about 4,300 hollow concrete slabs which helps the building stay cool (according to Popular Science).
• 7,000 trees will be planted around the campus, with fruits and vegetables from some of trees and plants being served in the employee cafeteria.
• The landscaping, with the help a leading arborist from Stanford University, will restore some of the indigenous plant life.
• 1,000 bikes will be kept on the site and available to staff to get around the campus.
• Ride sharing will be encouraged as there are thousands fewer (by design) parking spots than the 12,000 employees that will work their daily.
• Recycled water will be used, with 13,300 ft. of pipeline to share the supply with the City of Cupertino.

However, despite its environmentally friendly build, the campus missed an opportunity to be part of the surrounding community and create a pedestrian environment that would allow people not to drive. By choosing the site in Cupertino, a suburb, it obligated most of its employees to drive to work alone. This contrasts with Google, who plans to build a campus in a downtown San Jose, CA, neighborhood that is adjacent to the train and will have plenty of living spaces within walking distance. Can a campus truly be considered green if it is not part of neighborhood and if it forces its employees to drive to work?

There is also the matter of the $5 billion price tag. Despite aiming to be self-sufficient and earth-friendly, Apple’s exacting demands when it comes to design ensured the materials used in the construction were without a doubt top of the line. Given Apple Park’s price tag, are these efforts reasonable for the average company? According to a study by Structure Tone “cost is overwhelmingly still seen as the number one barrier to adopting truly sustainable building practices.”

Despite some negative critique, this green initiative is truly impressive and shows that Apple is not only a pioneer in tech, but is an innovator in sustainable buildings and environments that promote employee wellness (did we mention the 100,000-sq. ft. fitness center).

Now, if only they would complete their green process and go paperless with SKYSITE for their construction, facilities and archival document management . . .

Your team works hard throughout the year. They battle job site hazards as well as the elements. So, at this time of year, don’t they deserve something more than a gift card?

If you’re still looking for the perfect gift for your team, check out our top 8 ideas that are not only cool, but useful on the job site. And, maybe you’ll even find something for yourself.

Touch Screen gloves

The classic winter dilemma: how to keep your hands warm and still use your mobile device? It may be chilly, but you still need to use your construction project management software and text your team, tasks you can’t accomplish with regular gloves. Save your coworker from frosted fingers with these touchscreen gloves.

Tough Wireless Speakers

Does your team listen to the game or music? Make sure they have a speaker designed to stand up to the elements. Our choice is waterproof, shockproof, and snow-proof and it’s has a long life to make sure you don’t miss a play or song.

Vehicle Floorliners

Let’s face it, the job site is all dirt and dust that can get everywhere. And, your team probably doesn’t want to be tracking that back home. Give them something to protect their car floors from the dirt and grim on the job. Try heavy duty floorliners to protect the front, back and even up the sides of a vehicle’s foot well and channel mud, water, dirt, etc. away from shoes.

Yeti Hopper Flip 8

After using Yeti coolers at a tailgate, we decided this softcooler is perfect for bringing food to work. This tough, yet lightweight, cooler will keep food and drinks cold while out in the field.

Mobile Device Chargers

Your team is on the go and using their mobile devices more than ever. Make sure you can keep in contact with them by keeping their mobile charged and ready. We have 3 options to fit everyone on your team.

•  For those driving from site to site: we recommend a Dual USB Car Charger that can charge both their phone and tablet at the same time.
• For those in the field: we recommend a phone case with built in battery to provide extra life.
• For those who find themselves in the trailer or office for a few minutes: we recommend a wireless phone charger that you can set on a desk or table for quick charging.

Heavy-Duty Smartphone Case

 We’re not saying your team is clumsy but protecting devices on the job site is just smart. If you’re relying on your team communicating and reviewing the latest set on a construction document management software you need to make sure nothing happens to that phone. Protect your team’s phones with these heavy duty cases.

Mini Drone

This gift probably has the biggest cool factor. Who wouldn’t want their own mini drone? This smart little guy lifts directly from your hand and can track moving objects as well as take videos and selfies with hand gestures.

The Ultimate Tool Kit

For the consummate fixer in your group, the two wonder tools they need to fix anything are nicely packaged together ready to take on any project.

Happy Shopping!

All items listed are the opinion of SKYSITE staff and meant for entertainment.

2017 wasn’t just a busy year for construction, it saw new innovations and technologies adopted and employed at fever pitch. Because of that, we saw innovative and sustainable facilities unlike anything we’ve seen before. We saw new methods of construction such as 3D printing and modular construction streamline processes. And, we got a peak at what autonomous equipment can do; showing what once seemed like the distant future is here.

To wind up the year, taking all of these factors into consideration, we came up with our four favorite buildings of 2017 that are examples of not only innovation, but the future of architecture.

Apple Park

Our first pick is Apple Park, the flashy new HQ of Apple, is known for being one of the “greenest buildings in the world” (according to Tim Cook), but its unique design is what puts it on our list.

“Apple Park has been built to reflect Apple’s values for both technology and the environment,” CEO Tim Cook said at a September 12 event. “It connects extraordinarily advanced buildings with a rolling park land to form an open and inspiring environment for our teams to create and collaborate.”

Six years in the making, every detail of the flashy $5 billion project has been thought of, down to the custom-built door handles. It was Steve Jobs’ passion project and he wanted no seam, gap, or paintbrush stroke visible for a clean fit and finish.

The doughnut shaped campus consists of 8 buildings, separated by 9 mini-atria, and uses only curved glass for its walls, providing views of the inner courtyard or to the landscape facing the exterior of the building. Besides the photographic four-story, primary circular building, that provides open, collaborative workspaces for employees, there’s an underground auditorium for hosting events, a fitness center, a cafe, and a visitor’s center.

And, because it’s located in Cupertino, California, should things start shaking due to an earthquake, the main building’s steel base will allow it to move nearly five feet and still keep the lights on.

So perfect is the design that it’s rumored the doorways have perfectly flat thresholds because, “if engineers had to adjust their gait when entering the building, they risked distraction from their work.”

Ping An Finance Center

Next on the list is the Ping An Finance Center, officially the second tallest building in China and the 4th tallest building in the world. Located in Shenzhen’s prominent Futian District the skyscraper, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates (KPF), the center features 100 office floors above a retail and conference podium.

This unique building encompasses a central atrium. Allowing daylight in, and creates a welcoming space for meeting, shopping, dining and transit options.

While the interior was designed for a welcoming atmosphere, the exterior was designed not only to create a stunning visual aesthetic, but to protect from Shenzhen’s salty coastal atmosphere. The façade’s stainless steel exterior is built from 1,700 tons of 316L stainless steel, which makes it the largest stainless steel facade system in the world and ensures it will keep its sheen for decades.

At the top of the building, the facade tapers to form a pyramid, which was designed not only for aesthetics, but for improved structural and wind performance. 

Mercedes Benz Stadium

What lands this building on our list isn’t the state-of-the-art, 63,800-square-foot, halo-shaped screen that’s the largest video board in U.S. sports. While the screen is impressive, it’s the eight-panel, retractable roof that resembles a pinwheel, and the glass wall that opens with the roof to let in fresh air, that make this a notable accomplishment.

The circular opening of the roof was inspired by the Roman Pantheon and each piece weights 500 tons. It takes about nine to 12 minutes to open or close and gives the optical illusion of a camera aperture, even though the panels are rolling straight along an inner rail from their open to closed positions.

Less flashy, but still impressive is the fact that the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the first LEED Platinum–certified stadium and the first sports venue to earn 100% of the U.S. Green Building Council’s water credits.

To complete the fan experience the facility features a 100-yard bar, affordable concessions and will host not only NFL games, but Monster Jam, WWE, collegiate tournaments, guided tours, private events and concerts.

Copenhagen’s 3D Printed Building

Last on our list is Copenhagen’s new in 3D printed building. While 3D printed buildings didn’t debut in 2017, there have been already been successful builds in Dubai and China, a new 3D building successfully completed in November 2017 takes a big step. What makes Copenhagen’s new 3D printed building, dubbed Building on Demand (BOD), noteworthy are advances in the technology that allow it pass stricter building codes in Europe, making it a more marketable technology.

Of course it is still an emerging build method but the uses and benefits are numerable. Among the factors in the technology’s favor are productivity gains, reduced labor costs and safer working environments. There is also the potential to be used for one-off, complex building designs that are not technically and economically feasible at present.

While exciting, and a trend to watch in 2018, in the near future look for 3D printing to be used mostly to make specific building components.

Seeing a building come to life is often challenging and fraught with setbacks. But our examples show innovative, imaginative, efficient buildings being built and using new technologies like construction project management software, robots, 3D modeling and drones to streamline the process and get the job done.

Just by looking at a construction site you can tell it’s an inherently dangerous workplace. With loud machinery, scaffolding, heavy materials and equipment, it’s easy to picture how one small, wrong move could lead to disaster. Yet knowing the statistics and risks, and even with safety procedures in place, workers are often tempted to take shortcuts to meet deadlines and budget.

However, cutting corners when it comes to safety can have serious consequences. Statistics from OSHA, reveal that 2015 saw a staggering 937 fatalities at construction sites, with the top ten most frequently cited failures listed below (fiscal year 2016):

1. Fall protection
2. Hazard communication standard
3. Scaffolding, general requirements
4. Respiratory protection
5. Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout)
6. Powered industrial trucks
7. Ladders
8. Machinery and Machine Guarding
9. Electrical, wiring methods, components, and equipment
10. Electrical systems design, general requirement

In fact, safety is such a concern that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently signed into law a measure that requires construction workers in NYC to undergo at least 40 hours of safety training. This is despite push-back from those who say the law will be too expensive to comply with.

While risks are inherent to every construction project, there are processes and tools to mitigate these. Construction contractors who implement formal safety and health management systems report success in reducing hazards, injuries and fatalities. The key to this success? Making safety a part of your everyday company values.

Where to get started? Here are 10 things every company should do to build create a culture where safety is priority.

1. Start at the Top

Safety starts with leadership, from business owners, project managers and supervisors on down, to become intrinsic to company values. Not only must top management lead by example, they will need to designate resources, people, budget, and time for training and continuing evaluation. All team members, starting from the top, need to participate to emphasize the importance of safety and make it a successful imitative.

2. Designate a Safety Committee or Full-time Safety Coordinator

Your committee and/or coordinator provides day-to-day support for field personnel. This team should include members from all levels and meet regularly to provide feedback and adjustments to current safety plans as the construction site evolves.

3. Create Accountability at all Levels

Safety plans need to be strictly enforced and all employees must be held accountable. Monitor and reinforce good habits, and make sure breaking the rules will have consequences.

4. Start Safety at the Project Planning Process

By integrating safety into your planning system at all possible points, you minimize the chances of costly, or even deadly, oversights.

5. Review Your Sub-contractors

At the job site, safety monitoring expands past your company. Investigate the safety records and performance of potential sub-contractors as part of your procurement process. Ensure you’re bringing on teams with not only with clean safety records, but who share your core commitment to safety.

6. Provide Proper Training for Your Workers

This may seem obvious, but don’t assume. Make sure your teams are trained in equipment use, job site risks, emergency plans, and reporting incidents. Be sure to include subs and temporary workers in training and orientations.

7. Use Technology

Today, there are apps for just about everything. There are even apps dedicated to jobsite safety, such as Safesite, that make it easy to identify, monitor and streamline safety tasks. In addition, you can use your construction document management platform to store safety plans, manuals, and emergency contacts/plans so they are easily accessible.

8. Address Safety Everyday

Don’t just conduct one training session and call it a day. Make safety part of the conversation every day and incorporate it into meetings, reviews, signage, etc.

9. Conduct Regular Inspection and Review All Incidents

Conduct inspections at your jobsite regularly to make sure safety initiatives and practices are being followed. Make sure all equipment has been inspected and is in proper working order. Investigate every incident and near miss to determine the causes and use that information to improve your safety processes.

10. Be Transparent and Foster Open Communication

Allowing open and informal communications between workers and supervisors is key to building a culture of safety. When employees feel their concerns are being heard without repercussions, these dialogs can unearth faulty equipment, poor habits and behavior, and fundamental issues in the current safety plan, before they lead to an accident. Management must also be open about what is being reported and actions being taken.

Proactive safety management not only means keeping track of safety meetings, identifying hazards, using preventative maintenance checklists, collecting near miss data, etc. It includes taking your most valuable resource, people, and building a culture using open dialog to for improved safety awareness that eventually leads to gains in morale, quality and customer satisfaction.

As the year comes to a close, companies are looking ahead to what’s next. These days, the answer to that question usually involves technology. With an eye on 2018, we investigate construction trends to watch for.

Robotics
Manufacturing has employed robotics for decades. Still, the construction industry has been slow to adopt this technology. But times are changing. Already, we‘ve seen a robots that can tie rebar that can tie rebar and lay thousands of bricks per day. Sam and Hadrian X, as the bricklaying robots are named, far outpace humans who only lay about 500 bricks per day.

These are just the first in a string of technological advances that will streamline processes, alleviating some of the demands caused by recent labor shortages. Robotics also has the potential to improve worker safety by eliminating the need for humans to lift heavy materials and equipment.

Even with the increased use of robotics in 2018, many companies will be slow to adopt, given the risk of relying on emerging technology.

IoT
What sector hasn’t been revolutionized by IoT? While the construction sector has been slower to adopt than others, the industry is beginning to embrace IoT. As a result, early adopters are seeing benefits like improved worker safety and cost reduction. Staying connected is the name of the game for 2018 and productivity is the prize.

Equipment armed with interconnected sensors now enables operators to collect data such as fuel and fluid levels, equipment temperatures, usage hours, and more. This instant communication between equipment and operators means less downtime and improved maintenance decision-making.

On-site wearable technology, such as tech-enhanced safety vests, smartwatches and health trackers, provides health and safety benefits to workers. Biometric wearables monitor workers’ vital signs, and alert safety managers to workers at risk of exhaustion or overheating. In addition, sensors in wearables reduce risk by tracking workers in the field and alerting them to job site hazards.

Mobile and cloud applications, probably two of the most widely adopted technologies, are now being used in the field for just about everything, including:

• Project management
• Time tracking, estimating, and invoicing
• Construction document management
• Material and print ordering
• Collaboration
• Drone control
• Resource tracking

These industry-specific apps, such as construction project management software, improve communication between the office and construction site by enabling real-time collaboration with tools that create markups, RFIs, punch lists, and submittals.

In fact, it seems these apps do just about everything except the actual building. For 2018, look for a consolidation to fewer apps with more functionality.

Exoskeletons
In recent years, there has been a lot of buzz about exoskeletons in the military and medical fields. Now they’re beginning to take off in construction. These mechanical suits help workers lift heavy equipment, machinery and supplies. This allows workers to use heavy equipment with less exertion, helping to prevent job site injuries caused by fatigue.

While a full-powered suit may be years away, unpowered exoskeletons are available today. Recently, we heard a presentation from Ekso Bionics that explained how their solutions use counterweights, metal tubing and a harness to transfer the weight of a heavy object down through the suit to the ground, thus reducing the stress and strain placed on the body.

With a variety of safety and health benefits, look for increased adoption of exoskeletons in 2018.

Drones
In the coming year, using drones to survey work sites will become the norm, not the exception. These unmanned aerial vehicles are cheaper than manned aircraft and faster than human surveyors. But they are much more than glorified cameras; they efficiently collect data, complete safety inspections, capture project progress and more.

Some companies are even using drones to monitor logistics, deliveries and the workforce. And builders are converting drone footage into 3-D pictures for comparison to architectural plans.

What’s next for unmanned aerial vehicles? Look for enhanced communication between drones and construction project management software. And, make sure you are in compliance with FAA rules and regulations.

3-D Model Videos
The saying goes, “seeing is believing.” Imagine being able to see your construction project come to life. Now, 3-D model videos help you do just that by providing visualization of a construction project. It gives architects a better idea of the look and feel of the building. And GC’s can use it to check for potential problems and issues during the construction process.

This is beneficial not only for the architect and general contractor, but also for the client, as they can see their building come to life. Look for more 3-D models to help transform 2-D screens into a virtual reality experience during the coming year.

Three to Watch
The good news for 2018, is there are plenty of advances underway to increase productivity. In addition to the technologies above, here are the honorable mentions we are keeping our eye on for 2018:

• Modular and prefab building
• 3-D printing
• Autonomous vehicles and handling of materials

What Will All This Mean in 2018?
With so many innovations, the construction industry is well-positioned to address the labor shortage, rising material costs and worker safety. Technology is transforming the construction industry and 2018 will see more reliance on tech at the job site. Companies that don’t adapt risk falling behind.

As we gear up for the Holidays, it’s time to take a moment to give thanks to each other and those who support us, as well as look back and reflect on 2017. While there is plenty to be thankful for, this year was a crazy mix of ups and downs, from exciting product releases to natural disasters that affected our team members and customers.

This summer brought unprecedented natural disasters, from floods to wildfires.  While we were thankful to hear all our team members in Florida report in safe and sound, several members of our SKYSITE family were impacted by the flooding in Houston. Thankfully, they are all safe, however, they were impacted to varying degrees, with many having been evacuated and had their homes flooded.

What’s amazing is how positive their spirit stayed through the devastation. Equally, impressive was how fellow employees rallied in support with “What can I do to help” being heard throughout the offices. In total, $23,000 was raised by team members for our family in Houston. Recovering from a catastrophe takes a community, and the SKYSITE family has generously responded with support — not just financially, but also with empathy and kindness.

In addition to our employees, we also had customers affected by the floods and donated our consultation services to get their facilities management teams up and running again.

While we celebrate our team members being safe, we are also thankful to our customers for their continued support, communication and advocacy. In fact, as you may have read in a previous post, it’s your honest feedback that helped provide the direction of our fall release as well as future releases. Hundreds of you took the time to let us know what functions you needed, what could be improved and what you liked about SKYSITE.

We also take time to reflect on our achievements of 2017. The year saw tremendous additions and upgrades to SKYSITE. Our team worked tirelessly to continuously release new features and functions.

The first big release of the year came in March when electronic Submittals was added to the Projects module for construction document management. With this new function came the ability to speed up the approval process, and eliminate the need for analog stamps, cumbersome cover and transmittal pages and the use of 3^rd party software.

Our next big release came in the summer, with what we call the “Big Data Scalable Database Backend.” This upgrade, developed by our own team, allows unlimited uploads of documents, faster upload times and improved overall performance. In additional, this release also included enhanced security, full use of tools in app when offline, and new markup tools.

That leads us to our latest release this fall where your feedback led to some of our popular upgrades. We added the capability to view all those Microsoft files you’ve stored as well as image files like JPEG and PNG. And, we made markups easier to create and delete. Upgrades that help you navigate and find your files were also included in this release.

Lastly, we are thankful every day for our SKYSITE family. Our team works tirelessly connecting our global offices for seamless collaboration. We are proud of their achievements this year and we appreciate their continuous innovations and relentless drive towards excellence.

As we come together this holiday season, we celebrate so much to be thankful for and look forward to the New Year.

Recently, you may have seen some emojis looking for feedback on your SKYSITE experience.

Not only were these little guys cute, they were also supremely helpful. But, as nice as it is to see a majority of positive reviews, we weren’t looking to pat ourselves on the back. What you may not know is we launched the emojis to get feedback, specifically a better idea of what customers think of SKYSITE, what they find most beneficial, and what might need improvement.

So far, hundreds of you have taken the time to respond, and we truly appreciate it! The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Our development team and Product Managers read and discuss each feedback response carefully. In fact, several of the recent features in our fall release were a direct result of the feedback you provided.

For example, this fall we added a number of workflow improvements like skipping the home page and taking you to your most recently used information. We made some changes to the way markups are created to make them simpler, added a back button to the Global Search results, added user preferences for sorting, grid/file view and the file tree, as well as some changes that make entering email addresses easier by pulling from the address book.

All of these changes were fast tracked because of the feedback from you. And, we’re working on even more improvements for the next release.

So, maybe you didn’t get a chance to fill out the emoji popup? Don’t worry, you can let us know what you think in a variety of ways.

Reach out to us inside the app using the Feedback link at the bottom of the screen. Or, send your thoughts from the contact form on our website. You can also let us, and others, know what you think on one of the various review sites. We’ve included links to some popular ones below.

Regardless of how you share, we love to hear from you.

SKYSITE contact form
iTunes
Google Play
Google
Capterra